Mangles/Wringers

katholicos

My gran lost two of her fingers using a mangle when she was a young woman. Can you say 'Ouch!'

Emm-in-a-pickle

As a child I remember my mum`s first washing machine, when I was 9. Nearly fifty years ago (ouch!) Single tub with a central paddle that tangled everything, you had to untangle stuff with big wooden tongs and try to feed the items into the wringer, one at a time. Mum had me late in her life, so was in her fifties by this time, and she`d worked full time (nursing) for all of her life that I can remember. I remember the copper boiler in the cellar and the big old wind-it-yourself mangle, but that was never a place where my help was required. We moved from house with cellar to a bungalow, and mum got a washing machine, so dad thought her life should be much easier. It wasn`t. I went from singing to mum, reading aloud to her,or talking about what I`d been reading while she was doing laundry in the cellar, to taking an active role - and still being able to witter at her, sing, etc....
My job was to stand at the other side of the wringer and GRAB ( with fingers, the rollers were feeding out so less danger of trapped fingers) the first bit of corner of cloth that came through before it all wound itself back round on the rollers. If I wasn`t quick enough and stuff went round, it increased the pressure on the rollers, making it increasingly harder to release the catch, so me and mum had to bash the catch very hard with the wooden tongs till it eventually released, the rollers would separate, disengage and stop turning, and allow us to unwind the laundry and start all over again. Sometimes my poor mum would just be reduced to tears of anger and frustration at the thing, and MY strike would be the one to release the catch... then mum made me feel like a real help, a real hero, and there`d be a treat - which was nearly always something to read - an extra comic, or one of those Bunty or Judy minibooks - when I went with mum to help on shopping trips.
Thanks, posters on this thread, for bringing back some happy memories.
My ten-year-old grand-daughter and I are often like mum and I were then, she helps with some chores, I get her a `treat` which is something to read. I`ll let her read this next week when she`s here.

Vaila

i live in glasgow, and quite a few of my friends who live in old tenemants still have them hanging from the ceiling, very useful too

[Deleted User]

My first machine when my children were small was a baby Burco boiler and a Flatly dryer.After having to steep the terry nappies in a bucket under the sink over night it seem the absolute business to have a machine to help with the work.before that it was a huge black pot on the gas stove boiling up the nappies to get them clean.Then when the advent of nappiy liners appeared on the market I though I had died and gone to heaven.I still had to boil the nappies up but life was so much easier for me .We lived the four of us in a two-roomed cold water flat and had to share a toilet with two other families, so every bit of water had to be boiled up.There was a very tiny gas water geyser with a tiny silver arm that went over the sink but it rarely did more than heat enough for a bowl of water for washing up.The Flatly was a god send in the winter as it was a large square cabinet with a row of wooden slats that you put the nappies on to dry, but it cost a fortune to run so it was often only on very wet winter days that it was used .In our bedroom there was a door to a tiny balcony and from there my OH ran a long rope washing line down to a tree at the bottom of the garden it was about 200 feet long and as we lived on the first floor the washing got a wonderful blow when the weather was dry.I could do a line ful of washing and in around an hour on a breezy day it was dry.My best friend Carol who lived across the road used to come over with her washing and baby and whilst we would sit and have a cuppa and a chat, her washing would get a good blow on the line.We were two young Mums who had met at ante-natal classes and she was Godmother to one of mine as I was to one of her daughters .I knew her for over forty years and in that time we kept in touch even though she ended up livin in Caterham Surry and I landed up living in Kent .It was a great friendship solidified by the fact that we were both at the time in rotten accomodation and also fairly broke as well.She sadly died four years ago and even today I do miss not being able to just ring her up and chat.We used to walk into Croydon once a week with the kids piled into my big pram and get our shopping in the brand new Whitgift centre which was a marvel to us as we could buy a weeks shopping and then walk the three miles back with the kids perched on top of the shopping back to back on the pram.No cars or buses for us in those days it was Shanks pony.Life didn't have the luxuries of today but what you don't have you don't miss.I can remember buying a 'Vesta Curry' from Sainsbobs when it first came on the market and bring it home to cook for my OH .He tasted it and said 'don't buy anymore as the cardboard probably tases better than the contents.:) It was 2s3d around 11p in todays money and I think he was right it was pretty horrible.
In those days my housekeeping was £8.10s a week and that kept two adults and two children fed fairly well and paid the shillings into the gas and electric meters as well.It wasn't a bad life, and holidays were normally just days out to the seaside on a train. I can remember the first charity shop I ever saw in South croydon it was an Oxfam shop and I found a smashing jumper there for my eldest DD for 2 shillings. (10p)How times have changed over the past 40 odd years .Life is a lot easier now, but I'm not sure what my grandchildren will have to remember when they are my age.Mangles and wringers which were excellent in their day are not what I would have back again as they were darned hard work.Perhaps if I would wish anything back it would be the actual fun we had making the most of what little we had and being so excited by the stuff that seemed to come onto the market everyday.Who would get excited over nappy liners today I wonder

