WASH, DRY, FOLD, IRON....REPEAT

Back in my childhood, there weren't electric washers and dryers like we have today.  Getting the clothes washed and dried was a bit of a process.  You didn't just load them in a machine, add soap and water and push the start button to wash them.  To get them dry, you didn't transfer them to another machine, add a dryer sheet, select the drying cycle and then push the start button.

The first washing machine that I remember was a wringer washer similar to the one pictured below.  The clothes were agitated in the tub and then cranked through the wringer to get out as much water as possible.  The wet clothes were put in a laundry basket and hung on a line to dry. That laundry basket was very heavy, too.

 

In the basement of the red brick house, my father strung several lengths of clothes line in storage/furnace room. We also had a square clothes line outside. When my mother was doing the wash using the wringer washer, she'd put the clothes in a laundry basket and then hang them up on the clothes line, either inside or out.  Outside was always preferable since the clothes dried quicker in the sunlight.  In the dark, musty basement, it took the clothes longer.

I often had to help hang up the wet clothes. Like just about every other job at home, there was a proper way to hang the clothes. Clothes, towels, sheets, pillowcases were all secured with  clothes pins.  I had to be sure that the towels, sheets and other like items were hung out their full length and not folded over the line.

I also had the job to take dry clothes off the line. It wasn't acceptable to just pull the clothes down and put them in the laundry basket.  Everything had to be folded before going in the basket.  Since most everything was made out of cotton, folding things as they came off the line helped to avoid some wrinkles.  As it was, just about everything had to be ironed.

I learned to iron by doing the pillowcases and my father's hankies.  My mother's instruction about ironing was very specific.  I first had to dampen the pillowcase or hanky with water from a bottle that had a top similar to a sprinkling can.  Then with the hot iron, I had to keep ironing until all the wrinkles were gone.  Once over lightly didn't do the job.  After ironing on one side, I had to turn the item over and do the other side.  After the ironing, the pillowcase or hanky had to be folded. My mother also taught me the proper way to iron a shirt...collar first (both sides), then the back yolk, sleeves and cuffs (both sides)next, a front side, the back and then the remaining front.

There were occasions when there wasn't time to get all the ironing done.  So my mother or, one of us girls, would dampen all the clothes, put them in a bag and then put the bag in the upright freezer in the basement.  When she had time, she'd take the clothes out of the freezer, let them thaw when they would have the perfect dampness for ironing.  The freezer trick was used to avoid the clothes getting mildew.   Plus by having the clean clothes stashed away in the freezer, they weren't sitting around in laundry baskets looking messy. 

In addition to the routine wash/dry cycle for the majority of the family clothes, my mother had to starch my father's white dress shirts.  He wore a suit and dress shirt to work every day, plus on Sunday.  I don't exactly remember the process for starching my Dad's shirt.  I do know that Mother was really glad when canned spray starch hit the market.

At some point before we moved from the red brick house, my mother got a more modern washing machine and a dryer.  Those two inventions changed our life. With eight people in the family, there was a lot of time spent doing the washing. But with the new washer and dryer there was no more dashing to bring the wash in if a sudden rain storm hit or having damp clothes hanging up in the basement. 

But I still love the smell of laundry fresh off the outside clothes line.