#FlashbackFriday Rural Life Wash Day
Good-morning, kittens & dawgs! I often think about how easy life is for me. One area in particular ~ laundry day. When isn’t it a laundry day? Our parents and grandparents didn’t have the luxury of tossing an arm full of clothes into a fully automated machine and walk away.
I remember the way my grandma washed clothes when I was a little girl in the early 60s. Let’s take a walk down memory lane in today’s edition of Flashback Friday.
My parents lived very close to my grandparents for the first five or six years of my life. I don’t remember my mom washing clothes at our house even though I recall the laundry hanging on the line to dry. However, I do have recollections of helping (more like watching) grandma and mom doing the wash with a machine sorta like this….
Fascinated by it, I hugged against the gadget to watch the machine swish and swash. Grandma repeatedly screeched, “Cathy Lynn, keep your hands away from the wringer!” Now, when does a child ever listen? Needless to say, my tiny fingers were not fast enough to escape the energy snagging demon from gobbling up my arm. While the panic built inside my chest, Grandma and Mommy worked desperately to free me from the monster and I can only imagine what was going through my head!
Geez, the squeeze of the rollers put some uncomfortable pressure on my small arm, but luckily nothing ever broke! Scared to death after that experience I heeded grandma’s warnings with extra caution and still there were times I came dangerously close to another repeat encounter of the unpleasant kind.
Did your folks or grandparents have one of these? Were you afraid of the wringer?
Today, I celebrate the small things in my life.
- I celebrate renewed energies and brain fog lifting thanks to Sottopelle (HRT) inserts.
- I celebrate tossing/giving away more unneeded clutter.
- I celebrate not having to buy a new printer after fixing the ink cartridge problem with our printer that HP said was a hardware failure.
- I celebrate that we’re getting a new garage door.
- I celebrate the gorgeous spring weather!
What are you celebrating?
Let’s celebrate making new friends together and we can begin by joining Friendship Friday and Follow Who? Social-Weekend blog hops. Thanks for visiting. Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow for a little boogie session with Saturday Songsuasion!
For more day specific blog hops, click here.
5 Comments
dcrelief
Hi Cathy. Sorry to be so late. My Mom had a washer like this. Baby brother got his arm stuck. It was a scream – really. But it had a safety switch by then. The rollers popped open and released him in a few seconds.
I am so grateful or lovely warm weather. Glad you’re finally getting some. happy to hear about meds that help. Life is tough enough, huh?
See you for Saturdaysuassion!!
lexacain
I think my MIL still has on e of those machines. Congrats on meds that work, giving away clutter (I did that too this week!), fixing your printer, getting a new garage door, and nice weather! Have a lovely weekend! 🙂
XmasDolly
Oh yes, my mom had one when I was growing up and curiosity got the better of me one day and I got my fingers in the ringer, and then so was my butt after I got out. hahahaha Thanks for bringing back the memories and have a fantastic weekend my friend. HUGS
Noah Weiss
I never experienced ye-olde laundry machines, since I was born in 1987. However, it sounds like it was a fascinating but scary experience as a young kid.
I liked your description of Grandma “screeching.”
Cathy Kennedy
Oh, you’re a youngster! lol You’re a year older than my oldest daughter. Are you single? lol Bless my grandma’s heart, but she could get quite shrill. Unfortunately, I have a high pitched voice and it can be ear piercing when I get excited, too. My late MIL has an old washer similar to the one in the picture that sits in my in-laws’ basement to this day. They have an electric washer, but never parted ways with the old one. Of course, they rarely threw anything away. It really had to be of no value before they got rid of a single thing. lol