Saturday, December 5, 2015

Who remembers Grandma using old monitor wringer washing machines in the kitchen?

Who remembers Grandma using old monitor wringer washing machines in the kitchen?

You would roll the machine off the back porch into the kitchen, hook it up to the sink and begin your wash. I remember my grandmother's hands reaching into the hot scalding water she heated on the combination coal/gas stove . There was no hot water heater in the house or a bathroom. It was cold water in the kitchen sink. That was all.Her hands were reddened with the scalding water and shiny. Veins were dilated and she would reach down into the basin and pull up laundry to be fed into the wringer. The drain went into the sink and cold water for rinsing hooked up to the faucet. It seems that most women had some story or other of a trip to the doctors for crushing injuries and lacerations of fingers that were accidentally pulled through a powerful wringer requiring stitches and throbbing pain afterward.

My grandmother was widowed when my mother was 17 yrs old.She used this larger machine while her home was still active with family members, but as the house emptied of family she began to use the smaller model.


Easy to store and used for smaller  loads.Then out to the backyard clotheslines held up by white birch tree supports.Neat memories!