My grandmother was born in 1905. She told me how a hundred years ago they washed rag rugs on a backwater of the Danube called “at Đuka’s vineyard”. Women gathered there in summer to wash heavy laundry. Rag rugs were handmade rugs made from material leftover from old clothes. In our area, houses were rammed earth houses with earthen floors. The housewife arranged these floors by “tempering” them, that is, coating them with a mixture of soot and water, and then smoothing them with a coarse brush to make them smooth. Rag rugs were placed over them, which got dirty from walking. Rag rugs were long and colourful. Before winter and patron saint days, housewives wanted clean floors. Women would roll them into rolls and stack them on a wooden wheelbarrow with one wheel. On top, they would put a laundry bat, a large wooden spoon with which they beat the laundry. They also carried lye made from ash. Washing was mostly done by younger married women and girls at a place where the water was crystal clear. They beat the rag rugs with the laundry bat, and then helped each other spread the heavy wet fabrics on the surrounding bushes. They had to dry them there because they couldn’t carry them home wet.