Emm-in-a-pickle

JackieO, I had a Baby Burco too, in my first married home. Had to wring washing out by hand, but let it cool first! Drying indoors was done on a big old wooden clothes-maid in the kitchen. the nappy routine wasn`t all that bad when you got into it. I used to `recycle` the Milton solution from the baby-bottle steriliser tub daily, and put the nappies in that after rinsing them out. The nappy bucket solution got tipped down the loo, and kept that pretty clean too - one product did three jobs, not bad, eh?
And those terry nappies were so lovely and soft, before we had stuff like fabric conditioner. The older the nappy the nicer it got. I ghot the first nappy liners too - mum was a midwife then and used to get lots of free samples for me!

recovering_spendaholic

JackieO wrote: »

My first machine when my children were small was a baby Burco boiler and a Flatly dryer.After having to steep the terry nappies in a bucket under the sink over night it seem the absolute business to have a machine to help with the work.before that it was a huge black pot on the gas stove boiling up the nappies to get them clean.Then when the advent of nappiy liners appeared on the market I though I had died and gone to heaven.I still had to boil the nappies up but life was so much easier for me .We lived the four of us in a two-roomed cold water flat and had to share a toilet with two other families, so every bit of water had to be boiled up.There was a very tiny gas water geyser with a tiny silver arm that went over the sink but it rarely did more than heat enough for a bowl of water for washing up.The Flatly was a god send in the winter as it was a large square cabinet with a row of wooden slats that you put the nappies on to dry, but it cost a fortune to run so it was often only on very wet winter days that it was used .In our bedroom there was a door to a tiny balcony and from there my OH ran a long rope washing line down to a tree at the bottom of the garden it was about 200 feet long and as we lived on the first floor the washing got a wonderful blow when the weather was dry.I could do a line ful of washing and in around an hour on a breezy day it was dry.My best friend Carol who lived across the road used to come over with her washing and baby and whilst we would sit and have a cuppa and a chat, her washing would get a good blow on the line.We were two young Mums who had met at ante-natal classes and she was Godmother to one of mine as I was to one of her daughters .I knew her for over forty years and in that time we kept in touch even though she ended up livin in Caterham Surry and I landed up living in Kent .It was a great friendship solidified by the fact that we were both at the time in rotten accomodation and also fairly broke as well.She sadly died four years ago and even today I do miss not being able to just ring her up and chat.We used to walk into Croydon once a week with the kids piled into my big pram and get our shopping in the brand new Whitgift centre which was a marvel to us as we could buy a weeks shopping and then walk the three miles back with the kids perched on top of the shopping back to back on the pram.No cars or buses for us in those days it was Shanks pony.Life didn't have the luxuries of today but what you don't have you don't miss.I can remember buying a 'Vesta Curry' from Sainsbobs when it first came on the market and bring it home to cook for my OH .He tasted it and said 'don't buy anymore as the cardboard probably tases better than the contents.:) It was 2s3d around 11p in todays money and I think he was right it was pretty horrible.
In those days my housekeeping was £8.10s a week and that kept two adults and two children fed fairly well and paid the shillings into the gas and electric meters as well.It wasn't a bad life, and holidays were normally just days out to the seaside on a train. I can remember the first charity shop I ever saw in South croydon it was an Oxfam shop and I found a smashing jumper there for my eldest DD for 2 shillings. (10p)How times have changed over the past 40 odd years .Life is a lot easier now, but I'm not sure what my grandchildren will have to remember when they are my age.Mangles and wringers which were excellent in their day are not what I would have back again as they were darned hard work.Perhaps if I would wish anything back it would be the actual fun we had making the most of what little we had and being so excited by the stuff that seemed to come onto the market everyday.Who would get excited over nappy liners today I wonder

This is a lovely post Jackie - I always find your posts so absorbing - you should write a book!

rachbc

[Q.Who would get excited over nappy liners today I wonder[/QUOTE]

Me!! I got very giddy when I discovered washable fleece liners for my dd's washable nappies - just 3 years ago!

I remember playing with my gandmas wooden mangle that hadn't long since been ditched in favour of a spinner! There's a lot about modern life to celebrate - and the automatic washing machine is most definately one of those things