This old iron pot has been in our family ever since I can remember. This wash pot was as much a part of the family as we kids were. It had many functions in our way of life in the old days.

One function was for washing clothes. Mom did this while we worked in the fields. She first had to draw water from the well to fill the pot about half full, then build a fire underneath it.

Once the water was hot, it was filled the rest of the way with clothes. She stirred them around with a wooden paddle. Next, she took them out one piece at a time and scrubbed them until clean on the washboard with lye soap that she had made. Then they went into a tub of clean water to rinse. She would hang them on the most famous clothes dryer of all time, the clothesline.

There were no knobs to turn or push. They dried the natural way, with plenty of sunshine.

Sometimes, when the summers were hot without much rain, the well would get low on water, so we would load everything on the sled, hook the horse to it and head for the creek. One of us boys helped Mom. It was an all-day affair. When we finished, everything was loaded back on the sled and we headed for home. Then Mom hung the clothes on the clothesline.

During hog-killing time, the wash pot was in use again. Once the extra fat was trimmed from the hog, it was put into the pot and a fire was started underneath to cook it down to render lard used for cooking.

The pieces of fat turned into cracklins and made a very tasty treat. Mom made cracklin cornbread and serve it with a big glass of sweet milk. It could make a complete meal. Many people called this shortening bread.

Another thing the pot was used for was to make hominy. Mom would put shelled corn in the pot and add water, hickory wood ashes and a little lye. It soaked until the next day, when she would build a fire underneath and let it cook until it made hominy. The pot had to be washed several times after that to get all the husks and lye out. Mom canned the hominy for keeping.

This old black pot was also used to make lye soap. Mom used hog fat with lye, some hickory wood ashes and a little water. It was cooked until it thickened. Once it cooled, she cut it into bars.

It is my recollection that this old pot had belonged to my grandmother on Mom’s side of the family. She was a medicine woman and also delivered babies. She was a Cherokee Indian.

Some of these old black wash pots are still in use today. Thousands of gallons of chicken, goat and beef stew are cooked in them all across the country. They will always be in use for this purpose.

I now have Mom’s old pot. It is kind of in retirement, sitting in my garage. It’s kind of like me — old but not rusty. I may just carry it to heaven with me and treat my Savior with a big bowl of goat stew.