Best Washer Ever
WOW Barry! You're almost describing my beloved grandmother's TOL Lady Kenmore from 196?!! I have never seen one since...not even here. It was a BEAUTIFUL machine with chrome everwhere, flourescent lit, backlit, a light in the white porcelain tub, black bakelite Super Roto-Swirl agitator. There were two rows of 5 black edged buttons (10 total) on the left of the control panel with letters for cycles and corresponding color code/letter descriptions with the chrome dial cycle selector on the right. The chrome dial was "pointy" on both ends...and the back of the dial was clear with color codes, cycle names, and letters all incorporated. When you pushed a cycle button, you then turned the cycle selector dial (pull to select, push to start)and it would stop automatically at the selected cycle. Cycle type and times, water temps, agitation/spin speed all automatically selected with the push of a button and the turn of a dial. It also had an automatic bleach and fabric softner dispenser on the left leading front edge under the lid (with the "stepped" chrome lid handle). The only thing you selected "manually" was the water level...via a "pointy" chrome slider under the buttons. It was way cool!
I get so nostalgic about this machine as I've gotten older...it reminds me so much of growing up and of Mom-mom, a way cool and groovy lady (still alive at 94, but no longer alive mentally, unfortunately as Altzheimer's has taken her). For some strange reason, this machine, when running so smoothly with all its lights, had the ability to impart a feeling of security and comfort to me when I was so little...especially when running in the dark!

It was also an amazing cleaner...but eventually wore your clothes to an early demise. I now wonder if it really cleaned...or if the dirty fibers just got broken off and washed away as lint! HAHA! And, while I don't think I would ever replace my front load machine, if I could find a set of these KMs like Mom-mom had, I would enshrine them.
My mother had the machine one level down with similar features, but a Roto-Swirl agitator (the Pregger or Pregnant Roto-Swirl as you guys call it). These are the machines that began my fascination with washing machines. Apparently, the only space for my crib (before my parents built their house) was beside the machine...which my mother tells me led to me having it on and running every morning as soon as I could crawl from my crib up to reach the dial. She tells me I was so regular at this that she would load the machine and put soap in it right after I went to sleep and she could count on my having it running when she got up! HAHA! Everyone always thought I was so loony...running around talking about agitators by name and asking everyone we met what kind of agitator they had! I began washing the family's laundry when I was 5...and have been doing laundry ever since.
My other grandmother had a Frigidaire Jet Action machine! Way cool...but no lights. Such wonderful machines linked to such wonderful memories. Now why can't they make machines like that today?!!!
