Friday, September 18, 2015

Vintage Home Laundry



This is a 1950s postcard advertising Whirlpool Washers and Dryers. The back of the card advertises an "AMAZING" offer:
FREE TRIAL OFFER!
Now you can actually use the famous Whirlpool Automatic Washer in your own home for 10 days . . . and it won't cost you a cent! Yes, we'll install it absolutely free because we want you to experience the thrill of workless, enjoyable washdays.
This is a postcard that I just had to buy because it matches my memories so well. The washer and dryer appear to be the same ones that my family had. Our washer was bought about 1952 and the dryer in 1954. The woman reminds me a lot of my mother, who had a similar shade of dark red hair. Even the flower arrangement fits. Next to our machines were big laundry tubs that were used when preparing flower arrangements.The only things that don't match are the knotty pine walls and blue tile floor. Our laundry facilities were in an unfinished gray basement.

My mother never hung laundry outside. We had clotheslines permanently set up in the basement. The lines were used for clothes that were too delicate or shrinkable to put in the dryer (there were lots of shrinkable 100% cotton garments back then). There were always some things hanging on our lines. In a way the lines functioned as an extension of the closets with things waiting to be ironed, or old clothes waiting to be given away.

The Whirlpool Corporation has an interesting "History & Heritage" page and a 100 Year History Fact Sheet that include pictures of some old laundry machines and other products.

Here is an interesting 1952 Whirlpool Washing Macchine Video



To See More Vintage Images



13 comments:

  1. 10 days for free! I bet there were a lot of takers on that deal. I imagine too that it was hard to say no to the convenience of a dryer. Our washer was in the garage. I can't remember when we first got a dryer.

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  2. Wow, now there's an idea to promote sales. My mother never owned a dryer ever! Until her later years living in an apartment and of course it was the apartment buildings dryer!

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  3. Lucky you. My mother never even had a proper washing machine until the 1960s, and she still had to put the clothes through a ‘wringer’! It’s nice that the card is a nostalgic reminder fo you.

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  4. My parents never fought (at least in front of us) but I remember the day my mother overturned a bowl of salad on my father's head and declared that he was "as crazy as the rest of his family." The next day a delivery truck pulled up from the department store and we had a washer and dryer!! Obviously my father had a lot of ground to make up.

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    1. I just added a 1952 Whirlpool video I found. Men are featured...

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  5. I'd completely forgotten about the laundry lines in the basement! We had them, too -- it all came back to me when I read your post! Thanks for those memories of wandering in little tunnels of sheets in the basement!

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    1. I can picture tunnels of sheets on the lines, but we never had those there. The sheets and my father's shirts always got picked up and returned by a laundry service.

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  6. I'm not tied to the house by having to do the washing, but don't have/want a dryer and just rely on sunshine, or inside heating in the winter. I don't want to pay a fortune to power a dryer, apart from the shrinkage risk. I believe that in some US neighbourhoods, hanging washing outside is actually not permitted.

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    1. I think things end up softer and less wrinkled when dried in a dryer.

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  7. Those big dryers come into their own when you have loads of towels. I've never had one but we used one staying in a holiday house on an island where there were lots of guests and lots of swimming.

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  8. You can't install a washer\ dryer just anywhere. You need a dedicated drain and a suitable 220 electric plug. It took time for houses to evolve to an appropriate size and with suitable systems to connect modern appliances. Laundry machines have changed fashions too. Who buys woolen clothing today? Who irons anymore?

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  9. We had a wringer washer pretty much like that one shown in the video. Wow, I'm old.

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  10. What a great card. Love the space age clock on the wall.

    The dryer I have belonged to my grandmother, and she died in '68 so you can imagine how old my dryer is. But then I don't use it much. Outside if the sun is shining or some decent wind is blowing. I love sheets dried on the line. They smell so great.

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