TheBanyanTree: Gratitude - and thinking back

[Sally Larwood]

What a wonderful picture you have given us of life as many of us knew it as kids Russ. I can even remember my mum washing in the copper with the gas underneath it and hand washing our smalls in the big old concrete tubs in our laundry. 
We didn't have a big machine with the wringer on top. Our first washing machine was a little Hoover with a very small wringer on top. 
I'm still cringing, picturing you with your arm half pulled into the wringer!  Ouch!

Sal 

Sent from my iPad 

> On 18 Mar 2014, at 0:57, Russ Doden <russ.doden at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Today I feel mellow.  Not ambitious, not "gung ho" to do anything, just . .
> . mellow and introspective.  I have managed to get breakfast in me, and a
> load of clothes in the washer.  As I sit here, sipping on the last of my
> morning coffee, my mind started to wander down strange alley's.  (It had
> better be careful doing that or it is going to get mugged one of these
> days.) Anyhow, I started thinking along the lines of gratitude.  Yeah, that
> is something that is coming up in my conversations and thoughts a lot
> lately it seems.  So here I am, sitting in a comfy chair, sipping on
> excellent coffee, working on a very small computer that allows me to
> communicate with people all over the world, and my clothes are being washed
> for me!
> 
> Pretty soon they will be in another machine getting dry!
> 
> That may not seem like a big deal, but it got me to thinking.  (Yeah,
> always dangerous.) When I was a kid, when laundry day came, we took the
> clothes down to the basement and started the laundry.  Oh, we had a washing
> machine (this memory was from was circa late 1950's) but it wasn't totally
> "put the clothes in the machine, close the lid, flip a button or two and
> forget it".  In the first place it didn't have a lid.  I can't remember the
> details, but I do remember you had to watch the beast to make sure the
> water shut off at the appropriate times, and refilled properly - and make
> sure the belt didn't jump the pulley at the bottom.
> 
> When the washing was done, it stopped, you took the wet clothes out, put
> them in another tub so you could wash another batch of clothes.  Yes, you
> used the same water you used for the batch you just took out.  You washed
> the least dirty clothes first, then went to progresively dirtier loads.
> When finished you put the drain hose in the drain and let the dirty water
> drain out.  Then you refilled the washing machine with fresh water and
> repeated the process, and that was the rinse cycle.  It didn't go through a
> "spin cycle" to get the water out.  It stopped washing (or in the rise
> phase washing the soap out) and stopped.  In either case you put the drain
> hose down to the drain, and gravity drained the tank. Then you started the
> wringer.  Yeah, it was a wringer washer.  That means you carefully put
> clothes into the wringer one item at a time and guided them into the
> rollers of the wringer, being careful to keep fingers out of said wringer.
> (I wasn't careful one time and my arm went into the wringer up to my elbow
> before we got it shut off.  We had a heck of a time getting the wringer
> assembly released to get my arm out, and I was rushed to the doctor.  Since
> we hadn't "reversed" the wringer all was well.  We were told that had my
> mom reversed the wringer to get me out, it would have done all kinds of
> damage.)
> 
> Anyhow, after each batch of clothes were run through the wringer we would
> take them out and hang them on the clothes line to dry.  If it was raining,
> we did have back up clothes lines in the basement, but that was only for
> rainy days because often other jobs were going on in the basement as well -
> among which was putting coal in the furnace, removing coal "clinkers" or
> ashes, and other things like that - not good for wet clothes in the process
> of drying!  If it was cold, (this was up in Iowa and winters are cold) we
> still hung the clothes out.  They would freeze stiff, then somehow
> magically dry from there.  That always mystified me as a kid.
> 
> Yeah, the clothes came in smelling wonderfully fresh, but it was a lot of
> work to tend the washing machine, run the clothes through the wringer, hang
> them out and then later on take them down before taking them in to fold
> and/or iron.  I still have the old basket that the clothes pins were in -
> and yes those clothes pins are still in the basket - some 40+ years after
> they were last really used.  Imagine what luxury my mom felt when she got a
> washing machine that washed, rinsed, and drained and even did a "spin
> cycle" to get the water mostly all out AND then just put the clothes in
> another machine to get them dry!  No, they didn't come out smelling nice
> and "outdoor fresh", but it didn't make any difference if it was raining or
> not, and by then we didn't even have to shovel coal in the furnace either!
> 
> This has me thinking about so many little luxuries that have become
> "normal" to me - so today I feel grateful.  I can't help but be amazed as I
> look back over my life and see how so many things have become "push button"
> or automatic, or even not necessary, and wonder what is yet to come.  I
> look at my recently acquired "smart phone" and am amazed at what it
> represents.  The really astounding thing is that something like that is now
> considered "normal" and a device that many feel necessary!  In my mind, in
> some long forgotten time, to make a phone call, you picked up a device on
> the wall, told the operator the number - or even just the name of the
> person you wanted to call, and the call was placed.  When you got a call,
> your phone would have a distinct pattern of rings - because it was a party
> line and several homes would be on the same circuit.  Computers were just
> in the very beginning phase; camera's used film and were sometimes
> contrary; you used checks or cash as credit cards weren't heard of yet;
> music was played on the radio and TV was black and white - if you had TV at
> all; letters were sent by the postal service; and the alarm clock was wound
> up and setting on the night stand.
> 
> Like I have said several times, today I feel grateful - and more than just
> a little in awe.
> 
> Russ
> 
> -- 
> Enjoy Life By Living In Joy
> 
> Well Being Consultant
> www.rldwbc.com