Friday Night was Amami night.

Yes, I can remember that slogan......I can remember too the green goo in the Amami bottles. But before the amami could be put on the hair there was a ritual to follow.

The copper was filled with water from the only tap we had in the house.....cold, of course.
The water heater on the side of the big kitchen range was also filled.
The gas ring under the copper was lit with a long taper......and it made a sort of 'Whoomf' sound when you lit it. Our copper was a Slaxone, and very temperamental it was too.
Sometimes it didn't light the first time and would blow out the light on the taper......you had to turn off the gas quickly and leave it a little while for the collection of gas to dissipate.....if you didn't and tried to light it again straight away, you were in danger of blowing your eyebrowns off. No health and safety in those days, we lived dangerously.

Having put the water on to boil, the tin bath was lifted down off the backyard wall and we would bang the sides to make sure any resident spiders or plaster backs scurried off out of the way.....we would take a bucket of warm water outside and swill out the inside of the bath......and tip this water down the grate...this having been done, the bath was taken up the seven or so steps into the kitchen, and placed in front of the fire...which was usually banked up to heat the water and also to make sure that we didn't get frostbite(in Winter).
While the water was being heated we were all lined up and in turn Ma would stand us over a sheet of newspaper and comb our hair with a nit comb. To make sure we didn't have any 'lodgers' as she used to call them.
We really didn't fear the Nit Nurse coming to school.....we were used to head inspections.......and our Ma used to make sure that every month we had a Derbac Shampoo.....it must've worked because I do not recall any of us ever having headlice.

Hair inspection completed, you were stripped down to vest and pants..or in my case vest, liberty bodice and pants and expected to sit and wait until it was your turn to have a bath.

The littlies were always done first and put to bed,I was next, with a top up of hotter water. You were expected to wash all over an then vacate the bath for the next candidate......though often the lads were done in twos. This was where it often got a bit disruptive as the lads would pretend to lose the soap and then grope around in the water and grab one anothers 'block and tackle'....Ma would lose her patience with them, seeing the water splashing over the sides onto the coconut matting(something that they now call Coir Matting - posh title for rough stuff)...she would take the loofah to them and the big bar of carbolic soap and give them a real scrubbing.....they would come out of the water looking like cooked lobsters, and not because the water was hot, because frequently by this stage it wasn't anything more than tepid.
Once we had all been bathed the water was ladled out until the bath was light enough to carry out to the grate in the yard.......the boys were usually expected to carry out this task....the grey scummy water was tipped down the grate.
The lads were dispatched to bed and I was left downstairs while Ma set my hair.....green goo was applied and combed through...it did smell nice...and then things like crocodile clips were put in place to make soft waves.
They were left in until the hair was dry and then once taken out my hair was stiff until it was combed, and all being well, I had soft, natural looking waves, Until Saturday morning when my hair was back to its rod straight appearance.

Ma and Pa had their baths on Saturday, when all of us crowd had been dispatched off to bed.
There was no such thing as a quick bath or a long soak, it was in and out...and that was you until the following week.