From about as long as I can remember, my mother took the washing to town to the laundromat. I think her old tub washer gave up when they were planning to pull down the old house to build another. And the small town of Dexter had a new laundromat. The washer and rinse tub ended up in a nook in the barn.
Well, the old house didn’t come down until I was a junior in high school. Three years later, Mom, Dad, and Gloria (I guess she was even in college by then) moved into the small mouse-free house. There was room for a washer and dryer in the back room, but they couldn’t afford them then. So Mom drove from the farm on Old Creamery Road four miles to Dexter or eight miles to Earlham to do their washing.
One time she got to the Earlham laundromat with a dead chicken on her bumper. Someone remarked about it. There was a farm family along the gravel road who let their chickens run all over, even the road. I wonder if they kept count of them.
There were no washers in the dorms at the State College of Iowa, so we hauled our laundry down to “the hill” with dimes and Tide. After we were married and Guy was got orders for Idaho, we used the laundry room at the trailer court. Then there were the laundry areas of the Colorado apartments. (I worked days and Guy worked shift work so he took over the washing during that time.)
What bliss, when we bought our first home, to have a washer and dryer so handy! When Dan was born, the office folks figured I’d order diaper service. Oh, but I launder them at home! And hang them outside, or tumble them in my own dryer! Having a washer and dryer is one of the best things about living in a house.
Mom and Dad finally got a washer and dryer at home when Dan was a baby. She was 57 years old.
One day when we were at the farm, Guy found the rinse tub in the barn. Mom was glad to get rid of it. It’s been on the porch as a fern stand for years, but I’d forgotten its original use until I noticed the drain hose on the back side. A drain hose. The old ringer washer would also have a drain hose, for the water someone had to run into the tub through a hose attached to a faucet in the first place.
Then after the washing machine had run long enough, the items were fed through the rollers of the ringers and into the rinse tub. Then squeezed through the rollers again and into a basket to carry out to the clothesline! No wonder Mom was glad to get rid of them.
Would you ever decorate your porch, or anywhere else, with an old rinse tub or something similar?
Well, now you’ve got me wondering where Mother’s ol’ washtubs got off to. That’s what we called them; washtubs. Our tiny back porch held a washer and two tubs for rinsing. I would definitely use one on the porch if I could find it. That’s a gorgeous fern, by the way!
I called this the washtub until working on this when I realized this was for the rinse water. I know Grandma used two rinse tubs, but did Mom as well? I think there was only one in the barn. Our porch isn’t as story-creating as yours, but hey, it’s a porch! That fern, yes!
I think the closest we have is the antique milk can in the landscaping. (It came with the house, although I’d always wanted one.)
Oh, I wonder what happened to our milk can! Landscaping would be perfect for one.
The old rinse tub, as well as the mention of the ringer washers and clotheslines bring back memories of my childhood. My grandmother had a old rinse tub under a grapevine near her garden. A rain gutter drained into it, and she had an old saucepan hanging near the tub, and that’s what she used to fill her watering can and water the garden.
Smart lady! It was naturally softened water as well.