Back in the 1970’s, when my kids were little, we lived in a tiny little cabin that was on some property that my folks owned, The property was in the country, and on 80 acres, so the land was beautiful, but the cabin left a lot to be desired. No one had even lived there for at least 20 years, and there was an old well that had caved in, and no accessible water source. There was electricity, but the wiring in the cabin was negligible, and there was only an old wood cook stove for heating and cooking. We heated water on the top of the stove and had a big washtub for bathing, and in the summer, we just went to the river and went swimming. For laundry, I had an ancient wringer washer that we bought at the local weekly auction sale. We hauled water home from town in the pickup truck, and then let it sit in the sunshine to warm up the water a little bit for clothes washing. Because all of the water we had was hauled in the truck, I washed my clothes out where we had a little garden area, and that way the laundry water also watered the garden. The clothesline was right there, too; so it was all easy to get to everything. The washtub had some kind of an electrical short, so you had to be careful that your hands were not wet when you flipped the on-off switch, or you got shocked. Doing laundry was pretty much an all-day affair, because we had to haul the water, let it warm up, then wash the clothes and hang them up to dry. It was late afternoon by the time the clothes were dry, carried back into the house and folded. Winter time was always better because we could not use the outdoor washing machine, so we went to the laundry mat once a week and washed and dried all of our clothes. Michael and Robin would crawl around behind the wash machines and find quarters that people had dropped , so the kids looked forward to the weekly laundry trip , too. This is not our old machine, but a similar one.
My first washing machine was a Maytag wringer washer. Prior to that, our Turkish maid ($2 and 2 eggs a day, twice a week) was washing them in the bathtub. She thought she had died and gone to heaven when we got that old washer.
We had one almost like that when I was a kid. My mother told me over and over, if you ever get your hand stuck in the wringer, hit the Red Bar. So I did one time, when I was about 5 or 6 years old. I hit it so hard my dad had a hard time putting it all back together.
Before there was 100% Rural Electrification in the US, Maytag marketed a washing machine that was powered by a 1/2 HP gasoline engine. When all the communities finally had electric power, the retired Maytags were cannibalized by boys, and their gas engines were used to power home-made Go-Carts! Hal
We had the ole Matag wringer ..and two tubs for rinsing. Then hang out on the line to dry. And my black kitty Blackie Powder Puff ...would watch us wash, usually on Saturdays.
I remember my grandma having the 2-tub model. She was always yelling at my cousin and me to "stay away from those rollers!!!" (Of course we never even considered the rollers until she mentioned them.)
My son, Michael, actually stuck his fingers in the rollers one day. We weren’t even using the washer, but the kids were playing out in the yard, and for some (boyish) reason, he decided to turn on the wash machine and somehow got his finger in the roller. We were never sure if he did it on purpose to see what would happen if he did, or it was an accident; but i have always suspected that he did it on purpose and thought he could just pull his finger back out again. In any case, we heard the loudest screeching in the world, and all went running out to see what Michael had done this time, and rescue him. It took his poor finger a few days to heal up, but there was no damage done, and he has never stuck his finger in a washer roller since.
My Mother's wringer washer was traded in for an "Easy Spindryer" when I was a small kid. This had the big tub with agitator, next to which was a smaller top-covered opening, containing a small spinning drum which spun out the excess water just like today's big tubs do. She loved that thing! Frank
My brother, three years older than me, got his hand caught in one of those wringers. That was the only time I can remember any of us going to a hospital. I can even remember the one mom had before that one. It was similar, but someone had to crank the wringer.
I had a little Hoover washer that worked the same way, and I loved that little washer ! It didn’t wash many clothes at a time, but it was really fast, and they spun out almost dry. I had one when i lived in the trailer at Bonners Ferry and was having to pack water (around 2001), and it was fine because it didn’t use much water at all. I would wash a load of whites, spin the water back into the wash side, and it only took a little water to rinse, and I would spin that back into the wash water also. They were on wheels, so they could be rolled around if necessary. After whites, I did light colors, and finally dark clothes and jeans, so the was water could be reused several times, and only drained outside (onto my little garden) after I had washed all of the clothes. Mine looked similar to this one.
I recollect my mother using one of these. I really do not remember seeing a wringer washer until I was about 6.
I can remember taking baths as a toddler in a galvanized wash tub set in the kitchen with the oven door open for heat.