I had one years ago when my kids were small. I loved it. I wish they would start making them like that again.

Great Stories. That was a very expensive ironing board for the '60s. Can't even imagine what they would charge for one built like that now.

$5 bucks! You scored big!!!

My mother had a Mary Proctor. After she passed in 2002, and we cleared out the house, we left it in the basement (laundry space) because it was a bit rusty and "old". DUH! I wish I had that monster now! I could have repainted it and recovered it and it, too, had a cord-minder. A sturdy one!

I have a cord-minder on my 'newer' board but don't trust it to keep it plugged in esp. since a friend of mine had a fire in her house (not from the cord-minder) but from an iron that was turned 'OFF', but wasn't. Darn those electrical things!

Needless to say, I unplug every time I leave the room.

My Old Blue, Tried and True
 

I bought a blue Mary Proctor Hi-Lo about 12 yrs ago in a TX resale shop for $4 (beat that $5 steal!). No cord minder on mine but it had a VERY nice pad and a stained cover that I replaced with a home-made canvas one. I recognized it as a spectacularly sturdy ironing board, one of those lifetime durable goods that you only buy once. At the time I actually used it in lieu of a a keyboard stand.

I now work in the wardrobe dept for a production house in NW AR that hosts touring Broadway shows. This often involves ironing endless linear feet of air-dried shirts, pants, skirts (or whatever else is in the show) for 5 or 6 hours at a stretch, and on 2-show days that repeats. I got fed up with the flimsy in-house boards and hauled my trusty Old Blue to the job and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I was the envy of the entire wardrobe dept. including the traveling tour company. I had to guard Old Blue or someone would have kidnapped her! To really iron properly you have to get aggressive with wrinkles and be able to brace against the board to stretch fabric while ironing it. Can't do that on modern boards. And yes, you couldn't buy one of these new today for love or money. They don't even manufacture this quality of steel any more--at least, not for goods that regular consumers ever see.

I'll include a photo of Old Blue beside the sturdiest board my place of work owns. There is no comparison.