Susan Grainger, 77, from Aigburth, has shared her memories of growing up above her parents' Chinese launderette at 350 Park Road in Dingle during the 1940s. At that time, Chinese laundries were a common sight across Merseyside, but they have now almost entirely disappeared.
Susan's mother, Elizabeth Li, grew up in Birkenhead with a Chinese father and an English mother, while her father, Kam Chuen Li, emigrated to England during World War II after his ship was torpedoed. Together they raised their three daughters and son above the Park Road launderette.
Daily life in the launderette
Susan told the ECHO: "People would bring their washing in, mainly shirts and collars [that were detachable at that time] and things like that for men. Although we did everything, we did bedding, we did sheets and pillowcases and things like that. We took orders in and if you wanted it for the weekend, it had to be in no later than Wednesday for us to get it ready for you."
She described the equipment used: "There were two big wooden tubs, massive big things. One was for soaking the clothes in overnight to loosen all the dirt, and the other one was to rinse them off before we put them in the washing machine. We had great big ironing machines called calenders which would iron a sheet folded."
There was also a cast iron washing tub for smaller items, which were done by hand. The living room downstairs served as the drying room, with coal fires where clothes were hung to dry overnight. The family slept on the second and third floors of the three-storey house.
Childhood memories
Susan recalled being rarely allowed in the launderette as a child: "I would only have been five or six at the time and my brother's 18 months younger than me, so we were rarely allowed in the laundrette at all. But when the tubs were full of water before we put the clothes in, we used to sort of plodge around in there like a paddling pool almost."
Her father had previously worked as a carpenter, but opening a launderette seemed the most viable option for many Chinese people arriving in Liverpool at that time. Susan said: "I presume that it was one of the options that was available at the time. There was obviously older Chinese laundries than ours, so, my dad coming to Liverpool would actually look around to see what other Chinese people were doing."
She added: "Don't get me wrong, he had no background of doing anything like that, he was a carpenter, he was very good with woodwork and things like that, he was very good with his hands, so it wasn't something that was in his blood, but it would have been acceptable at the time for Chinese families to be doing that."
Hard work and family values
There were no Chinese takeaways in those days, so Chinese people either worked in laundries or did housework for others. Susan's parents worked extremely hard, with little social life. She said: "My mum and dad worked so hard, we had very little social life, as it were."
Occasionally the family would go to Chinatown at the weekend for a meal, but they never went on holiday. Susan's father was expected to send money home to Hong Kong to support his family there, working not just for his immediate family but for relatives abroad.
As Susan and her siblings progressed through school, they carried that strong work ethic with them. She said: "I will always try my best to do whatever I can for people, but, obviously, that comes from the family. We were expected to come home from school and do the work, we ate our dinner, and then we did our homework. So, it was quite normal for us to go to bed at 10pm or 11pm at night."
Reflecting on her family's achievements, Susan said: "If my parents could see us now, I think they'd be proud of us all, I think we've all made good lives for ourselves. We've all been, spiritually, educationally wise, we've all been successful, and I think we've all got the same ethic, we all work hard."
Her eldest sister is 84 this year and still does voluntary work, her middle sister, 82, lives in Brighton and volunteers at a theatre taking tickets, and her brother, 76, runs half marathons in Arizona with his 40-year-old son. "None of us sit back and do nothing," she added.
