The speaker begins this story by recalling two of the rather archaic "commandments" issued to her, during her childhood, by her grandmother. Her tone in describing this experience is slightly rueful and sardonic: she recalls that "total salvation" depended on the children being neither dirty nor rude to their elders,...
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and there is a wryness in the way this is set out as fact. The speaker clearly knows now that her salvation does not actually depend on these things, but she communicates clearly the fact that, to a child, anything stated like this by an older person does feel like a "commandment," something issued from on high by a great authority.
The speaker explains, further, how completely obedient the children were to these commandments. Everything about the process was "cold," from the cold water in the well and the cold Vaseline which was to be applied to the children's legs, and the method of enforcement for the commandments in the household is equally stark. The children were hit with switches if they were found not to have cleaned their feet to Momma's satisfaction.
The speaker sets out all this information matter-of-factly, but there are words that betray how she now feels about the situation and what she was told. Momma "convinced" her children of the Christian importance of cleanliness, but the speaker seemingly no longer believes as she once did.