Wash Day When You Grew Up
 

Yesterday I was starching fabric while ironing and had a flash back to starching and laundry when I was growing up. We had a wringer washer and a tub behind it the water ran into. My mom kept a bucket of blue starch and I remember when I was six a little teddy bear I had fell into it. It was very stiff after that! Wash was done only once a week, I think on Thursdays. We didn't have heat in the basement but had a coal burning stove, one of those little black things with the door you put the coal into. Clothes were hung on clotheslines until I was about eight when we got a dryer. That was really big!

I remember a ringer washer. We lived in a little rent house on a dead end street but when my Mother went to work at Foley's dept store, she hired a maid to do the washing. we were the only people to have a maid! she caught her poor hand in that ringer. she was all right but i bet it wasn't pleasant!! and yep, clothes lines outside. I can't think of a yard without one, even though i mostly use the electric dryer.

My family lived in a subdivision where all of the back yards were visible up and down the block and every single Monday (weather permitting) all of the back yards were full of clotheslines full of clothes. My mom tried to be the first one outside - very important to her. My father had to be at work really early in the mornings, so she was up and washing using the wringer washer way before dawn. Then they got a new washer and dryer and that all quit. Doubt if anybody in that neighborhood even has a clothesline outside anymore.

I do remember a ringer washer, cloths lines, sprinkling cloths with a bottle, starching,then when I was a little older it was washer and dryer no more hanging cloths or any of the rest. Boy times have changed!!!!!

Some of my earliest memories are of the wringer washing machine and Mom hanging clothes on the line to dry. When I was in my twenties, I got all the kids to chip in to buy a new automatic washer and dryer for her.

My older sister told me about a friend of hers who was married. They moved into a new house in a more "upscale" neighborhood, and she hung her clothes on the line to dry as usual. A neighbor visited her and told her nobody in the neighborhood hung their clothes out to dry; it was "tacky". The friend bought a dryer so she would fit into the neighborhood!

My mom used a ringer washer and we had two rinse tubs as well When I got married in 1964 My husband and I was at an auction and they had a really old square ringer washer that I talked him into buying for me. Did all our wash for 5 or 6 years with it than bought an electric washer and dryer set But I really loved my old maytag washer

yes, i remember. mom taught us early to iron those starched items. we hung the clothes on a line in the back yard. even in the winter... the clothes freeze dried. thanks for bringing back fond [or not] memories :)

When I was small, our well water was salty so we hauled our dirty laundry to my Granparents house. They had a wringer washer that my Grandpa had put an electric motor on. Until I was old enough to hang the clothes on the line, my job was to catch them as they came out of the ringer. After we had a new well dug, we had our own washer/dryer. The washer was a suds saver, which meant the same water was used for all the clothes- whites first. The dryer was only used in the winter.

My mother thought automatic washers were such a waste of water. I remember helping Mom with the washing each week. Once, my arm went through the wringer. We hung clothes in the house in winter and outside in the good weather. Mom starched everything and I had to help iron as I was the only girl. I had to help iron my stepfather's boxer shorts but I don't think they were starched ! Mom did not get an automatic washer until she was about 75 years old and the dryer only came when she was about 80. She hung clothes till the day she died, she only used the dryer when she had to. She hated these new machines, she never had a dishwasher.

We had a wringer washer until I was a freshman in high school. My mother would back it up to the kitchen sink, pass the clothes through the wringer into the sink filled with water to rinse the clothes by hand, and then run them back through the wringer to squeeze the water out. I remember many times hanging the clothes outside, so cold during the winter that out fingers ached, only to retrieve them for Mom, clothing frozen stiff as boards, to re-hang on lines that hung the length of the kitchen. We had no central heat so no hot running water and I had six sisters and two brothers, making a total of 10 people for my mom to do weekly laundry for.
Thanks for the memories!

Washday memories, YEP! Fun in the summer when we "accidentally" got all wet. Crowded basement in winter with lines hung end to end. Outside we had to hang the underwear on inside lines so it wouldn't be seen from the road. Guess nobody else wore unmentionables! A couple years ago a friend and I demonstrated old time washers from our county museum at our little towns yearly picnic. The kids thought they were, as they said, "awesome". Their grandmas remembered them as hard work. Times change for sure. :)

Our clothes lines outside were long -for a family of 6 each week. (A heavy wire, I think)
We used a wet cloth for cleaning the lines each week before hanging any clothes on them.
We hung 2 items with one clothes pin if possible & never left the pins outside
on the lines after the laundry was taken in. We had a special clothespin bag that we could
slide along the line ahead of us.

