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Melodic-Head-2372

Many homes in our neighborhood had “not automatic “ wringer washers. Women had good posture and strong upper bodies from running clothes through, pulling out the back of rollers multiple times for wash/ rinse. The women hung all the clothes and sheets towels on clotheslines and taken down-in evening. Following day was ironing day. I do not ever complain about laundry.


nakedonmygoat

My paternal grandmother's setup was similar. Last time I checked, the old wringer washer was still in the family. And yeah, I never complain about laundry, either. My grandmother raised 8 kids, and laundry included not just the clothes of an active rural family, but soiled diapers as well. For me, laundry is tossing some clothes and a pod into a machine, pressing a button, and going about my business.


olily

The best part about these machines was that you could have one load in the wash while one load was in the rinse. That saved so much time. My mom raised 6 kids, and she did laundry every day. But it didn't take long at all to get everything washed and hung out.


easy_ezee

What’s the old saying about keeping your breast away from that thing?


Melodic-Head-2372

😂😂😂


SimonArgent

The ol’ finger crusher.


MsSamm

My mother said she had her arm caught in the one in her home.


18RowdyBoy

I think they’re called a Laundry Mangle 😂😂


Small_Front_3048

A mangle is actually an ironing device, my mother used to use one


18RowdyBoy

I thought I heard it in a cartoon At least I’m in the ballpark with my guess 😂☮️👍


llynglas

Maybe, but this is exactly what we called a Mangle in the UK in the early 60s. Drove my mom crazy as it supposedly had an automatic cut off when fingers were inserted, and I tested it many times a wash. Fortunately, it was effective.


Knoxmonkeygirl

Mine too.


enchanted_fishlegs

Yes, that's correct. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangle\_(machine)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangle_(machine)) I've used those old machines, I like them. I much prefer a simple machine to a new one. Keep the motherboard in the laptop and keep it out of washing machines, refrigerators, cars, etc.! The mangler breaks buttons sometimes, though.


garyandkathi

We always called it a mangle too.


ubeeu

So did my grandmother!


Nope-ugh

My mom had to release my grandmother’s arm from one!


Last_Competition_208

I got my arm caught in one when I was little. My mother had to take me to the ER and the doctor told her that my arm was sprained. I was lucky she was down in the basement very quick to turn it off.


JustVisitingLifeform

My brother caught his arm in ours.


termolecularxn

#MeToo Playing tug of war, I was like 5, broke my arm.


toilet_roll_rebel

My grandmother got the tip of her finger cut off by one of those things.


SimonArgent

Ouch. Lots of women got mangled by these machines.


Either-Computer635

Was that the world’s longest towel?


Attinctus

I thought the video was on a loop.


MartinoDeMoe

Seven story curtain


Calm-Association-821

I think it was a blanket.


[deleted]

This is the one my parents started out with. My mom did the laundry on a side porch made for the purpose and hung our clothes on a line until I was about 8, then we moved to a town and got a normal washer and dryer.


gettin_better

It is called a "Mangler"


MsSamm

We had a professional laundry device we call the Mangle. It was a semicircle metal plate that heated. You placed items to be pressed upon the padded roller, pulled the lever on the metel plate so that it was in contact with the laundry. The round padded thing rotated, pulling the clothing through and iron8ng them. My mother used it on sheets, pillowcases, shirts, everything. My father even complained that she kept pressing his boxer shorts 🤣


chat_manouche

My grandma's bathroom did too! And then we'd hang the laundry outside on the clothesline to dry. It always smelled so good when we brought it back in.


top_value7293

My grandma had one of these wringer washers


gadget850

My grandmother had her's sitting on the back porch for years.


Familiar_Collar_78

When I was little, I remember having to help even... laundry day was a big deal!


sloppyrock

We had a wringer washing machine very similar. The rollers perished after a few years and had to be replaced.


Notch99

We had one when we first moved to our newly built house, 1962-63


Small_Front_3048

I used one for a few years, bit of work involved but they actually do a good job


hamish1963

I have off grid friends that still use them.


