[music plays]
[music continues]
[footsteps]
Is my laundry ready?
[from off-screen] Not quite yet, Mrs!
It's drying!
I'll be back later.
You know, it never ceases to amaze me
that the women that live IN the fort,
why they can't be doin' their own laundry...
[girl's voice] I know. Why do we have to?
Well you know, but you do have to remember,
we're getting half rations
for the work that we do.
And that's rather important
in case you don't want you're stomach to be growlin'.
Now, the other thought is
you know, if they want to be payin' us
us for doin' the work that that a woman should be doin'
then we should be happy,
at least that we have the work to be doin'.
So we'll continue to do the washin'
and the mendin' as we always do.
[splashing noises]
And if nothin' else, we've got the the cleanest hands in town.
[girl speaking] Definitely.
[more splashing noises]
A lot of times, it seems history is
written by the men.
So, the women, unfortunately,
while there, and very much an important part
of everything
we're sometimes forgotten.
As far as keeping records on what they did.
The women, especially
who would've been down here in the ditch,
doing the laundry,
taking in the mending and the sewing for the soldiers...
We might hear about the women
of the officers, their wives,
who would've lived up in the fort
and were of a higher class.
But without the washer women,
or the nurses, or the cooks of their time...
An army marches on its stomach.