POD 8/10/2017

[brucelucenta]

The first generation of Maytag automatic washers. The AMP model and the others that followed this model were decent washers. They washed, rinsed and spun out fairly well. They didn't hold a great deal, but were built like tanks and were very durable as all Maytag washers were. I think as a rule most people who had them were pleased with the overall results. In those days Whirlpool/Kenmore really had it over the other automatic washer manufacturers as far as sand/sediment removal.

 

[frigilux]

An appliance dealer I knew had one of these first Maytag automatics on the showroom floor. His father bought it and wanted to keep it on the floor as a conversation piece. When the son took over the business in the 1980s I tried a number of times to get him to sell it, but no go. Eventually, I moved away and a few years later I heard the appliance store closed. Wonder whatever happened to that old Maytag...

I can only imagine how revolutionary automatic washers must have seemed when they began to appear after the war. By the time I was born (1959) they were fairly commonplace. Some people still had wringer machines, but most had switched to automatics by that time.

We had a Visimatic Kenmore wringer that was only a couple of years old when my dad bought the Kenmore Model 80 pair for my mom in early 1960. As did many others, she kept the wringer. For the first year or two, she'd wash the clothes in the Visimatic, wring them and put them in the automatic on the Rinse & Spin cycle. Eventually she was cajoled into using the automatic exclusively, but the wringer remained with us until 1967 and was used when the automatic broke down.

 

[brucelucenta]

My father bought my mother a 1957 Norge set right after I was born in September of 1956. I think she was more than happy to exclusively use her automatics, since I never saw anything else she used before that.

 

[tomturbomatic]

When my parents had the studio built in the basement for my brother and me in the spring of 1962, I believe, some work was done on the ceiling of the stairway to the basement. What I did not know was that the shelves in the closet in the den went far back into that space over the stairs which originally was a perpendicular wall with a sharp leveling out that was made into a slanting ceiling. So mom had to empty some of the shelves while the plaster work was done and that was the first time I saw the two Better Homes & Gardens,  Christmas issues, one from the late 40s and one from the early 50s. I saw this ad for the first time as well as a picture of the Revere Ware Pressure Cooker and a 1953, I think, GE dryer with the beautiful square window in the door.  It took about 5 decades to finally realize the dream of having the GE dryer and only about 2 and a half to get the Revere Pressure Cookers, all three styles of the first iteration. Interestingly, just before I moved up here, Revere announced that they were introducing a 4 qt and a 6 qt pressure cooker. I got those, but they are too lightly made to use on an electric range although they work OK on a gas burner where performance is not affected negatively by the base bulging out as pressure builds. The magazines are treasures, as are the items whose pictures I saw in them.