I'm one of the OLDER gals :o)

And, yes, mother had the wringer in the backyard. THINK the middle one is more like the one mother had.

I remember the one in the middle, too....and when we got an electric washing machine with the front load door, it was very exciting. Still had to hang the clothes on the clothes line though.

I remember the middle one also. My mother would make my sister and I wash clothes while she went shopping. Well we put the clothes in the machine and let them wash until right before she came home. Those were the fun days.

I vaguely remember a washtub filled with starch for curtains, that were stretched for drying on the clothesline.

I had one of the middle ones. easy to use just had to be careful you didn't get your fingers caught in the wringer.

I remember the middle one too. It was used next to the bathtub, and I think it drained into the tub, not sure how that worked.

Actually the right hand picture is just the laundry tubs while the washing machine in the center is the same machine as the one on the right, but on the right hand side the wringer has been rotated around so you could wring the clothes in the first rinse tub and drop them in the second rinse tub. You then reversed the wringer and run the clothes from the second rinse tub through the wringer and caught them as they came through an put them in the laundry basket to carry outside and hang up.

When I was a kid on the farm I used to hate Monday morning because while all the other guys were doing the milking and tending the stock I had to hitch a team of draft horses to a homemade sled called a "Stone boat" then load 10 ten-gallon milk cans and a 3 gallon gas can on the stone boat. Next stop, the bulk gas tank, where I would fill the gas can, then on to the spring, where I had to dip water out of the spring and fill all the milk cans. I would then pull the stone boat around to the back yard and carry three or four of the milk cans of water into the kitchen, where Grandmother would put the water in a large copper boiler kettle on top of her coal stove to heat the water.

While the water was heating I had to clean the ashes out of the coal stove and carry them out and dump them in the driveway, then go behind the shed in the back yard and fill the bucket with coal for the stove.

I then had to help Grandma pull the washer & tubs out to her working area on the enclosed back porch, or in summer out in the yard and I would fill the 2gallon gas tank on the washer, then begin carrying the hot water from the kitchen to fill the washer and the tubs.

While I was doing that Grandmother would be sorting the laundry into separate load piles, and if our work clothes were heavily soiled with axle grease or oils she would put them in a separate tub and soak them down with the remaining gasoline to pre-treat the grease.

Next I had to string up her clothes lines in the back yard and get the old clothes line prop poles out of the shed.

I remember that Grandma used to do a load of bed sheets first, then hang a sheet on each of the outside clothes lines and a sheet crosswise on each end of those sheets to make a little tent affair because she would laundry all the unmentionables in the second load, and they were hung inside that little tent affair out of public view...LOL

Now here is a trivia question for you...Have you ever noticed the little white sign where the hose hangs on a gas pump that says,,"Not to be used for laundry"? Now you know why that sign is there.

We also had one,if memory serves me right it was the one on the right and 2 galvanized tubs,one with clear rinse water and the other held the water with the blueing in it.

We also had the old stove with the water tank on one end for hot water,and pulley clotheslines out off the back porch.

On the back porch was our "icebox" and my dad was the ice man for our town and surrounding towns.

Those were the good ol' days,but i wouldn't change my modern conviences for any of them.

Kathi

Yep, started out with a wringer washer and twin tubs myself. I just learned this morning that those very porcelian twin tubs that I started housekeeping with will be included in the auction of my Mother's estate on Oct. 29th. I didn't know that they were still in the house.

Talk about the old days, I remember going to relatives house in the country, and mother bathing me in the middle of the kitchen floor in the wash tub . They heated the water on the stove.

We were still doing laundry using this
kind of machine and wash tubs into the
mid 70's at my Grandma's house.

I used a Kenmore wringer washer after I was married until about 1960 or '61. My twin tubs had the rounded bottoms. I do have the single tub like shown in the picture and in the past when we had a family get together would put ice in it and cans of pop. When we were finished, just open the drain and let it drain on the ground.

