Women In My Family History: Part 20

Thelma Funk

(Rairigh/Reed)

1911 - 1993

Thelma Funk was born in Indiana in 1911 and in 1930 she married Loyd Rairigh.  This union  produced three children,  one of which was a daughter who was my mother.  Loyd and Thelma subsequently divorced and in 1943 Thelma  married  a man named Waldo Reed.  I knew her as "Grandma Reed".   Going to my Grandma and Grandpa Reed's house was a delight to me.  I spent many weekends with them during the school years and many weeks during summer breaks.  The one thing that stands out in my memory about their home is order.  Thelma was an excellent housekeeper.  Her home was extremely organized and very clean.  Nothing was out of place and she had her household tasks arranged by days.  There was a day to do laundry,  a day to iron,  a day to dust, to vacuum,  a day to clean bathrooms and the list goes on with tasks divided into a tight schedule.   Of course,  clothes were less synthetic then,  but she did actually iron underwear.   No doubt, I found emotional safely in the routine of my grandparents home.  Among the many fond memories I have of Thelma one stands out - her reaction when,  in the early 1970s,  phosphates were removed from laundry detergents.  She must have sputtered for at least a year about the inadequate state of laundry soap.  But why were the phosphates banned?  Because the chemical phosphate causes the algae in water to reproduce at very fast rates when it reaches the lakes and streams.  This over abundance of algae uses up the oxygen in the water and the fish die.  I can remember a camping trip in the mid 1960s to Northern Ohio's lake Erie.  The beaches were covered with dead fish that had washed ashore.  Banning the phosphates allowed some of the damage to our waterways to be reversed.  I found an article online dated 1970 that explains it well.  It can be found HERE.   So while the reasons for the ban were important,  in Thelma's mind it was hogwash and her clothes were not clean enough as a result.  While searching online preparing to write this blog I discovered that phosphates are an issue again.  Calls have been made to remove it from automatic dishwashing detergent and it seems there is still remaining phosphate use in some laundry soaps too.  Phosphorus is a fertilizer so run off from farmer's fields are an issue too.  Also since animals eat the fertilized feed their feces is high in phosphorus and therefore run off from feed lots is high is phosphorus too.    The following video explains the role of Phosphates and the chemical Phosphorus in our lives today.