[bksvol-discuss] OT: Descriptions and the old days
- From: Cindy <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 18:38:43 -0800 (PST)
Oh, dear. I didn't mean to sound as if I were
complaining. I was reminiscing about life before all
these technological changes. I am in awe every time I
send a fax. It amazes me that that something on a
piece of paper can go through the air and end up
somewhere else on another piece of paper. Somehow I
find that stranger than that a voice can travel across
wires or, now with cell phones, air, and reach another
person's ears.
Just think, Gerald, if your wife had to do laundry
with a washboard and sink (for those of you to young
to have ever seen or felt a washboard, it was/is a
rippled piece of metal, as I recall, bounded by wood,
probably two feet by four or larger? I'm not very good
at measurements. I googled and found pictures of them
of various sizes; apparently there are washboard bands
nowadays).
Or a ringer washer? When I lived in a rented house in
Minnesota in my single days all we had was a wringer
washer. I didn't get my breasts caught between between
the wringers, as in a Stephen King short story
(something was caught --maybe breasts are an urban
legend) but I did carelessly get my hand caught.
Fortunately I wasn't hurt.
For those of you who have never experienced a wringer
washer, it's a washtub on the top of which, attached
by metal standards, are two rollers, made of wood or
perhaps something softer (I've been looking at
pictures online to refresh my memory -- Ours were
wood, I think). One fed the clothes through the
wringers to squeeze out the water before hanging
clothes on the clothes line. Originally the wringers
were operated by turning a handle by hand; then they
advanced to being operated by electricity, pushing a
button. I seem to remember ours was the former, but it
was a long time ago.
I suspect the phrase, "I've feel as if I've been put
through the wringer" originated from that.
Cindy
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