When I was little, we had no indoor bathroom.   I had to take my Saturday night bath in a tin tub.   Momma placed the tub by the side of the wood cook stove.   She heated water in a copper boiler on the top of the stove.   A boiler is a long and deep pan.   It covered two of the cook top burners.

When the water was warm, Momma took two kitchen chairs and put them by my tub.   Then she spread a blanket around them.   This was to keep out any cold drafts and was sort of like a little tent for me.   Then she put the warm water into my tub and I jumped in and took my bath.

When I was done with my bath, Momma lifted me up, wrapped me in a big towel and laid me on my back on the kitchen sink drain board.   My head leaned back into the sink.   She washed my hair with the rest of the warm water.

She ALWAYS got soap in my eyes and I ALWAYS ended up screaming and crying.   My Aunt came out one night and brought me a little plastic circle thing that slipped over my forehead.   Momma could then wash my head and no soap or water got in my eyes.   That was a good thing.

When she was done washing my hair, Momma and I would sit by the cook stove while she dried my hair.   She had to brush the snarls out of my hair, while I screamed some more.   She took strands of hair and curled them around her finger with a big round brush to get the job done.   I wore my hair in "ringlets", which are long curls, down my back.

Whenever Momma talked about getting my hair cut, my Grandma always begged, "Please don't cut Precious' beautiful curls." (Grandma always called me Precious.)

Sometimes, Momma would wind strands of my hair around pieces of cloth to make curls and I would sleep with it that way.

My head hurt the next morning when I had to sleep on my "rag" curls, but it made my hair all curly and bouncy-- like Shirley Temple's.