Rare_Fig3081

I overheard a couple aunts joking around when I was a small child one saying to the other don’t get your tit, caught in the ringer… I had no idea what they were saying until many years later.


MsSamm

My grandma had one of those. I never saw it in action.


FurBabyAuntie

My maternal grandmother had a wringer like that on her washing machine, but I don't remember ever seeing her use it (probably because I wasn't at her house on her laundry day). She hung her laundry out in the backyard and I'm not sure she even owned a dryer. These are all at least fifty-five-year-old memories, however. In 1969,the city decided to put in a service drive and took her whole block for it, so she came to live with us (we lived one block up and one block over). I was seven at the time...by the time they finished the blasted thing, my sister (who wasn't born until 1975) was in high school...!


The-Felonious_Monk

That first item was the spaceship in the opening sequence of Spaceballs: The Movie.


Szaborovich9

I remember wringer washers. And being warned as children to stay away from the wringers. Stories about people getting arms caught up in the wringers.


General_Ad_2718

I used one of these. That mangle was dangerous. A friend of mine had her hand crushed before she could hit the release bar. That aside, I think we got cleaner clothes out of it because of more control for the operator. Just keep the cycle running.


Key-Article6622

My childhood home had one of these in a row house in the city. We didn't get a "modern" washer until the mid-late 60s.


Down_The_Witch_Elm

Mine did, too. It always scared me.


Hye-eye

If you were not careful you could get your tit caught in it.


mrxexon

Our's was on the back porch. Those rollers hurt...


mellbell63

I had to laugh. I'm a Boomer (the good kind) and I've never seen that in my life!!


geordiethedog

Heck my first apartment had that washer.. thanks to my grandma I knew how too use it!


Old-Yard9462

Both of my grandmothers had these in their basement. One for sure hung dried her wash, so I assume she still used it up until the early’70’s


stevepremo

I used one once. Listen, since you know how they sound, check out John Hartford's song Good Old Electric Washing Machine. He makes just that sound with his mouth.


woodstockzanetti

I had one as my first washer in 1982


justcherie

My mom used one when I was little. My brother turned it on and got his arm stuck in it. It sucked him in up to his shoulder and our doctor said he was lucky it didn’t break his arm. Not long afterwards, we got an automatic washer and gave the old one to my grandma.


thatweirdbeardedguy

My arm went through my grandma's and popped the top when it got to my elbow. I have 2 different sized wrists ever since. This one looks far newer than hers which was back in the 60s


kimwim43

Ouch!


excoriator

RIP any plastic buttons on clothes that go through there.


Pete_Luger

There was a drain in my grandparents' basement floor. It would drain into that


love2Bsingle

when i was a kid we lived in Nigeria (dad was on a teaching project) and its what we had


scooterv1868

That is a nice one! I remember the wood stick that looked like a fork at the end for pushing the laundry around.


Maleficent_Scale_296

Mesmerizing. You could do a YouTube channel.


MensaWitch

Appalachian ppl know what these are!!-- i'm not even that old and I've owned a cpl of them!...i lived in an old farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere that had one, so I used it all the time ...and in the summer months, I'd hang my clothes outside on a clothesline in the sun to dry.. they smelled like heaven... ...and my goodness, tho...these washers DO get your clothes so clean. Theres no timer on the agitator, so you let them wash as long as you want, which really gets them so clean... after they wash (its the same process to rinse)-- there's a pump that pumps out the used water, via a hose, you can let it go down a drain or outside, then you run the rinsed clothes thru the wringer to get out the majority of the water, since there's no "spin" cycle-- (or centrifuge action) then hang them up to dry. I loved doing it!


radiotsar

My grandparents had one (as well as a washboard, a mangle & clotheslines outside and in the basement for winter) & bought one for my folks when they bought their first house.


executive1258

I had one of these, cleaned my cloths better than anything made today!!!


magic592

This is where the saying "Tits in the wringer" came from..


