Before modern dryers, clotheslines were frequent sights. Dody Kundreskas Visit the Photo Place

REMEMBER 'WASH DAY'? ENDURING CLEANSER: 20 Mule Team Borax has been around for more than 100 years as a booster agent for laundry detergent. Borax is a naturally occurring mineral made up of sodium, boron, oxygen and water. According to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, 20-mule teams actually pulled wagons of borax mined in Death Valley, Calif., to the nearest railroad spur so it could be shipped to market. The mules were used between 1883 and 1889.

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By Jim Kundreskas

Date published: 8/30/2008

FOR THE PAST month or so, I've been looking carefully at the washer and dryer ads in our newspaper.

We're not in the market now to buy them; I've just been fascinated lately looking at all the features offered today on the newer models.

My goodness, some of those machines are certainly packed full of gizmos and doohickeys. There's even one model I saw that communicates with the dryer to preset the proper cycles for drying after the washer is done cleaning the clothes.

I wonder how that works. Do you think they whisper softly to each other? Now you have to guess where the ears are located.

The GE Profile washer ads say that this particular appliance has some kind of patented stain inspector inside it somewhere that will properly treat up to 40 different kinds of stains from grass to grease.

How in the world does it do that? Remember those "Men in Black" movies? Do you think one of those little alien creatures that made the coffee for Tommy Lee Jones is inside that GE washer with 40 little tiny vials of different kinds of space-invader bleach to pour over the ketchup spot on your good Sunday shirt?

WASH DAY

Things were not always so ingenious. If you're under 50 years old, you probably give no special meaning to the term "wash day." Ah, but those older folks out there over 50 are likely smiling, for so many of us do remember wash day as a very singular event, and it did, pretty much, last the whole day long, too.

Back in the 1950s, when I was just a little kid, Monday was always the official wash day at our house.

It started early, with my mom getting the old wringer washer out from the corner in our basement (we called that place a "cellar" in those days) and hooking water hoses up to it from near the sink down there.

A lot of women would probably have to call in a licensed plumber to do that part of the washing job today.

Then mom would get out her button jar.

Date published: 8/30/2008