No soap detergent when I was little. How well I remember mother shaving slivers from a large bar of yellow laundry soap into a big wash boiler on our wood stove. When it melted, she would bail the boiling water into our electric washing machine(a real luxury). Probably cant buy this bar soap any more.
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You can buy bar laundry soap in the Philippines ,, people tend to rub it into the dirty spots and then do the tub/washboard thing ...