Saga of the Sanpitch Volume 13, 1981 - Sanpete County

Source: Personal recollection of the author and conversations with his grandmother, Sophia Stromberg Larsen, an early resident of
Mt. Pleasant, Utah.
THE PROCTER & GAMBLE OF YESTER-YEAR
Leo C. Larsen
Mt. Pleasant, Utah
Senior Citizen Division, First Place Personal Recollection
As the correct amount of the "New & Improved" laundry detergent, manufactured by Procter &
Gamble, was measured into the automatic washer, I asked myself, "I wonder how and when this giant
corporation first began operation?" This opened the flood gate, and childhood memories of long ago came
rushing to the present. I recalled the first commercial laundry soap I had seen. It was a sample box that
Procter & Gamble had placed in the new electric washing machine that had been delivered to our home a
quarter of a century ago. Then my mind flashed back to still earlier years when as a self-sustaining family,
Mama made our own laundry soap.
Soap-making at our house was usually a late spring, once-a year operation. As a lad it was my
assignment to assist my brother in preparing for this important day. Early in the morning we took the
blackened wash tub, hanging on a nail on the side of the granary, and set it on a steel tripod which Papa had
fashioned out of a discarded steel wagon tire. This was merely a round iron rim a little smaller than the
bottom of the tub. It had three legs about a foot in length which permitted a fire to be built under the tub to
heat the contents. After this was all in place, a supply of fuel was needed. This we took from our year's supply
of kindling that was neatly stacked in the wood shed. We placed it near at hand to be used when all else was
in readiness.
Mama then assembled the ingredients needed. This included all the unused lard, kitchen grease and
other animal fat that had accumulated during the winter. She carefully weighed it and then measured out the
correct amount of water and other ingredients. Then she warned us kids to stand back. Apprehensively we
watched as she opened the correct number of cans of Rex Lye and carefully poured them into the tub,
constantly and gently stirring as she cautiously mixed her special recipe for home-made soap. Then the fuel
was placed under the blackened tub and the fire was lighted. The contents of the tub must not fluctuate in
temperature. It must not boil too vigorously, nor it must not be allowed to cool. Constant stirring and frequent
skimming was necessary to assure that the end product was smooth, clear, and without foreign matter. It was
a long, cautious process.
After hours of careful attention, the solution had become the correct consistency, which was thick and
"gooie," and Mama said with a sigh, "It's done! We'll let the fire die out, cover the tub, and let it stand
overnight."
The next morning the tub was removed from the tripod and turned upside down on a four foot square
board, and the solidified, but soft, contents removed. This was cut into squares and set on a board in the sun
to cure and dry.
As a reward for helping Mama, she let us each autograph a bar of soap by scratching our names in one
of the squares. To us it was as great an honor to have our names "engraved" in a bar of Mama's home-made
soap as to have had it chiseled in a slab of marble.
When the soap was dry, it was boxed and stored ready for use on the weekly Saturday wash day. It was
my assignment as a lad on that morning to grate a bar or two of this soap into a powder. To do this I used a
gadget Papa had made which was a discarded rolling pin with a piece of galvanized tin nailed around it that
had been punched full of holes with a large nail. This was placed on a frame with a hopper over it and a crank
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