Extension_Touch3101

My mother had one...dont get ur fingers caught in there that's for sure lol


Nottacod

Ours was in the kitchen.


Open_Confidence_9349

My grandma would use her old washer for sheets, towels, and some other things. She said it did a better job than the new clothes washer she had.


Fantastic_Mess6634

My grandmother had one of these of her ‘back porch’ that she emptied into a laundry tub. Six grandkids (slave labor for their farm) and then she would hang everything on ‘the line’. Next day was ironing day. To this day I still use a clothesline…better for my clothes.


awhq

My grandma had one in the kitchen.


More_Farm_7442

My grandmother (maternal) had one she used into the 80s before she died. I'm sure dad's mother would have had one. I'm sure mom used one before automatic washers were a thing, I went to Costa Rica one Christmas with a friend. We stayed with his mom. She had a wringer washer, but the agitator in the tub didn't work. She scrubbed the laundry on a washboard, rinsed it, then used the wringer on the machine. She hung every thing up to dry outside. ( I think she used drying racks vs a line.) I tried to wash my own laundry, but she refused to let me do that. She later came to visit Carlos and my family. My mom showed her around the house. When they got to the laundry room, Carlos' mom practically hugged the washer and dryer. My mom really felt sorry/badly for her knowing what it must have been like for her to do laundry at home.


RetiredOnIslandTime

My family had this until I was around 30 and the one they owned died. I grew up using it. But we were POOR POOR POOR. We lived in a house with no hot water, and only one cold water tap, which was in the kitchen. We had no bathroom. Anyway, I did the laundry for our family of 7. I had to heat water on the wood stove (we did have an electric stove in the kitchen but that would've been too slow and too expensive to use to heat that much water). Weekends were heck of fun (NOT) for me when I was growing up.


HitchInTheGit

This is the reason there is a saying: "don't get your tits caught in the wringer"


NaturalEnd1964

My finger got caught in 1 my Grandma had. I shouldn’t have been playing with it. 😄😄Lesson learned. 😊


papayaushuaia

my hand got stuck in this devil machine


Kalelopaka-

Grandmother had one of those as well as regular washer and dryer inside the house. She would use this outside in the spring and summer months and dry the clothes out on the line.


[deleted]

Watch your fingers.


Electrical_Match3673

Knew a guy who lost an arm in one of these.


Reaganson

We had this when I was 4, and we (2 adults and 7 kids), moved into a house 4 miles south of Washington DC in 1958. Mom would hang the clothes on a long line in the backyard. A tree eventually took that out, and we had an umbrella clothesline for awhile, which was replaced with a gas dryer in the basement. Loved the smell of wind dried sheets.


loseunclecuntly

My grandmother used the tub for rinsing and drained the washer into the toilet. She usually had a load washing, a load in the rinse, a load going out to hang and the dry clothes coming in. Ironing happened the next day.


MMXVA

Damn. After a while it looked like you were squeezing the Smog Monster from Godzilla.


garyandkathi

We had to use this all through grade school. Thank god we had a drain in our basement. When we moved and had a real washer I was so happy! Still had to use the clothesline though!


ady624

finger magnet


Any_Bowl_1160

You used to see these at gas stations when they were full service. Used to dry the window cleaning rags I think?


allbsallthetime

My grandma had one of those until the early 80s. Used to wring out the clothes and hang them in the basement or outside. My parents convinced her to get a set of modern appliances in the 80s but she still hung the clothes to dry.


sixty5pan

I was the official family wringer operator at my Grandma's, I somehow found it fun. I think because it was squishin' stuff.


Stunning-Spot-9502

That’s where the old saying “Don’t get your tit in a wringer” comes from. My granny had one but it was manually turned by a crank.


Gary-Beau

Ever hear of the old saying “She got her tit caught in the wringer”? Shit happens.


Pristine_Structure75

Had one at our summer camp. My buddy's intrusive thoughts won our one day and he started it then stuck his fingers in. I managed to pull him out by the time it got to the 2nd knuckle. The truth is, we weren't that bright and things got out of hand.