10.

How Can You
Wash Clothes Without an Electric Washer and Dryer?

MOUNT HOPE, Ohio—Barbara Yoder and her teenage daughter, Irene, finished sorting the Monday morning laundry. Irene filled the washing machine with buckets of hot water tapped from the wood-burning water heater. After adding soap powder to the water, she put a load of sheets and pillow cases into the washing machine. Barbara filled two washtubs, one with warm water and a little bleach and the other with cooler water and some fabric softener. Cold water was carried from the hand pump outside.

Irene gave a yank on the starting cord, sending the gasoline engine beneath the washer humming. She turned the knob on the other side of the machine, which started the agitator moving back and forth inside the tub.

When about 10 minutes had elapsed, Irene turned on another switch which started the wringer. This mechanism consisted of two rubber-coated rollers mounted on top of the machine. Irene found the end of one of the wet sheets and carefully inserted it between the two rollers, being sure her fingers didn’t get caught in the rotating cylinders. She had had the unhappy experience of having her arm go through the wringer as a small girl. Fortunately, no permanent damage had been done.

As the corner of the sheet appeared on the other side of the rollers, Irene caught hold of it and guided it into the first tub of rinse water. The pressure of the rollers squeezed out much of the water from the fabric. Each piece was worked up and down in the rinse water by hand.

When the machine was empty, Barbara put in a second load of wash. Irene began taking the wash out of the first rinse tub and putting it through the wringer again into the second rinse tub. After all the items were in the final rinse, they were again taken out of the water and put through the wringer. This time, however, they were fluffed and dropped into a basket.

Irene took the finished wash outside and hung it on the washlines. The spring day was clear with a slight breeze. Irene was glad the weather was warm again. Handling damp clothing in the cold with numb fingers was not a pleasant task for her. She was also glad it wasn’t raining so she didn’t have to hang the wash on wooden racks inside.

Irene went back and forth from the wash house, carrying baskets of wash to the clotheslines. She helped her mother with the rinsing and wringing if a load was not finished. Some of the clothing made of no-iron fabrics was not put through the wringer but was hung to drip dry.

After five loads, the water in the machine was drained and refilled with fresh water. Barbara and Irene continued with five more loads.

The Honda engine on the washing machine was finally silenced a few minutes before ten o’clock. Barbara would have plenty of time to get the noon meal ready before the men came in from the fields.

Irene soon finished hanging the last of the wash. The first load she had hung was nearly dry. Most of the wash she would fold and put away, but some items would be set aside for later when she would heat up the “sad irons” on the stove and iron them.

By early afternoon, wash day was over at the Yoder home. The process would be repeated on a smaller scale on Friday and again the following Monday.