Monday Wash Day

In days past Monday was wash day.  I used to have the dish towels that proved it...I could count on taking Tuesday off because that is ironing day and Wednesday too as that is sewing day.

Yes I wash on Mondays, but then I wash on others days too cause I don’t have to heat water and lug it to the washer or use that wringer.

This is a wringer stand that has a wash tub on both sides.  This wringer was adjusted by the knobs at the top and you provided the power by turning that handle.

A wringer was why ironing day followed wash days…they made terrible wrinkles in clothing.

My Mothers wringer washer was like this one minus the sign.  Electric it was.   With lots of warnings that you didn’t want to get any body parts going through the wringer.  We had an old soaking stick that we would use to fish the clothing up out of the washer with…it was all slimy and soft on the pokey end.  We poked clothes up near the wringer and watched them get rung.

When I was about 7 years old maybe 8 I have a very vivid memory.

It was a sunny day and we were on a fairgrounds someplace in Southern Minnesota or Iowa, we were seated in the grandstand.  We were watching some kind of show…there were clowns…running around acting clown like.  At one point they wheeled out a wringer washer and one of the littlest clowns got stuck in the wringer and came out on the other side flat as a pancake.  The crowd roared.  Of course the child in me was traumatized by such an event and after that I was really really really careful around the wringer.  I realized later as an adult that no one would fit in a wringer, it was some slight of washer trick.  Perhaps it was revealed at the time..but I had my eyes closed tight.

Now..does anyone else remember this slight of washer trick?

Shortly before my other baby brother was born in 1960 my Mother got a fancy smancy washer with a spin dry compartment.  I was so relieved not to have to worry about that wringer anymore.

Wistful Wednesday: Late 1950's

This is a photo of Far Guys family.  His Mom and his sister on the left and his Grandparents A ( Curt and Meady) on the right.  That would be Far Guy with the attitude.   I can almost smell the fried chicken, and the gravy in the soup bowl in front of Far Guys Mom.  This table with the pull out sections was in the basement for years..I wish we had it, with its chrome legs and all.  Far Guys Mom made the best fried chicken, she would dredge it through a flour mixture and brown it up on all sides and then put it in the oven. Whatever was left in the frying pan was used to make the gravy..oh it tasted so good!  I am not particularly fond of chicken, and I rarely make it with its skin on, but I suppose I could..just so I could make some chicken gravy!

This past weekend, we talked and wondered with cousins..when did Grandma A (Meady) get out of the sanitarium, she had Tuberculosis and was institutionalized, she lost her hearing during the treatments of her  TB.  We asked Uncle Willard and he could not remember when she went in or when she got out.   I will ask him another day, and he may remember. He is 93 years old, and like he says his memory doesn't work like it used to.  She is obviously out of the sanitarium when this photo was taken..I wish that calendar was not cut off in the photo.  It must be 1958, or 1959.  Maybe Far Guy's sister remembers?

So what kind of punishment do you think Far Guy got?  He was pretty spoiled, especially by his Mother.  I am guessing he had to sit in the corner or write on a piece of paper 100 times. "I will not stick out my tongue at the dinner table." :)