Ahh, The Good Old Days...

Every now and then someone posts a picture of an object used years ago on Facebook. The statement that comes with the picture goes something like this: "Like if you remember this." I am usually amused that I can remember most of the pictures. I don't usually click like because I'm sure that is another way to gather more data about me and I make enough of that public as is. However, I have saved two of these pictures because they truly bring back memories of my childhood when I was in elementary school. Long, long time ago...

 

Okay, putting these pictures side by side really messes up the perspective on each of their sizes. Nevertheless, I shall carry on with this bit of history.

 

My mother had stored in the garage a wringer washing machine probably older than this beauty in the picture on the right. I don't remember any nice white paint on the outside. I just remember a bare metal surface.

 

My father purchased my mother a little electric washing machine that sat on the tiny back porch of our home in Shreveport, Louisiana. There was no dryer for a long time. We had clothes lines at the back of your back yard. Clothes were washed in the washer and hung on that line. That little washing machine broke and my mother resorted to the wringer washer in the garage. I'm sure it was their washer prior to the little electric one on that tiny back porch. There were no funds to purchase another electric washing machine at that time. So the wringer washer became our washer for a while.

 

I remember Saturday morning coming and it was time to get laundry done. We trooped out to the back yard, mom pulled the wringer washer out of the garage and, I'm pretty sure, she hooked it up to the water hose and spout. See the black tube on the left side of the wringer washer in the picture. We were not allowed to do that part of the process. The clothes would wash in the tub part with the agitator and then they would go through those rollers (wringers) on the top to squish all the water out. They had to be rinsed in another tub or this machine emptied and clean water put in to do the rinsing. It was quite a process and after it got going we each had a station to cover to get all the laundry for a family of 5 completed. The washer would go, the clothes would be rinsed, then they had to be hung on the line to dry, then taken down, brought inside and folded.

 

Those items that needed pressing got the treatment with the Pepsi bottle on the left of the two pictures. That bottle was our sprinkler bottle. You filled the clean soda bottle with water and put the stopper in the top. The stopper had a cork bottom to keep it security in the bottle with a hole in it to let the water come through the cork and out the metal top which was full of holes. As you shook the Pepsi bottle, this let the water sprinkle the dry clothes so they were a little moist and then the ironing could begin. I distinctly remember sprinkling lots of clothes and then rolling them up to keep them moist until their turn to be ironed. Most fabric was cotton and wrinkled thus needing ironing. Synthetic fibers came after this. 

 

I had a beautiful white blouse my mother made for me that I just loved. Very fashionable for its day. It had gathered ruffles of the same white fabric, a double row, down the front and around the neck. It had a fashion name then and was called a 'twister blouse'. The blouse had to be ironed and then all those ruffles had to be ironed. Loved that blouse, not so much the ironing to make it wearable. But it looked simply beautiful after it was crisply pressed and ready to wear.

 

I often reflect as I roll my hamper from my bedroom to my nice laundry room, take the clothes that are already sorted into whites, colors and darks because of the way that rolling hamper is made, then wash, dry and fold right there in the laundry room, how much easier that process is. Yet we still complain about it or do a little boasting about "I did my laundry today."  I can do a load and leave my home to run errands and complete the process later in the evening as I do other things. It doesn't have to be done all at once because of the need to set up everything.

 

As I reflect on the time consuming process of using that wringer washer when a child, I'm grateful that we had a period in our lives to do laundry that way. I remember it being happy working together with my mom and my sisters. We enjoyed the sun. Although I still have a dream every now and then of running to bring in clothes from the clothesline as the rain comes in. But they are happy memories for me now.

 

I'm thinking with kids nowadays it wouldn't be a bad thing to work like that when you have to make ends meet and get things that need to be accomplished done in the best way you can. And in the process memories are made and characters are built. Not a bad way to live.