Wednesday, January 26, 2011

DADDY SHAVING

1-26-11...DADDY SHAVING

As a child one of the things I liked best was watching Daddy shave. It was quiet a production. First he would heat the water in a pan that we called a wash pan. It was white enamel with a red ring around the edge. It sat on the wash stand beside a white enamel water bucket with a red ring around it. A dipper again white enamel with a red ring was hanging on a nail or a hook by the bucket. Daddy would dip water in the wash pan and heat it to almost boiling on the stove. That was when I would scamper off to the bed room with a thick dishrag or pot holder and put it on the dresser for him to set the pan on. I knew Daddy usually forgot to do this and Mamma said it was ruining the dresser. Daddy sat in a cane back chair in front of the dresser so he could see himself in the mirror. The picture of the dresser below is an exact match of the dresser except that ours was old and sort of beat up.
Next Daddy took a washrag and soaked it in the hot water. It would be steaming and Daddy would place it on his face covering all his whiskers. It always fascinated and scared me a bit to see steam coming off Daddy's face. After he figured his tough beard was softened he would take it off and put soap all over his beard lathering it up. Not the aerosol cans of today but what looked like a plain bar of soap that he kept in a mug. He had a brush that looked like one of my make up brushes that he used to put the lather on. He stuck the brush in the hot water and then made a lather on the soap.
Next he used a double edged razor to shave the lather off which took the whiskers too. He dipped the razor in the water and washed it after each swipe. Sometimes he nicked his skin and he would take a cigarette paper and wet a piece of it and dob it on the cut to stop the bleeding.
I really was fascinated by this and I guess you know I tried it and it is a wonder I didn't cut my head off. Oh How I'd love to see Daddy do that again.
Picture of the wash pan, water bucket, and the shave kit are just like ours.