Seeing wash on lines this past summer in our neighborhood and in the countryside reminds me of growing up. Interesting how those clotheslines are coming back into fashion.
Are you old enough to remember any of these machines?
The Bendix ad is from 1947. Our mom had one of these very first front loading automatic washing machines maybe in the early fifties. Before that she had a wringer washer that I don't remember.
However, our grandmother used a wringer washer until the sixties. Myrna had a wringer washer when she lived in the country with spring-fed water so the water pump could keep up.
I never used a dryer until after I married and returned to the states from Germany where I had a washer that had a water heater right in it!
Of course, Maytag started in Newton, Iowa, not far from us – and Amana is still in Amana, Iowa today.
1911- Whirlpool Corporation started as the Uptown Machine Company, founded in St. Joseph, Michigan to produce electric-motor driven wringer washers
1922- Maytag Corporation began producing agitator washing machine
1930’s - revolutionary Bendix front load machines – actually years ahead of the times
1947 - first top loading automatic machines
My mom's mom used a wringer washer like the one in the upper left corner until her passing, and her laundry was always hung outside or on the basement lines to dry. Grandma's house was so wonderfully fragrant on laundry day--the whole place smelled so clean and fresh! My mother said it was because she used Downy fabric softener but I think it must have partially been her laundry soap, too.
ReplyDeleteMy mom had a wringer washer, too. She kept it even after she got a "real" washer and dryer in the 60's. She would save the rinse water from the first batch of wash to start the next batch. The order was whites, towels, colored tops, jeans/work clothes.
I think that saving the rinse water for the next batch is just plain good conservation and wish that modern washers were built to accomodate diverting that rinse water to a secondary use--be it another load of laundry or for watering trees/non-food-producing plants.
I had the square tub winger washer. With a spring fed well I needed it. However, I also moved it to Iowa where we lived in town and still used it a lot. Great for heavy soiled clothes, jeans and rugs. It finally gave out so didn't replace it. I had by than a automatic washer and had been using it for the main laundry.
DeleteHi, Myrna and Sue. When I was a child my Mother had an Easy Washer that I will never forget. It was a work horse and it did a good job of cleaning clothes for our 9 member family.
ReplyDeleteAt your recommendations I bought a Breville toaster oven about six weeks ago and you were right, it does it all. I love it. Thanks.
Regards, Jeanne
Jeanne, I am so glad you are pleased with your Breville toaster oven. I am not always comfortable with recommending a product but this is such a good one that I had no problem doing so. I haven't turned on my full size oven in months.
DeleteBefore my marriage I worked for an electrical engineers in UK that sold and serviced Bendix washing machines. My boss told me he made the best rice puddings in the deep glass door from an old machine!
ReplyDeleteNice to hear from someone else who had a Bendix, it was the first automatic my Mom had and as we were old enough to do the laundry I loved it. So much easier to use.
DeleteMy mom had a wringer/washer like the Maytag pictured until they moved from their house into an apartment. That would have been in 1965. It was in the basement and she took her clothes outside to hang in good weather or on the lines in the basement in bad.
ReplyDeleteI (unfortunately!) went to the laundromat for years after we were married and finally getting an automatic washing machine at home was bliss! To this day I really, really appreciate having one at home.
My daughter is renting now and has to go to the laundromat and sure misses her washing machine at home.
DeleteMy grandmother and my aunt in their farmhouses did laundry in a copper heated by a wood-fire, until the mid-1960s. Woollens and delicates would have been hand-washed.
ReplyDeleteMy mother used a wringer-washer until the early 1970s, then automatic washing machines.
The climate in my part of the country usually lets us dry washing outdoors - love that sunshiny fresh-air fragrance!
[Valerie, NZ]
Gosh Valerie that sounds like so much work! Sometimes the Good Old Days weren't so good for the housewife. Modern appliances have really made life easier. Remember carpet beaters?
ReplyDelete