The Washing Machine

Because of my wife's health, I've been doing our laundry for the past several months.  I appreciate our washing machine.  I'm old enough to remember my mother and grandmothers doing laundry with their wringer washing machines.  Those old washing machines had a wash tub that sloshed the clothes around.  I remember them being very loud.  After washing, the clothes would go through the wringers which pressed a lot of the water out of the material.  You had to be careful not to get your hand caught in the wringers.  After going through the wringers, the clothes were placed in a basket and then they were carried out to the clothes line to dry in the sunshine and wind.  It was obviously important not to do laundry when it was going to rain.  My job as a child was to hand mother the clothes pins which held the clothes on the line.  My memory of Mom's machine was that it was green and the motor leaked a little oil on the kitchen floor.  Mom would have me clean the oil off the floor after all the laundry was done.  Hanging over our modern washing machine is a rub board that my grandmother used.  That was her laundry 'machine' before grandpa bought her a wringer washing machine.  As I do laundry today, I'm grateful for our washing machine and dryer.  Indeed, they are labor saving devices.