Sue

I have the tubs on the left. I fill them with ice and beer when we have a party! LOL!! Love them :)

I still hang a lot of my laundry on the line. I don't have to hide my unmentionables, I dry them in the dryer.

I have never seen the sign on a gas pump. I can only imagine how combustible it would be though, using it on laundry. I have my fair share of diesel soaked clothes - yuck. That smell is hard to get out. I can't stand the smell of diesel.

I remember taking baths in a galvanized tub in the kitchen. My sister and I shared it. LOL

Mom used a wringer washer like the ones pictured. Hubs said his Mom used one that had to be hand agitated. A chore the kids had....and hated. Then his Dad got small gasoline engine which he attached to the washing machine....Hubs said that was pure luxury.

Yep! I grew up with a wringer-type washing machine, too. As I remember, ours was in the 'summer kitchen' and one day, my sister was 'helping' with the laundry - got her hand caught in the wringer - broke her wrist - she was about 6 years old.

Yep, there is still one in my mom's basement! I think we probably used it until around 1969 cause I clearly remember mom using it. She got her hand caught in it several times and once ran her arm almost to the elbow in it, having to reverse it on her own to get back out. No broken bones tho, but don't know how she managed that! I was almost old enough to start doing my own, and may have done my own in that washer, which means we used it longer than that, as I was born in 1959.

I loved helping mother do laundry in the basement. After the was cycle was finished she would put the clothes through the wringer and it was my job to "agitate" them to get as much soap out as possible. Then through the wringer again and into the second vat of water for the final rinse. After that they went through the wringer and into the laundry basket to be taken out the to clothes line.

I remember thinking I couldn't wait until I was old enough to put the clothes through the wringer, but by that time we had a "modern" washer and dryer.

Lazypup, we should all print out your description of a typical laundry day so we can be extra grateful for what we have.

I copied this some time ago. It may have even been from The Kitchen Table
From a Kentucky Grandma, 1810

1. Bild fire in back yard to heat kettle of rain water
2.Set tub so wind wont blow smoke in eyes if wind is pert.
3. Shave one hole cake lie soap in biling water.
4. sort things, make 3 piles - 1 pile white, 1 pie cullard, 1 pile britches and rags.
5. Stir flour in cold water to smooth, then thin.
6. Rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, then bile. Rub cullard but don't bile - just rench and starch.
7. take white things out of kettle with broomstickhandle, then rench, bleu and starch.
8. spread tea towels on grass
9. hang old rags on fence.

10. pore rench water on flower bed
11. scrub porch with hot soapy water.
12. turn tubs upside down.
13. go put on clean dress - smooth hair with side combs - brew a cup of tea and rest and rock a spell, and count your blessings.

My dad's mom had one of those wringer washers on her back porch. My mom always had an electric washing machine but she told me stories of the wringer washers they had had. Arms weren't the only female body part that was caught in wringers.

My husband used a wringer washer for his farm clothes (jeans had that nice brown "cow" stuff on the cuffs!) as I wouldn't put them in the automatic! It's still in the basement but will be taken out when the new furnace is put in next week. It was interesting a few times as he had a habit of running the water in it, then going outside & forgetting it...and this was way before the Alz.!

I can remember doing laundry the old fashioned......my family had a mining claim in the mountains and it had an old log cabin. No running water, no electricity, heat was from an old wood stove.
On laundry day my mom and the aunts would pump the water (or have us kids do it) haul it to the front of the cabin where it was put in a large galvanized tub, which was set upon a fire pit. The fire got lit to heat the water and soap was added.....homemade soap. We all took turns using some sort of contraption to agitate the clothes. The clothes were fished out and placed in another large tub with clear water. Swish, swish, swish and then we all started wringing out clothes, from the youngest to the oldest. Then the tub was carried to the clothes line where the older girls and the women would hang them out.
I loved to help fold them (I was very young) because they always smelled so fresh and clean.
Next day the old hand irons were heated on the wood stove and the women ironed.

