Well, at least the writer acknowledged how much work this is--"Brew a cup of tea...." That is a whole lot of work.

My Speed Queen is chugging away in the background as I write this.

I'm thinking it's good those women didn't know what was coming for future generations of "laundresses." Sometimes it's better when you don't know what you're missing.

I love that.

My late grandmother was the oldest girl in a family of eight brothers and sisters. She was in charge of clothing, and may well have followed a similar routine 100 years ago.

Some older books that I enjoy, like A Girl of the Limberlost, tell of daily life in times gone by. Reading what a huge chore it was to deal with clothing, obtain and cook food or even to take a bath makes me count my blessings!

I do count my blessings every day....and even I remember using the old wringer washing machine, rinsing in a deep sink, then putting fabrics through the old wringer again. That was a new appliance for my now 60 year old "baby brother" in 1950. And, hanging all those cloth diapers (and more) on the clothes line to dry. I was 15, and he was my first real responsibility. Nanny

BTW...THIS is why this table is so fascinating to me. Almost every day someone will post something that will bring the memories back and remind me of how far we have come, and how wonderful life has been....how very many blessings I have had....and know that there will be more to come.

I wonder what the future will bring to our grandkids, etc. I sure hope ironing is on the way out. I have to ignore the pile of ironing until I can't stand it any longer. I know ... I should take it out of the dryer sooner, but sometimes it's more fun to sit at the computer and let it wrinkle away!

No wonder when they spoke of wash day, they really meant "day". What drugery, I don't appreciate my washer and dryer enough (Kenmore HE front load washer and dryer on pedestals (drawers).....

Oh, this makes my back ache! "Monday wash day. Tuesday ironing. (Etc.)"

She left out drawing the water from the well or pumping it. On Tuesday she could heat heavy irons on the wood stove and iron miles of petticoats and dresses.

A favorite book of mine is "Down the Common" by Ann Baer. It's a novel that tells how life was lived for centuries in rural England. The main character, a woman, is fortunate to have ONE POT. She relishes a brief period during which she isn't too hot nor too cold nor wet nor hungry nor pregnant nor bleeding -- and not too much bitten by bugs.

My Grandmother had a wringer washer. I can still see her pulling clothes thru the two wooden rollers. It was electric but you had to turn the wringer by hand. Things sure were difficult back in the day. I remember she used Ivory Snow. Then Dreft.

Ah, the good old days! When I was a young all we had was a wringer washer, but I have hot water available and power. Back then you always washed your baby clothes in Ivory.

Gosh my first washer was a wringer washer. I think I paid $15 for it from someone in the apartments I lived it It was a godsend at thetime since I had to wash diapers.

Did anyone ever hear these words when they were little, "Don't go near that wringer"?...or "Stay out of the laundry room."...because the wringer could tear your arm off.

Hubby and I were talking about this the other day.
I mentioned the wringer washer that my grandmother had (we lived with her). He said his mom had one as well.
I used to love watching the soapy water come out through the rollers. It was sure hell on buttons and zipper pulls though.

The she moved on to the washer-spinners. Remember those?
I had one as well. They were popular at one time.
It was all one unit....you washed clothes in one side, then put them in the other side, and the hose would pour rinse water in and it would spin dry.

Oh My Goodness....those spinners. I thought they only had them in Europe. What a 'trip" those were....and I used one for the early years that we lived in Scotland (and were grateful for those little buggers....the bath tub, a deep, claw footed thing, was the only alternative.) Memory Lane....isn't it a trip in itself? Nanny

My mom used to say "I haven't laughed so hard since ma got her teet caught in the wringer".

My mother used a wringer washer as long as I can remember. And my dad kept on using it until he moved out of his house. He "wouldn't have" an automatic washer. "They walk across the floor y'know...that's what they say." And BTW, I used that washer some myself. Guess it's better than a rock or a washboard but not all that much. And oh yeah, the cut off broom handle for getting stuff out of there.

We'd wash a few clothes at the lake without a washing machine. There was no electricity there. We did have a "modern convenience" though. A small refrigerator. Propane refrigerator. And yes it would heat up that little room a lot on warm days.

Enjoyable to get a bit of insight into what things were like decades before. People (including myself) are so spoiled in so many ways these days.

My mother had one in the backyard.

I remember my grandmother doing her laundry on "wash day".She would build a fire under the huge iron pot in the back yard and haul the water (I don't remember where she hauled it from.LOL) to fill up the huge pot.She had a big wash tub for the wash water and one for the rinse water and a wash board.LOL I can see her now bent over that tub scrubbing away on the wash board.Clothes were hung over a line from a couple of big trees or on the barbed wire fence behind the house.It was an all day long ordeal but it was kind of fun.For the kids at least.We got to stay outside all day while she did the wash.As she brought the clothes in off the line she would "sprinkle" the ones to be ironed,roll them up neatly and put them inside a pillowcase to be ironed the next morning.Also an all day ordeal.I remember sometimes she would put the pillowcase full of ironing in the refrigerator.She would let me and my cousin iron handkerchiefs,pillow cases and underwear.We were like 8-10 years old.I usually ended up doing it all because my cousin was a tom boy and would rather be outside climbing trees.I was the domestic one.LOL I could never figure out,even then,why you ironed underwear.LOL I loved doing the hankies and pillowcases!LOL I also remember her making lye soap in that same big pot over the fire!
It was a happy day when one of the wealthier families in town that my DGF had done carpentry work for gave her their old wringer washer.They had just bought one of the new fangled automatic ones.She still did the laundry in the back yard though!LOL

That was a great read, thanks for posting it.

My mother used a wringer washer. I remember she always told me to pin my hair up when using it, or my hair would get caught in the wringer and tear my scalp off (she knew someone that this happened to), which horrified me. For some reason, she had to rinse the clothes in the bathtub, but I don't remember the whole routine. Then she'd haul the clothes outside and pin them up on clothes lines...quite another chore for someone with 8 kids.

When she became ill, I had to do the laundry, and I quickly decided to take the laundry into town and use the laundromat instead.

Glad everyone enjoyed it!

Oh my does this take me back! I remember one grandma making lye soap but I was so little I don't rmember the details. Somehow it seems to be connected with her making my dads favorite, head cheese, out of a pigs head. I do remember the pigs head!
My other grandma had an old Matag wringer washer.

I wonder why they said the word "wrench" instead of rinse? I don't think it's southern because my grandmother always said wrench and I don't think she ever stepped a foot out of Indiana. I thought maybe it was an Irish thing, but I wonder.

Patti, I know someone from southern Illinois who says that too, so maybe it's midwestern.

For many years all I had was a wringer washer after I was married and no clothes dryer either.

Sue

In the 40's my MIL kept her teen son (my late DH) home from school every Monday to help her wash. Her only DD had married and moved away.

They had no wringer washer, so they had to hand wring the khakis and jeans with he on one end of the garment and she on the other. I think there were 6 family members living there, so lots of clothes every week, and they were farmers, lots of dirt.

I'm pretty sure all my siblings...me included got our arms caught in the wringer...HURT LIKE HADES!! and then having to tredge up the basement steps to hang clothes outside...We didn't have a washer and dryer till we moved to the city in 1968...I'm pretty sure my Mother thought she had died and gone to heaven...I know I sure did...NO MORE STIFF CLOTHES and TOWELS!! (but I still love to hang my sheets outside!)