Wringers, mangles and laundry day

When I was little my grandma Dorothy had a wringer washer. I loved to help her on laundry day. First we sorted the laundry: whites, lightly soiled colors, soiled colors (Grandpa's work shirts), then darks. After the laundry was organized in neat piles we ran the washer full of hot water using a hose hooked to the water heater. Add the soap. Add the laundry. Turn it on. Have a snack.

After the laundry was good and agitated came my favorite part - running the clothes through the wringer!
"Be careful you don't get your finger caught," Grandma would say. "Your Aunt Ruth got her fingers caught once and ran her arm into the ringer clear up to elbow. You don't want that to happen."

Grandma Dorothy taught me to fold the flat things like towels and sheets so they would run through the narrow wringer without jamming.

"Watch out for your fingers." Oops it almost got me.

Then she taught me how to release the wringer so I could get the towels that jammed out of the wringer and try again.

She taught me to fold the blue jeans so that the zipper was protected.

"Watch your fingers." Oops I felt the pull of the ringer on my finger tips.

She taught me to fold anything with buttons so that the buttons lay flat and were protected from being crushed from the wringer.

"Keep your fingers back." Near miss. It almost got me!

Laundry day was exciting!! All those close calls!

Then one day Grandma went to an auction and came home with a "mangle".  I was fascinated. It was a metal cabinet. Inside was a cloth covered roller. You plugged it in and it heated up. She said you could iron sheets. Who knew you could irons sheets. My mom folds the flat sheet and stuffs it along with the fitted sheet into the pillow case that matches so the set stays together. 

It worked a lot like the wringer on the washer. Feed the material into the roller and it came out pressed.

"Keep your fingers out of the way or you'll get burned." Wow such danger and adventure in the laundry room!

Grandma told me if you were really good you could iron shirts and pants and skirts and dresses. And my grandma was THAT good.  I never got that good, but she did let me iron the flat sheets and her table cloths..

June Birthdays

June is a big birthday month in our family. My great Aunt Ruth on the first, my sister on the 7th, me on the 8th and my little brother, Chris, on the 9th. Sooo many birthday's so much cake. At some point that I just can't remember we started having one family birthday party in June. As a kid I all those birthdays got pretty muddled together.  

As an adult, I've made it a point to call the birthday boy/girl and sing them happy birthday on their special day. Ok  it's off key usually and once I had to resort to texting, but the sentiment is there.

So on the 7th, I got ready to call my sister, Laura. I asked mom if she wanted to help sing to her baby. She looked a bit puzzled. "Which one?"  Even Mom has trouble remembering which one of us comes first.

On the 8th, my husband, whispered "Happy Birthday" when we woke up. He's at least go my birthday down.

So on the 9th I dialed Chris's cell and sang my song. "Thanks," he said laughing, "I know it's my birthday, but which one is yours?"

That evening we got together at our house for one of our classic family pitchin dinners. Over dinner Chris confessed that he wasn't even sure which day was his birthday until he was almost 10 years old.

So I told him how I keep it straight: Aunt Ruth was the oldest so she came First (6/1), Laura came before Chris so hers is the 7th. I know I was born on the 8th. Chris came latest so he is last on the 9th. Dad's birthday is easy for me now... it's also my anniversary on the 17th.

Now I only have to consult my "Birthday Book" for my nieces, nephews, mother, cousins... Oh well I have June birthdays down. :^)

Cowboy or Farmer?

Anders loved this plastic ride around pony and he wore this pair of overalls until they literally fell apart.

WV

Wadestown, WV : A bend in the road, a garage with a tiny store, a post office and a church. Turn the bend and head up the hill and you'll find a gate and a driveway on the right. Open the gate and head down the hill and you'll come to a rill and a foot bridge. Cross the bridge and come around the house and this is the sight you'll see in the fall when deer are in season.

This is where my kids and I lived from 1988 until 1992. Wild and wonderful West Virginia. We lived in a tiny house without TV or internet. If you had to go to the bathroom and it was chilly out you had better plan ahead. The outhouse had a heater with a switch in the house, but you needed to turn it on about 10 minutes before you made the chilly trip out there or you would literally freeze your buns off.

In the winter if you wanted a hot bath  it involved a big galvanized tub pulled up close to the wood stove and heating water on the propane stove. You could have a hot shower in the summer, but you'd be showering out in the yard using the warm water from the garden hose. For a cold shower you could use the indoor shower, but that water was COLD. It came out of a spring on the mountain and flowed downhill to the house in a pipe.

I wanna be a carpenter

This is Anders. That is  Grandpa Dave's hat on this head and I suspect that is his hammer too.

Grandma Dorothy's guessing wall

When I was little my Grandma Dorothy went to a lot of auctions. Her house was full of beautiful antique dressers, chairs, davenports and interesting old books. Some of her more interesting finds ended up on what I thought of as the "Guessing wall". Some things on the wall I knew what they were for and some things remained a mystery for years.

A few of the oddities on the wall in this picture include: a calf weaning appliance that looks like something from a castle dungeon, a hand auger, a mold for making a "pudding", a kraut cutter, and a butter mold.

Now & then

My Great grandparents' house now . . .and a long time ago...

I love this old farmhouse. It sits at the front of our farm close to the road. There was a lilac bush in the front full of lavendar blooms in the spring and an apple tree in this side yard. We used to pick the little hard green apples and my Great Grandpa would whittle a short stick sharp on both ends so we could spear apples on it to make "dumb bells" so we could play "strong man". Ok so I'm a girl... at that age it didn't really matter.

There used to be a big carpet in the living room that had roses on it. I remember sweeping it as a child and up until a few years ago I still had that carpet. Walking through the house now it seems small. But it was big enough to hold a whole lot of love. Years ago my great grandparents, my great aunt and uncle, my mom and her brother were all living there in the summer. Mom says she never felt like it was ever crowded. Years later my parents lived there and I moved in with them while I went to nursing school.

This is the house where my great-grandmother taught me to bake sweet rolls and big soft loaves of bread. The house where we would all sit down to dinner and when my great grandpa was full he would look up suddenly and say "Look at that bird!" When you looked he would slide his leftovers onto your plate. He was always full of mischief like that.

There used to be a workshop on the back of the house with a ceiling so low that I still wonder how Grandpa Webb, who was tall, could ever have done anything standing up in there. The workshop is gone now, replaced a patio and a 3-season room.

My daughter and her husband live there now. She's planted tulips beside the sidewalk and painted the rooms in cheery colors. That old house is still full of love.