This is another layout for my album. My good friend Marcia designed this beautiful digital scrap booking kit and had us do a layout about Laundry Days. I am old enough to remember Mom doing laundry with a ringer washer and even used a wash board for extra dirty clothes.
Today even at 94, Mom's laundry always looks the greatest. I tell her secret on the side of the layout. It reads:
I was about 62 when Mom finally told me her secret to having very white clothes. Fill the washing machine tub up with water, add laundry soap and Clorex II and soak for20 minutes. What a difference it makes!
The card reads: This picture of me was taken when I was 6 months old. Mom is not sure if we lived at Lucky Gardens, but if so we lived in one room during this time. Lucky Gardens was a nursery that raised Gladiolas and is located just north of Knox, Indiana. Mom answered the phone, took orders and helped do lots of things for room and board. This was during and after WWII. Mom did not have a washing machine, so she did all of our laundry on a wash board. She didn’t have a dryer either, but she always enjoyed hanging the clothes out on the clothes lines.We didn’t get a washing machine until we moved to Teegarden. A pair of cement laundry tubs and a wringer washing machine were there when we moved in. Mom was thrilled to say the least. I remember helping do the laundry and I loved running the clothes through the wringer. We continued hanging out our clothes for many years before Mom got a dryer. Almost every time we would get the clothes on the line, a freight train would come through town and leave black soot on our clothes. When we heard the train coming, we would run out quickly and gather the clothes and then rehang them. This got very old and we were so glad when the freight trains were replaced with diesel trains.
Do any of you remember the days of ringer washers, wash boards and no clothes dryers? I would love for you to leave a comment and tell me about it.
Email : jfricker@fourway.net
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13 comments:
Joan, we had a wringer washer at home until I was in high school when we moved into a new house my parents built in the 1960's. And as a child, I used to LOVE to help with the laundry, running the clothes through the wringer and poking the clothes in the washer with a stick. And honestly, I still have one of those sticks and give my laundry a poke every once in awhile -- gosh, this sounds dumb -- but I do -- LOL!!! I also very, very clearly remember stories my Grandma used to tell me as we did the laundry about a girl whose long hair was sucked up into the wringers (not a nice ending) and a lady whose arm was sucked into it -- all to make me see the need to be careful!!! I also remember the sound of buttons cracking when they went through the wringer the wrong way!!! And Steve's Mom used a wringer until we bought her an automatic in the 1980's. Thanks for the memories!!! Oh, and what a GORGEOUS page!!!
Joan, I remember doing laundry with a wringer washer. I have 9 brothers and sisters and it took all day long. My grandmother used bluing in her jeans wash so they wouldn't fade and pants strechers my uncle never had faded looking pants. The pants looked ironed but they weren't. Thanks for your blog I enjoy it everytime I stop by.
WOW- what a FABULOUS page!!!
I remember the wringer washer and not being allowed near it. The "good old days", lol!
Joan, I am WAY too young to remember wringer washing machines, however... my dad grew up on a farm. His arm from the lower forearm to above the elbow is obviously damaged from going through the wringers when he was about 3years old and far too curious for his own good! He loved telling me that story when i was younger to scare me! :-)
Your post brought back many memories for me. I used to spend the summers with my Nanny and Aunt and helped out with the chores - the laundry never seemed to end! I had never seen a ringer until then. I remember the warning as well, about the long hair, as my hair was very long in those days and I always had to put it up in a pony tail before we started. I had to put all my cousins jeans on the stretchers. There were lots of them as there were 4 boys! Needless to say, I was glad to get back to the city at the end of the summer to my Mom's automatic machines. But I can say - even today - that they were the good old days! Great memories - thanks for bringing them back!
What a sweet story Joan! I don't have memories of wringer washers, although my mom does. She grew up on a farm in Michigan. We were very low income when I was growing up. Our home was quite small, one tiny bath, two bedrooms. Mom converted the laundry room into my bedroom, I had the washer and dryer and the fuse box in my room. There was a resident spider in a tiny whole in the ceiling at the top of the pipe where the wires went into the ceiling. I was always afraid at night that the spider was going to crawl across the ceiling to where I slept and drop down using his web right on my face. So, while I didn't have wringer washer memories, your page brought back memories of my childhood laundry room days. Thank you for sharing your wonderful page and taking me back quite a few years. {{{hugs}}}
My grandmother had a wringer washer, out in the wash shed away from the house. I stayed with her during the summers and thought it was fun running the clothes through the wringer. When I was 10 that "pay attention" warning went *poof* when a curious cat jumped up to see what we were doing, ended up in the washer, and my hand ended up going through the wringer, about halfway up my forearm. I remember yelling (duh) and my grandmother hitting the release with one hand and grabbing and tossing the cat with the other. No real harm done to my arm other than temporary swelling and then bruising. My uncle came strolling to the door of the shed and said he thought a pig got stuck somewhere (apparently my yelling sounded like squealing). Because I wasn't really hurt, by that time my gramma and I were in tears laughing, and that cat was nowhere to be seen!
Holy cats! I remember my Dad bought my Mom one of the first automatic washers and she promptly traded it for a new wringer washer with a girl down the block. I used to help with the laundry and brought mine home on Saturdays after I was married, to do. When I was in high school I got a sheet caught in the wringer and nearly burned out the motor.
Hi, Joan: I remember in the early 50's that my grandparents had a wringer washer and I was fascinated as a child. The clothes were always hung out on a line in the summer and I can still smell that wonderful aroma when I think about it. Thanks for the sweet memories. Love the page you did and the great tip for whites!
Kris, Wadsworth, OH
I so remember our wringer washer...I loved helping doing the washing. It was fun to run the clothes through. My worst memory is what happened when we got an electric machine. It was the summer I was entering grade 12. My artistic Dad decided the old wringer would make a wonderful statue in our garden! My first day of school in grade 12 was taken next to this washer...I was mortivied at the time but now it is another wonderful memory.
Hugs
Heather
Joan, I have to add another wringer washer story. My neighbor and friend, Linda, a very creative sort, is making a Cuttlebug out of her wringers -- truly she is!!! She experiemented and insists it will work -- LOL!!! She is also the one who made all of us girls up here homemade Stamp-a-ma-jigs!!! They work perfectly!!! LOL!!!
Oh Joan you have brought up so many memories...I can still see my mother standing beside a zinc bath outside with a washboard. No washing machine...not even until the day she died..just a spinner..her laundry was spotless too. I don't have a drier either...we hang our clothes on the line outside when the weather is good...(if not I have lines inside our utility room) they come in dry and smelling of fresh air...no softener could match that smell! Thanks for all the lovely memories you've shared.
herbertherbert is Joyce from Northern Ireland - sorry!
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