During the summer I remember helping my Gram every Monday. Remember the laundry stick to pull the clothes out of the hot water and start them trhu the wringer? Bluing? And yep, I remember the starch too.

I remember how excited everyone waswhen the TIDE type of Wash powders came out. I remember Mom used Fels Naptha and American Family Soap Flakes. They were boxes of actual soap flaked. Some flakes would stick to the wet garments. Tide types made everything so much easier.

Remember those crocheted doillies (sp)? I have one framed my grandmother made. They were so heavily starched that they stood up.

I wonder how many ladies today faithfully watch the soap opera's, yet don't have a clue how they came to have that title?

Back in the late 40's nearly all the daytime radio programs were dramas sponsored by soap companies, and that carried over into TV throughout the 50's-60's. In fact, Edge of Night was the longest continually running program in broadcast media, having started on radio in the late 30's and if memory serves me correct, they were almost exclusively sponsored by "Cheer".

Lux soap company sponsored the "Lux Radio Hour" in the evengings and they broadcast mystery dramas. And there were a number of names that have been lost to history such as Rinso-Blue, Phels Naphta, Ivory flakes while some others are still going strong such as Tide & Cheer.

Perhaps some of you remember the little freebies that came packed in the laundry soap boxes. One of the soap companies packed their product in three box sizes, small, medium and large economy size, and they packed Canon Bath towels in the box. A washcloth in the small box, hand towel in the medium box and a bath towel in the large box.

Another company packed an 8oz anodized aluminum drinking tumbler in the box (Grandma had dozens of those), and another company packed dishes & glassware in the boxes.

I remember when the bluing came in a small cake about 1/4" thick, 2" wide and 4" long. You had to unwrap the cake and put it in a pan of boiling water to melt it into a liquid before adding it to the rinse water.

And here is my favorite little memory from the laundry room. Remember when you bought a little nozzle that looked like a mini shower head with a cork stopper and you filled a soda bottle with water, then inserted the stopper and used that sprinkle the clothes that you were going to iron? As we brought the dry clothes in from the line we would sortout those that needed ironing thenn sprinkle them, roll them up tight and stack them so they would be ready to ironed the next day.

And while on the subject of ironing. I realize it is almost never done today, but back in the day almost all your dress clothes needed to be ironed because "wash & wear" had not been invented yet. Grandma even ironed our work shirts for working on the farm because nobody wanted to be seen with a wrinkled shirt.

lazypup, I want one of those mini shower cork stoppers. That is what is missing in my life.
I wonder if you can still get them.

My mother boiled the starch and I do believe I was disappointed when spray starch came out. It just wasn't as crisp even though they call it heavy duty. She dipped the collars and cuffs in the starch and ironed them by shaking water on them and stretching as she ironed. She didn't have flabby arms now that I think about it.

We also had a mangle to iron sheets and we had a lady who could do shirts on it too.

Also my mother preferred to use a ringer washer and I don't know why. We moved into a house that had a washer and dryer and she didn't use them often. Maybe I did when I came home from school. Everything was hung outdoors because the clothes smelled so good she said. I loved those stiff sheets not like the ones today that are too soft and light. She did a lot for us that she didn't have to do. I miss her.

I sure wish you lived near me. You are so knowledgeable. I do have all of you on this site to enjoy and am greatful. Love this conversation

My mother had a wringer washer and got her arm caught one time. I remember I was never allowed near it.

I am 64 yrs old, I grew up on a farm then served 8 years in the Air Force during Viet Nam, drove truck for almost 9 yrs after the milatary and spent the remainder of my working career in fairly dangerous work in construction trades yet the only physical scar on my body is the remnants of 7 surgical stitches between the ring finger and little finger of my right hand because when I was about 5yrs old I was watching mother feed clothes in the wringer, and when she went out of the room for a few moments I decided I was going to help.So I drug a chair over to the washer and standing on the chair I tried feeding clothes in the wringer. In the process I got my hand caught and by the time mom heard me screaming and came to see what the problem was my whole arm had gone through the wringer, lifting me off the chair, and there I was with my arm through the wringer and my shoulder against the front of the wringer. Having no quick release on the machine, Mother had to switch the ringer into reverse and wind me out and my hand was crushed and split open. Fortunately I have no long term effects other than those silly little scars.....

