Recently someone asked me about the old style wringer washing machines and wanted to know if people were still allowed to set up clotheslines. He hadn't seen one in years.
This got me thinking about all the memories mom had from years ago, things that were important to her, but rarely mentioned. I realized that in our busy life, we forget that our elders can be isolated in this future time, in a world that has too much to do to remember the past. Or what is important to them.
Remembering that, I made the time to talk to her about the past, starting with our old wringer washing machine. It thrilled her for me to ask...and listen. It was a wonderful experience for both of us.
Mother's wringer washer stood in the kitchen, near the sink where the hoses could easily reach the faucet and drain. She was allergic to most soaps and had to wear rubber gloves to do the washing. The day our first "automatic" washing machine was delivered, she was finishing up her very last load with that old monster of a wringer machine. Her glove caught in the wringer and dragged her finger in between the rollers. I remember the screaming, the pain and the blood. Dad rushed her to the hospital and I was left alone at home, 14, crying and angry. I kicked a big dent in the side of the machine. The doctor's did their best with the knowledge they had back then, but to this day (she's 87), that finger does not bend. She has knitted and crocheted all her life and eventually found her way of doing it with a finger that doesn't bend.
When it came to clotheslines, we had a few memories to share. Growing up in New Hampshire, with the wild winters and heavy snows, my father had to dig a path out to our clothesline, and the big rectangle under it. The sheets would whip in the wind, the dampness freezing them solid in minutes. Sometimes, they would be so stiff they would snap in two in the wind, ripped in half and ruined.
We hung blue jeans by their waist bands, two clothes pins for the back on one line and then the two sides of the front on another line. They would eventually freeze solid like the sheets. Then you brought them in the house and stood them up in the kitchen, upside down. When they eventually fell to the floor in mom's warm kitchen, we knew they were thawed enough to put away.
During the summers when I was growing up, my friends and I would gather the winter quilts and blankets and hang them on the lines to make a cozy tent. We'd lay back and read, play checkers by the hour, and hope the three brothers that lived on the other side of our place didn't come sneaking up on us.
I was away at college when mom and dad finally got a real dryer. The cellar wasn't very deep and dad had to dig down a foot in the sand floor to put down a wooden pallet for it to sit on. When he was digging, he found an old china pitcher, made in England where my great-grandparents came from, buried in the sand. We think it was used to bring water to the workers when the house was built in 1904 by my grandfather, and somehow, was accidently buried. All those years and it survived in perfect condition, pure white and not even chipped. We sold that house long ago, the family has grown and moved on, but the pitcher is now with my daughter, in a place of honor, and one day it will be passed on to one of mom's three great-grandchildren so the tradition will continue.
,I thank my friend for bringing up the subject of these old items. It brought up a lot of memories for me, good and bad. But it was a most pleasant journey to the past with my mother. One of many to come, I hope.
My advice is to give a gift of memories to your parents and other loved ones. Talk to them about the past, where they lived, how they got to school, old friends, even the meals their mothers made during the Depression or during WWII. If they remember recipes, try to make them. Food is one of those comforting things that brings back pleasant memories. Try to bring them those memories and let them know that their lives, past and present, are important. You might even find that you learn something in the process as well. <smile>
P.S. If you want to help stimulate conversations, look for the books: Dining During the Depression (The simple-yet-satisfying foods that saw families through those tough years) or Good Housekeeping's Great Home Cooking (300 Traditional Recipes). Both come with recipes and stories related to the recipes and the times, snippets of life in the past that our elders remember.
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