Maytag Wringer

[geoffdelp]

Jamie ... did you get the info I sent?

Steve ... How did those laundries work? I mean, did you have to pay, like a dime, for each tub of water? I never could figure out how they did those before the days of "coin-op".

 

[gyrafoam]

Reply to Geoffdelp

I do not remember exactly how the system worked but I do remember in some places you paid by the basket full--which is most likey how it was at the camp ground, just pay the black ladies and they would take over. I watched them in operation for hours and do not ever remember anyone other than the attendants actually using those machines. At the attended full service laundries I just remember them weighing out the clothing and charging for it that way. At this time, at least in the south, laundry was almost the exclusive domain of black women. I think many were tipped employees. I remember well a laundry here in Atlanta--must have been around '61 or '62---they had a row of Frigidaire 3-Ring Multi-matics---and you would be greeted by a black women at the door who would then take your laundry and sort it into loads, put them in the machines, transfer them to the dryers and then fold and hang them for you while you sat and watched television--and they were fast! They were tipped employees. When you were ready to leave they would beg to carry the laundry out to the car (where the management could not overhear them) and see if you wanted them to take the laundry home to iron it for a fee! Most folks took them up on it as they were inexpensive and who likes to iron for hours?! -Steve

 

[geoffdelp]

Steve ... that's horrible!! Those poor women probably worked for pennies on the hour. My Mom is from Louisiana and some of the things she's talked about; what a disgrace to humanity.

I've seen pictures in my Maytag News from the early 1950's from Augusta, GA where there was a "boom" for a defense plant (I think) and they set up manufactured housing (more like trailers) for the workers and there was a central area for doing laundry and they had Maytag E's available for the people who wanted to use them. There was also a photo of a woman who had a Model N right outside her home and left the machine out year round because of the climate. This was at the same time they (Maytag) were pushing the portable automatic idea. Big casters on the little AMP with a coupling device for the water usage and drainage. Interesting!!

 

[westie2]

Wringer Laundries

Growing up in the country there were several laundries that had the old 1930 typs Maytags along with the newer white square tubs. The one that my mother/grandmother and great grandmother used twice a year for big time washing of quilts ect was the old 1930's machine in which the owener had piped in live steam to the tubs to really boil the clothes. This was a self serevice where you did your own laundry. The live steam comming into the machines made a loud rumble/scream while it was being used.

 

[pulsator]

Manuals

YES! I just got the manuals in the mail! Thank you so much Geoff Delp! These are going to be so helpful! I am so excited! Thank you!

 

[geoffdelp]

Jamie ... good luck!!

 

[gyrafoam]

Reply to Geoffdelp---

Well, I don't know what these folks made but they sure seemed to like what they did and had much better working conditions that what I see some of the Mexicans working in now---I guess each generation has its disgraces. By the way, I distinctly remember visiting some of my relatives up North during this same time period and seeing much the same thing at their laundries-----. -Steve

 

[laundramatt]

How did those laundries work?

There's a trailer park nearby that has a laundry room, with one Maytag wringer washer it it. (Most trailers have their own washer and dryer hookups nowadays).

Anyway, the park owner rigged up a coin dispenser to the electrical outlet that the washer is plugged into. For a quarter, you get 15 minutes of electricity and agitation.

I always wondered if anybody hid extension cords in their clothes baskets under the clothes to hook up the washer to another electrical outlet and save themselves some quarters.

The place is rarely used anymore, and always locked whenever I try to stop by to see the washer in action.

 

[geoffdelp]

Laundramatt ... that's unusual, huh? Have you every gone in there to do a load?

 

[geoffdelp]

Reply to Gyrafoam

Steve ... Oh, I'm sure you saw it up North, too. We didn't have the nickname of "White Cloud" (St. Cloud) for nothing.

You're right ... each generation has its disgraces; hopefully, we learn from them (disgraces) and treat each other with respect. One can only hope and pray ...

I like Laundramatt's example of the coin-op electrical outlet. Do you suppose that's how a lot of self-service laundries were? I've seen pictures of self-service laundries with Maytag automatics before the coin slide and you paid per load. They must have had attendants going around taking money?

I still wonder how a lot of these self-service laundries worked. I remember the coin-op days from the 1960's/1970's when we took family vacations. I'd go to the laundry with Mom (figures)! I've always had the luxury of having my own washer since I left home in the late 1970's. Only once, for about a period of a year, did I have to rely on a coin-op in an apartment building while my furnishings were in storage.

 

[laundramatt]

geoffdelp,

I don't live at the trailor park, and the only people who have keys to the laundry room are the tenants.

I did get a chance one time to be there while a woman was doing her wash, but she probably would have thought that I was crazy if I had asked her if I could help.