But then it could have been much worse...pardon my language , but we have all heard the old expression about getting a "tit in the wringer", well, I had occassion to see that happen once..and believe me, my brothers and I didn't give mom and gruff for about a week out of fear,,,LOL

The one in the middle is like the one I learned to wash clothes with.
Lazypup..I have heard many horror stories about a tit in the wringer, hehe

Lazypup, I still have a set of 12 ounce glasses that my mom saved for my 'hope chest' back in the late 1960's or early 70's! They are very pretty too. It's a wonder they've survived so long!

We used to wash in a double tub wringer washer. The tubs were round though, rather than square like the ones in the pictures. They were white enamel. We washed in one, put the clothes through the wringer into the rinse water, rinsed, then put the clothes through the wringer again and hung them to dry.

In the summer, they went outdoors on the clotheslines. Our yard was crisscrossed with clotheslines strung between shade trees ;-). In the winter they were hung on clothes lines strung up in our dining room. Sometimes in the winter they went outdoors to 'freeze dry' then came indoors to finish up.

It's nostalgic to think about now, but was a lot of work back then! I think I was in junior high or early high school, back in the late 60's when my mom got her set of Maytag automatic machines (washer and dryer). They went into the kitchen on our farm and she use them somewhere around 30 years before they needed replaced.

I looked at a house, but didn't buy it, a few years ago. In the basement was an automatic washer and dryer right next to an old wringer washer. The real estate agent told me that the wife of the elderly man who was selling the house had bought the new automatic's quite a few years before, but the husband refused to have his clothes washed in them. They kept the old wringer washer and he washed his own clothes in it from then on! :-)

Lazypup, I still have, (and use!) glassware that I got in boxes of Duz detergent! They are brown, hobnail stemware. I love them.

Where is the wooden wash board?Where is the box of silverdust with the dish towels in them?Where is the gold dust with the little boys on the panel.If you can remember you were born in the thirties.

I was born in the thirty's but I don't remember the silver dust. I got my towels out of Breeze and plates and glasses out of Duz. I had a big set of things out of Duz but sold it. It was the Golden Wheat pattern.

Sue

We had double tubs that sat on a wooden bench, and a washer like that, but ours always had a bar across each side at the top that would kick the push-down lever at the outside end of the wringer assembly to release the pressure on the rollers.

We had a wash-board with ribbed glass in a frame, too.

We three boys used to take our weekly baths at the far end of the kitchen range, beside the reservoir from which we'd dipped hot water for our bath - and woe betide the guy who neglected to add more water to the reservoir to allow the next guy to add some to the water to re-warm it (says this oldest son ... but actually it was the youngest who bathed first, as he was the one scheduled first for bed).

We had a large copper tub with rounded ends that we used to put on the range on wash Mondays, but filled it with a bucket from a pump in the next room, fed from the cistern which collected water from the roof.

Had a pump in a well in the yard for drinking/cooking water, but Dad said that it needed cleaning and he was afraid to go down into it in case some of the stones and bricks fell on him ... so in 1936 he drilled a well beside the house, that fed a presssure tank in the basement. So we had cold water on tap in the pantry, but no hot water on tap, and no bathroom .. though I expect that, had Mom been home, we'd have had a bathroom before too many years after the pressure water was installed.

We didn't have a refrigerator: town folks had a small horse-drawn covered wagon that came down the street with a block of ice and the ice-man chopped off a chunk to take into each house to put into a wooden "ice-box", configured much like a refrigerator but made of wood, with the ice going into the top compartment, and the housewife removed a pan of water at the bottom to dump it, every few days. We country folks kept goods that needed cooling in a pan of cold water in the basement.