My grandmother had a wringer washing machine. She eventually got a more modern one. I remember stretching my brother's jeans on those wire things to dry. I still have the clothes pins (plus the bag I keep them in) that I brought when my husband and I married back in the 1960's. If you leave the clothes pins on the line (between washing days) the wood will rot.

My Mom did laundry on Mondays. She'd wheel the wringer washer over to the kitchen sink to hook up. Everything got dried outside. I remember her putting my father and brother's pants in metal stretcher contraptions before hanging up. This was long before permanent press. In the winter, she'd string clothesline up in the double kitchen to dry the white percale sheets, but continued to dry the rest outdoors. Some laundry would come in, frozen solid and her hands would be bright red. I remember her sprinkling clothes before ironing. Mom passed away in 2007 and NEVER did she use a clothes dryer, wanted no part of it. We later moved to another house when I was nine, that had a clean, dry, warm basement with a cement floor, so she'd hang laundry down there in the winter.

Am I the odd one out I still hang my washing out on the cloths line, I do not own a dryer, all my friends do.
Some years ago we owned a motel and did all our own laundry and yes we hung it all out side to dry.
We had guests say the could smell the sunshine and fresh air in our sheets and pillow cases

I remember wringers that mum used and starch also "bluo" which made whites white!!!!!!

Gee I always hang my washing on the line. I love to see the sheets, towels and everything else hanging in the fresh air and sunshine. If it is wet I even have lines strung around my large garage. I only ever use the drier in the case of continual wet weather - especially for the undies.

Even after the automatic came into the house the wringer washer was still used.All the whites were done in it and all the things that needed starched. Mom said the wringer was the only way our socks would come clean=5 kids made for a lot of socks. I use to help until I put my arm through the wringers when I was 5. Summer in a sling. But I still hang laundry outside all year as long as its close to 40 degrees and warmer

We washed any time - put it in the machine or copper and proceeded from there.

I remember sprinkling the clothes using an old coke bottle with the old metal sprinkler top. I can still get those tops from the Amish store. Then mom would roll up some things and Put in a plastic bag in the fridge to be iron later. Ah. Memories!

Yup, Ihelped my mother too. Even got my hand caught in the wringer right up to my armpit!!!!!!! I learned. Edie

Sounds very familiar. I think mom washed on Monday, remember the old song Monday wash day is everybody happy....She didn't get a dryer until all 3 girls were out of the house, that's probably when she and dad could finally afford some long desired items. She hung everything on either outside wash lines or in the basement. If we were very good we could sometimes help put things through the ringer, but under intense supervision because she didn't want us to get our hands pinched. I forget which day she ironed, but I remember she would heat my play iron with her iron and I got to iron dad's boxers! She ironed everything including sheets. Needless to say, in some ways I am not like mom!

EllieGirl: OH my goodness that one brings back memories of Mom telling me to keep my hands away from the wringer part of the washer. I still hang clothes out on the line; more the bed linens than anything else. OH wait and the towels what a wonderful smell when you fold them after they are dry and you open them up use for after a shower... DH likes his jeans soft and smelly from the dryer .. LOL Gotta love dryer sheets ..

I'm another throw back. Just as soon as Spring winds start warming the area,my towels go outside,bed clothes too.
I love seeing the wash on clothes lines.The Amish in Ohio hang them out most of the year.

One of my fav memories is coming home when Mom was finishing the ironing & listening to "Stella Dallas or Young Dr Malone" on the radio.She usually made ham & beans on a busy day.....so the smells at home were like no others.Even tho I'm a Grma ,I miss her so much.

Are you my sister? I didn't know I had one.

Early in our marraige we were moving to a new house. My husband, the clown, picked up my ironing board and asked with a straight face, "What's this thing for?'' It was 1972. I still hardly ever iron anything on an ironing board but I iron on a pad on my countertops. I still have my ironing board though most of my ironing is done in the dryer. Oh yeah, I am old enough to have had my arm run through the wringer, although no harm done.

I was 8 when I ran my arm thru the ringer. Still remember the fear. I wasn't strong "enuff" to hit the release lever. Mom came in time. I still use a clothes line in the city. I just love the smell.

Oh my, those were the days....We also had a wringer washer with a tub in the back to rinse the clothes...My mom dryed them outdoors most of the time, even in the winter..She used a pop bottle with water to moisten them and
she put them into a big plastic bag and we ironed them the next day. For years my mom used an iron that she heated on the potbelly coal stove....There were ten of us she had to iron clothes for....Could you imagine that today. LOL.

my friend in England still lays her wash out onto the radiators inside to dry. she recently got a go around clothes line for the back yard though. that should help a lot.
speaking of ironing, my hubby's SIL from Wyoming irons handkerchiefs!! not me!!

