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Before modern dryers, clotheslines were frequent sights. |
FOR THE PAST month or so,
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
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.
Anyone under 35 or 40 is absolutely not going to believe this next part, but my mother would then proceed with her wash-day chores by cutting the buttons off all our shirts and anything else we wore that had any kind of button on it to fasten something together.
The buttons went into her button jar.
The dirty clothes went into the washing machine.
This was quite a while ago, and
DANGEROUS, TOO
After the first load (of several)
She'd turn that thing on and the two funky-looking yellow rollers (which looked like huge rolling pins) would start spinning and mom would feed the clothes into the small gap between them and the shirts, dresses, trousers, towels and underwear would be pulled through, squeezing the excess water out of all the clothes in the process.
Besides the almost-deafening noise that wringer assembly made, perhaps you could be thinking this part of the operation might have been a little dangerous, as well.
You bet it was. Besides the possibility of our mom's snagging her apron or a blouse sleeve in those moving rollers, a finger could also easily be pulled in and crushed between them.
CLOTHESLINE
After she'd gotten that first load washed and wrung out, it went on the clothesline to dry.
Our clothesline was attached between metal pulleys hung on a post on our back porch and the corner of our garage out there about 75 feet behind the house.
There were these little wooden things that would have to be attached every 10 feet or so to keep the top line and bottom line together so the weight of the clothes didn't pull the bottom line (and the clean clothes with it) down to the ground.
After my mom would get that first load hung up to dry outside, then it was back down into the cellar to do battle with that old wringer washer for the second load.
This went on for hours.
NOT DONE YET
Eventually, the clothes would all be washed and dried, but wash day was only half over.
Now, it was time to iron everything. A lot of homes back then had
Now here's something I still don't understand. After carefully drying the clothes on the line outside, mothers would sprinkle them with water again before ironing.
That never made any sense to me.
Anyway, a coupleof hours of ironing, and mom would almost be done with the laundry.
Yes, just about.
Remember that button jar?
Well, now all those buttons that were removed earlier in the day (so they wouldn't be crushed between the washing machine rollers) had
With that little mission completed, next came the folding and putting away into drawers, and wash day was finally over.
Today I'm reading about these modern washing machines and dryers that are talking to each other.
I wonder if those old washboards our pioneer ancestors used down at the creek to wash clothes ever had anything nice to say to any big old rocks down there.
Jim Kundreskas of Louisa County near Lake Anna has been a freelance writer for more than 25 years. E-mail him at
Email: Zbasser@aol.com.
