Another member, who talked about starching her Dad's railroad hats, and I have been PMing some things like this and I thought it might make a great topic to post here!
I'll call this first one - Oh, how I wish the family had kept it.

We had a rack over the wood and coal stove that lowered to hang laundry on it to dry in bad weather. Lovely to warm you jammies for after your weekly bath!

I used to help my Nana do her laundry. Boiled the whites on top of her wood and coal stove and then carted it all downstairs to her WOODEN washing machine! It was about 3 ft across and made like a barrel with a corduroy like finish on the inside. You filled it with a hose and added buckets of hot water. The heavy lid had a mechanical ratchet thing on top that operated a wooden circle with 4 dowels sticking down on the bottom! Like a cow's udder! You moved the ratchet handle back and forth and that made the 'udder' swish the clothes! That was heavy work! and of course we'd then feed it all through the (oh darn, the name just went out of my mind) roller stand. Spundle?? Is that it?

Wringers. my grandmother had an old wringer washer.

yes I enjoyed helping with the wash in the wringer washer till the time it got me! I thought it was going to eat me alive before my aunt heard me screaming and ran in and whacked it on top to make it pop open, MAN that hurt!

I had a wringer washer until 1982,lol!! My husband(now ex) was a welder and I REFUSED to put his work clothes into my automatic washer. When we divorced he kept the washer. I wish I still had it. Knowing him, he left it behind when he moved out of the house.
I also remember catching rain water in a barrel and using this for rinsing my hair when I washed it(also the weekly bath ritual,lol). How times have changed. I can't imagine taking a bath & washing my hair once a week!!!

Yes, wringer, but there is also another name they use for quiz show questions! LOL

Anyone have to wear perle cotton crocheted panties? Team that with wooden desk seats and mega "pebble-butt"!

LOL Mom had an old bent pan that she put dad's hats on to dry after she'd dipped them in the starch. How she found a pan that was the same size as his head I don't know.

We heated with coal and then oil stoves and we didn't have indoor plumbing. In the fall we started saving all the newspapers. Mom would take several sheets, fold it in half, then half again then half again and cut about three inches off the corner where all the folds were. Then she'd stack them in a box in the corner. During the winter when nature called we'd unfold the paper until that hole made a circle and lay it on top the stove to heat. While it was heating we'd put on our boots, coat, hat, etc. Then we'd grab the paper, fold it, roll it up stick it under our coat and run to the outhouse. We'd hurry, and put it down then sit down while it was still warm. I'm sure that we were inventors of the original heated toilet seat. LOL

I also remember helping mom and grandma with those old wringer washers, butchering hogs at home and rendering the lard, making cracklins, butter, homemade cottage cheese and one of my least favorite---real mince meat.

Oh, and I loved the mincemeat. Nana would put brandy and whiskey in it! My other Grandma was a teetotaler in the extreme and no-one ever told her why she liked my Nana's mincemeat best! Which reminds me - time to buy a jar and put a few drops of the "special" ingredients in it now!

We made ours. Dad wouldn't eat boughten mince. He said it didn't have any meat in it. So mom made it from the heads of hogs and we had to clean the meat off the heads after she cooked them. It was SOOOooooo gross! Then she'd add the fruit, nuts, and spices. Still gross.

I just read Kitsie's post and thank God grandma never crocheted underpants for us! That was one thing that we got to buy at the store. Although it took me a few years I was able to bypass pebble and go right on to Boulder Butt. LOL

did you ever have to eat tripe!!!??? Now that's gross!

Kitsie how about a wringer, like on the old wringer washing machines.