Oose

But I found how I could read in the bedroom and not lie on the bed. It was a wee place down between my bed and the wall where the door was. The bed was pressed against the wall but ye could just squash down and under. My da kept all suitcases under my bed but I shifted them the gether and it was easy to squash in. But when I came out it was all fluff and oose stuff down my pyjamas. My maw was shouting. Oh Kieron it is filfy it is just filfy.

I used to collect oose. If you have an inny bellybutton, this is the linty stuff you find in its crevices at the end of the day when you have nothing better to do than explore useless parts of your body.

A favorite substitute for soap was the root of the "oose," or yucca, sometimes called "soap root." This root looked about like a sugarbeet. Cut up and left in water it soon made a fluffy suds. Colored clothes came out fresh and bright because the cleanser did not harm the dyes. White clothes however were turned slightly yellow by it and therefore were not generally washed with oose. I remember how soft, fluffy, and sweet-smelling my hair always felt after a shampoo with oose suds. For mopping the wooden floors the oose root served not only as soap but as scrubbing brush as well. And how white and beautiful those floors would look.

She climbed the Red Hill one cold day and dug oose root with which to bring a new luster to her long black hair.

When I was older I went out on the hillsides and dug the roots of oose, or Amole as the Mexicans call it, which were excellent to use in place of soap.