Brent Frazier, Pelican Rapids, Minn., is grateful for the modern washing machine and dryer. "Now," he says, "we don't have to schedule wash day too far in advance, and we are able to wash and dry clothes any time of any day."
That wasn't the case when Brent was growing up on a farm on the west side of Crystal Lake northeast of Pelican Rapids. Back then, wash day always seemed to be on Monday and lasted all day, he says.
"As young children, we were instructed not to touch the wringer washing machine for fear of getting our fingers caught between the rollers," he says. "I don't know if it was fact or fiction, but I listened to my mother, as she told of people who got their fingers between the rollers and the rollers would move all the way up their arm. Ouch! That was enough to put the fear of this machine in my mind, and I definitely did not touch the wringer washing machine when it was in the operating mode.
"Yes, clothes washing seemed to be an all-day affair, with the heating of the water on the wood stove," Brent says. "Later, I remember the electrical heater coil that was placed in the cold water. There again, though, you did not put your fingers in the tub of water if the coil was in there!
"I found it was much easier to just stay out of the room where the clothes were being washed on wash day."
ADVERTISEMENT
An earlier column about old clotheslines brought memories for Brent, too.
"Retrieving the clothes from the clotheslines by removing the clothespins and then smelling the freshness of the clothes is a lingering nice thought - unless the prevailing wind was from the direction of the barn!" he says.
"I will always remember the task in the cold winter months when the clothes would freeze stiff on the clothesline," he adds. "I remember taking the blue jeans from the clothesline and bringing them indoors, where I would stand them on the floor without any support, and they would stand up until they began to thaw out. OK, I wasn't supposed to do that!"
Yes, Brent concludes, "Wash day of yesteryear brings back many memories. But it is so much simpler today."
Neighbors suspects all those who lived through those old days would agree with him.