I still hang out clothes...not underwear tho. 2 weeks worth takes up too much room and clothespins. In Maine, we hung clothes out winter and summer. One day, I was helping my mom and got the frozen clothes off the line. My father's longjohns were too long to fit in the basket so I folded them and broke off one of his legs. She almost had a heart attack till she found out it was his longjohns....Now, THAT she found hysterical.

Wonderful memories! The ringer washer, putting the "whites" water into the big plugged sink and reusing it for a slightly darker load (even reusing that is it didn't look too bad for the work clothes)! Being warned enough I really took it serously to stay away from the ringer! Wiping down the lines before putting the clothes up each week (Mom did that, I handed her clothes from the basket). Remember my parents arguing about enlosing the porch so Mama wouldn't be so painfully cold each winter wash day (she won and sliders were put in to the upper half around the porch). After the war she got a front loader Bendix and it had to be bolted into the floor; the bolts would come loose and Mama would have me and the hired hand's boy sit up on top to keep it from bouncing too much... what a hoot that was. To this day I have the drying rack Mama used (twice the size of the ones in use today) for when it was raining outside and expected to continue.... plus clothes hung on hangers and put on the frames of the archways between the "public" rooms down stairs. And ironing! Pillowcases on up!!! Mama used to leave the winter clothes in a huge basket, unironed, until winter came again, and the same with the summer clothes... not enough room in our dressers for both! I have a front loader that gentle and throughly washing things w/o twisting, and am waiting for my old dryer to die so I can get a new one.

Iron? That something you do to seams as you quilt to make them flat! I have to admit that when DH and I got married I gave his non-wash and wear shirts to Good Will and bought him new ones (also dumped some of his worst ties!). He was startled, but presumed that was the sort of things new wives did!

Oh boy. You are really bringing back memories. Ditto for me. Mom and the wringer washer. Hung everything outside unless it was raining. No wonder the sheets smelled so good back then. Did your mom also have a stick to push the clothes down inside the washer? Mine did.

I remember Mondays as wash days and my mother had an iron kettle and 3 wash tubs. We would boil them, then bleach them, then rinse them twice, then hang. I got to build the fire when I got older and tote the water from the well, with a bucket on the end of a rope, down the hole and up and over and pour in a can ang tote to the wash pot and tubs. Miresable in the Winter because of the cold and miresable in the Summer when it was hot. I was tasked to rise those clothes good and wring them as dry as I could and don't drag them on the ground when you hang them.

When I baby brother was born when I was 14 daddy bought mama a wringer washer, what a miracle! AND by now we had running water instead of an open well. Life was wonderful and washing could be done in the kitchen in the winter and on the porch in the summer.......no fire to build, no water to tote!

delma

All the memories this thread brings back! Our sprinkling bottle was a 7UP bottle. My mom did the same thing with the ironing in the fridge. And bluing, it came in a bottle with a lady on the label but that's all I remember about it. I know when I helped my aunt hang out laundry we had to put the sheets and towels on the outside lines so they would hide the 'unmentionables' from neighbors and passersby. Then when my children were in diapers I remember hanging out 3 lines full of cloth diapers just to have a passing flock of blackbirds land in the closest tree. They had just raided the berry patch and I had to rewash all but 1 diaper!

This sure brings back memories. Until I was six years old we lived way out in the country on a farm. My Dad owned the county store. We did not have running water so on Monday My DM would start a fire under a big black iron pot and carry water from the well to it. She lined up several wash tubs and filled some with cold water then when the pot was boiling she carried hot water to the first tub with soap she hand made and a scrub board. Three rinse tubs a starch tub and a bluing tub for the whites. Hand rung out and put on the line to dry. That night everything was sprinkled down and rolled up for Ironing day On Tuesday. When we moved into town when I was six DD bought her a ringer type Maytag and she thought she was in heaven. When I think of all the back breaking work she had to go through just to keep us in clean clothes. We really do have a easy time now don't we.

yep i remember it very well i got my hair cought in the wringers mom had to back it out.wash days was on monday & thrusday.good memories but i will take my automatic machine any day.i know where 2 of them and in working order the best i can tell you.

All of you are bringing back wonderful memories. Yes, we had a wringer washer until my baby sister was about 3 years old. I can still see her diapers hanging on the line in the winter!! I still hang my wash outside to dry whenever possible. The neighbors love it!!

I don't have any memories of laundry at all except for throwing dirty clothes down the chute and helping my aunt put pants stretchers in my uncle's pants.
I don't want to hang clothes outside to dry. That seems a waste of time compared to pushing a button. When it comes to housework my view is hire a maid or do it the easiest and fastest way to get it done and over with.

While reading these postings, what pleasant memories are retrieved about washing and ironing. Remember the metal stretchers that were put in blue jeans to put the crease down front and back and reduce ironing? Wish I had some now.