[bksvol-discuss] Re: OT: Descriptions and the old days

  • From: "Gerald Hovas" <geraldhovas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2005 08:56:43 -0600

Cindy,

You didn't sound like you were complaining.  I just thought I'd take the
opportunity to tease you a bit.

I remember my grandmother had a ringer washer, but I don't remember much
about it.  It was just one of those oddities stuck back in a corner of the
back porch.  I'm not even sure why she still had it.

No, Karen would not like having to use a washboard or ringer washer.
Neither would I for that matter.

Things sure are different now.  I had a interview with GE's appliance
division year before last to write softmware for their washers, dryers, and
refrigerators.

Gerald

-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Cindy
Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2005 8:39 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] OT: Descriptions and the old days


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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