Wringer washing machines

[Madge Bumstead]

In my started topic - clotheslines, Yvonne Smith and Marie Mallory mentioned wringer washing machines, and talk about jogging old memories for me!

How I loved watching and standing behind my moms wringer washing machine on wash day. Most everything mom ran through the rollers would exit flat as flat as a sheet of writing paper! I knew the dangers of those rollers having had an aunt that lost the tip of her finger as a result of getting it caught on the rollers.

As I grew older, laundry day became more of a mom and I day, where I would stand at the back of the wringer washing machine ensuring that all that exited the rollers ended up in the waiting laundry basket, then outside I'd go to hang everything on the line.

So many memories, but one such memory is the explosion that occurred one morning. Mom and I were washing my baby siblings diapers and a pair of rubber pants went through the rollers the wrong way, you should have heard the loud pop/bang! Scared the dickens out of both of us! Rubber pants had to be run through the rollers elastic leg holes/crotch first so the rollers would squeeze the wash-water out of the pants at the elastic waistband, but if you ran the rubber pants into the rollers waistband first, the rollers would squeeze the water to the seat of the pants which formed a water bubble, and with nowhere to go, the bubble would pop the pants!

I still remember mom rolling out her wringer washing from the back room and into the kitchen on laundry day, hooking up the short hose to the kitchen faucet, and the whirring sound of the motor would start, changing its pitch as washing was fed into the rollers. Wasn't until around 1973, that mom got her very first automatic electric washing machine. I was certain we were the last family in the whole wide world that was still relying on an old-fashioned wringer washing machine.

 

[Krystal Shay]

In my started topic - clotheslines, Yvonne Smith and Marie Mallory mentioned wringer washing machines, and talk about jogging old memories for me!

How I loved watching and standing behind my moms wringer washing machine on wash day. Most everything mom ran through the rollers would exit flat as flat as a sheet of writing paper! I knew the dangers of those rollers having had an aunt that lost the tip of her finger as a result of getting it caught on the rollers.

As I grew older, laundry day became more of a mom and I day, where I would stand at the back of the wringer washing machine ensuring that all that exited the rollers ended up in the waiting laundry basket, then outside I'd go to hang everything on the line.

So many memories, but one such memory is the explosion that occurred one morning. Mom and I were washing my baby siblings diapers and a pair of rubber pants went through the rollers the wrong way, you should have heard the loud pop/bang! Scared the dickens out of both of us! Rubber pants had to be run through the rollers elastic leg holes/crotch first so the rollers would squeeze the wash-water out of the pants at the elastic waistband, but if you ran the rubber pants into the rollers waistband first, the rollers would squeeze the water to the seat of the pants which formed a water bubble, and with nowhere to go, the bubble would pop the pants!

I still remember mom rolling out her wringer washing from the back room and into the kitchen on laundry day, hooking up the short hose to the kitchen faucet, and the whirring sound of the motor would start, changing its pitch as washing was fed into the rollers. Wasn't until around 1973, that mom got her very first automatic electric washing machine. I was certain we were the last family in the whole wide world that was still relying on an old-fashioned wringer washing machine.

My mother and I think most women of that era had a wringer washer. It was an all day job. Heating the water, washing, wringing the clothes out, changing water for rinsing, wringing again, and then carrying the baskets of clothes to the clothesline to be hung up to dry. My mother than took the clothes down and sprinkled the dry clothes a bit before rolling them up and putting them in baskets to be ironed the next day.

Oh boy, do we have it easy now with our automatic washer and dryers!

My poor momma had a full time job outside the house too. My daddy didn't help much with that sort of thing because it was "woman's work". I would help my mother and my grandma, when I was old enough. And I got old enough pretty quick in those days.

 

[Madge Bumstead]

My mother and I think most women of that era had a wringer washer. It was an all day job. Heating the water, washing, wringing the clothes out, changing water for rinsing, wringing again, and then carrying the baskets of clothes to the clothesline to be hung up to dry. My mother than took the clothes down and sprinkled the dry clothes a bit before rolling them up and putting them in baskets to be ironed the next day.

Oh boy, do we have it easy now with our automatic washer and dryers!

My poor momma had a full time job outside the house too. My daddy didn't help much with that sort of thing because it was "woman's work". I would help my mother and my grandma, when I was old enough. And I got old enough pretty quick in those days.

Oh yes, the washing in a wringer washing machine, the sprinkling of water applied to clothes, the ironing, the folding, your post took me back in time, and same in our house, my dad offered no help. He worked away from home lots, so all fell on mom.

From roughly age 8 on, I was moms second set of hands, doing as much as I was capable of doing to help her wherever I could.

 

[Hedi Mitchell]

Oh yes so remember wash day. We used the tubs in summer for little swim pools.
I remember having to hang all the washed clothes outside on a clothes line. Once There was a sand storm come up and moma and I ran out side to bring in the just hung up clothes. Life is so much better now

 

[Madge Bumstead]

Oh yes so remember wash day. We used the tubs in summer for little swim pools.
I remember having to hang all the washed clothes outside on a clothes line. Once There was a sand storm come up and moma and I ran out side to bring in the just hung up clothes. Life is so much better now

Yes, the galvanized version! At least that's what I remember from my early days.

 

[Ken Anderson]

My brother, the one who recently died, got his hand caught in a wringer when he was maybe twelve or thirteen. That was the only time that I was aware of when any of us went to a doctor. It turned out okay, I guess, but it was a pretty serious injury at the time. I don't know how old he was, except that I remember it happening, and he was three years older than me.

 

[Madge Bumstead]

My brother, the one who recently died, got his hand caught in a wringer when he was maybe twelve or thirteen. That was the only time that I was aware of when any of us went to a doctor. It turned out okay, I guess, but it was a pretty serious injury at the time. I don't know how old he was, except that I remember it happening, and he was three years older than me.

I often give thought to how many people were injured by those old machines. It's bad enough to know homemaker suffered injuries, but worse to think of children that were injured by them.

 

[Mary Robi]

When I lived in Turkey, I had a maid who came in twice a week (for a dollar and two eggs) to clean and do laundry. She'd do it in the bathtub, wring it out by hand and dry it on the clothesline out on the balcony.

Then, I bought an old Maytag wringer washer from another military family and she thought she had died and gone to heaven.

I actually brought it back to the US with me and my sister used it to wash the mops from her janitorial business in it.

 

[Madge Bumstead]

When I lived in Turkey, I had a maid who came in twice a week (for a dollar and two eggs) to clean and do laundry. She'd do it in the bathtub, wring it out by hand and dry it on the clothesline out on the balcony.

Then, I bought an old Maytag wringer washer from another military family and she thought she had died and gone to heaven.

I actually brought it back to the US with me and my sister used it to wash the mops from her janitorial business in it.

I inherited my moms old glass-front washboard from the 60's. Before getting a wringer washing machine, mom did all the washing in the bathtub on her scrub-board. Her poor back and hands.