Thursday, 27 January 2011

Thankful Thursday

Many of you who read this post will never have used one of these: a solid wringer or mangle as they were called.  My grandmother had one like this in the washing cellar under the house.  The one in our house was smaller and I seem to recall that it was green and had narrower rubber rollers.  This example was in the Waipawa Settlers Museum. 

It reminded me how thankful I am for a modern washing machine and, particularly on Lewis, a tumbledrier.
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3 comments:

  1. ADRIAN27 January 2011 at 03:00

    Love this.........I don't remember such things. We had a posh one that swivelled from the top of the washer. I seem to be going back to those days.

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  2. DawnTreader27 January 2011 at 05:48

    I saw similar ones demonstrated last spring when our Textile Museum arranged a public laundry day outside by the river in the town centre. For about five or six years in my early 20s I lived in a flat without access to a washing machine. Had to either wash by hand or drag my laundry across town (had no car either). The experience has made me appreciative of washing machines and driers ever since! Never had my own though. But where I live now I can just take the lift down to a well-equipped laundry room in the basement. (Modern electric kind of mangle included, so don't have to iron sheets and such...)

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  3. Mickle in NZ30 January 2011 at 04:40

    My dear Mum's Mother (Nana to me) still had the copper to boil up towels and hankies over in one corner. Nana's wash-house also had an electric agitator washing machine with an electic wringer. She would pass the washing from the machine through the wringer and into the first laundry tub, rinse the washing there, then pass it all through the wringer again and into the clothes basket to hang out on the clothes line.

    The laundry tubs and and the clothes line were all made of wood by Grandpa Jim (Mum's father) - a fully qualified and very skilled carpenter and joiner. When not in use the wooden laundry tubs had to have at least an inch of water in them to preserve their "water-tightness".

    Thoughts of that electric wringer still scare me!

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