I don't know when we got "power", the term for electricity that we learned when we moved to Saskatchewan in 1946, where we didn't have it for a few years on a share-crop farm until Dad bought his own farm. We had it in our home before I was born: called it "hydro" in Ontario, as the Ontario Hydroelectric Power Commission generated the power from Niagara.

ole joyful

There were attachments for the Maytag wringer washers. I know there was a meat grinder available. Saw one just last week displayed in a hardware store in Amish country. I think there was also a butter churn for Maytag washers. Those washers were often gasoline powered.

this old washer sits in the window of an appliance store in my sisters town...Greensburg, Indiana...I went in to snap a picture...I've forgotten how old he said it was...ain't she a beaut!

I'm not a fan of those old wringer types...had many a fingers pinched...but the smell of line dried clothes will never leave me!!

Fels Naptha soap is still available in the laundry soap isle in bar form today. My grandfather used it to bathe and wash his hair with. It's great to whiten dingy or grass stianed socks. Or pants! and it makes your hands soooo soft when you scrub something with it. I also had an uncle who used it on poison ivy.

Tami...who remembers Mom using a plastic bottle with the shower head type cap to sprinkle clothes and wrapped them up and put them in the frige over night.

I remember my mom doing that and although I have a steam iron I would like to "sprinkle" (thanks for the word, I couldn't think of it) some things.
If anyone thinks they have seen the shower head cap on the end of cork that you insert in a bottle let me know.
Put that on my list with Jubilee.
It's probably on ebay where I saw the half a bottle of Jubilee!!

Thanks for the memories!

So enjoy all your posts!

Thanks for being a KT member.

Ole joyful, we have an icebox like that (only ours is metal) at our camp. It works pretty good when you put in 2 or 3 blocks of hard frozen ice! Will keep things cool a few days on that if it's not too hot out!

Thanks for the memories. You really don't need one of those coke-bottle sprinklers; just use your hand. Put a little water in your palm, close it lightly, shake your hand over the clothes as you would dice, and your clothes will be sprinkled. I can see Mama doing this now.

I casually mentioned those little cork stopper type sprinkler heads to Jan and damned if she didn't go out in the kitchen and dig two of them out of her junk drawer..LOL

I remember once my mother could not find her sprinkler stopper so she took and empty ketchup bottle and poked about 5 or 6 holes in the screw on top with an ice pick..(if memory serves me my brother and I needed her sprinkler top for one of our projects down at the creek, but I will never tell)

Hi jel48,

Yeah - 70 years ago the folks in town had those wood-panelled ice boxes to store those perishables, while we rural folks used a pan of cool water in the basement. And I remember once when an exam in school asked us to draw a cross-section of an ice box and I put in a line as a wall to give the warmed air at the bottom a passageway to rise to the top to be re-cooled by the ice and drop down again, I got full marks.

Sixty years ago ...they started building refrigerators.

Of the ones built fifty years ago ... quite a few were still in use after 40 years.

The engineers having become so much stupider during the years since, the ones built these days ... last for about 10 years.

When I've told this story a number of times in recent months, you'd be surprised at how many times someone has entered the conversation at this point, to almost always say a variation of, "If we're lucky!"!

Which means that, when all is said and done ... we pay about 4 times too much for fridges!

ole joyful

I can't figure out how to attach a link..but if you go to eBay and type in clothes sprinkler..there are a lot of them on there. The old shower top and also some cute animal figure sprinklers.

I'm tempted to get one.

I like Glenda really enjoyed this post...and it brought back so many memories...do any of you remember the sound of white sheets flapping on the clothes line on a windy day...Mary

Well thanks dianamo.I looked tonight at Harris Teeter and of course they don't have them. EVERYTHING is on ebay I just knew it.

Your welcome, Ellie. :-)