who remembers the washer dryer set there grandmother own when alive or still alive

[gansky1]

Velma always had Maytag that I was around to see.  Her first automatic was a Kenmore set from the early 50's.  The gas dryer was rarely used and the washer got a hiatus from duty for about a year when she had ( ) surgery and was unable to climb stairs.  She had a twin tub in the kitchen and then a 2-speed, Filter-Agitator Maytag Highlander was purchased in 63-64 with a move to a new home.  She used that until another Maytag was bought in May 1975, which I later inherited.  The Kenmore dryer lasted until we sold the house after their passing in 1987, the new owners used it for several more years. 

To hear tell it, she suffered terribly with declining satisfaction in washers since Multi-Motor Gray Ghost in early 30's.  Born in 1908, it was her first-ever powered washer, there was no electric service in that area until after WWII, so it seemed like a literal gift from the heavens.  Her least favorite automatic was the KM.  The tub was too low in the cabinet, and it used far too much water.  She made heroic efforts to save (hot) water and detergent, but strangely never had a suds-saver.  She surveilled and meddled with  the Highlander timer with the cunning and vigilance of a warrior.   The '75 power-fin agitator never entirely earned her approval either, skeptical of the fins not attached to the base.

 

[aircub]

memories

My grandmother on my dads side had a mid 60s WP supreme washer and then late 60s she bought a Montgomery wards dryer which was very loud she used them till she died in 1975.

on my mothers side my grandmother had a maytag wringer that was in the basement and then my mother gave her 63 ge ff to her after the timer went out and had it replaced my mother bought a Montgomery wards washer, but my grand mother said the ge used to much water so she would put a load in it and go to the basement and do the rest of the washing in the wringer. until she got along in years and the ge pump went out she bought a 78 KM and used it till her death she didn't have a dryer and my brother and I bought her a used KM and she would not use it ever it used to much electric. I still have her maytag wringer that I got my arm caught in when I was 5 and still have the scar, such fond memories.

Darren

 

[toploader55]

1953 GE.

Washer First, Dryer Later in which my Grandmother gave the Dryer to my Mom. Her Model was almost Identical except hers had the "DeLuxe" Logo and the Dryer Door Handle was different.

That Dryer was so hot you could smell the cotton being singed And too hot to handle.

Photo from the AW archives Imperial Thread

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www.automaticwasher.org

 

[foraloysius]

Neighbours of us had that 1953 GE too. In the fifties American washers were rather popular here, they were about the only options when you wanted a fully automatic machine.

Picture #1 shows the Zanussi frontloader my maternal grandmother had. Picture #2 the machine on the left is the Miele toploader my paternal grandmother had. The machine on the right is the Miele twintub (H-axis), the one on the left the same machine but no attached spin dryer. It would wash (prewash and main wash) and rinse 6 times. Then you could take the wet laundry out and put it into a separate spin dryer.

 

[turquoisedude]

My maternal grandmother in the UK never owned an automatic washer or dryer! The first washer I recall seeing at her house back in the 60s was a single tub Hoover with a hand-cranked wringer.  In the 70s she upgraded to a Hoover twin-tub which was still working when she passed away in 1990.

 

Eddie - I have the GE washer that your grandmother had!  It's on my to-restore list for 2020.

 

[appnut]

My paternal grandmother had a GE washer.  I only saw it from a distance a couple of times as it was in the garage.  I remembered what it kind of looked like.  And the memory flashed back to my consciousness when Robert found his 1947-1949 GE automatic washer.  My dad knew of my fascination with Frigidaire Unimatics.  He remarked that grandma's washer spun just as fast as the Frigidaires, but didn't tangle the clothes into a rope like the Frigidaires did.  I thought he as just pulling my leg until Robert found his washer and gave out its specifications.  She had that washer until she had to sell her house and move out of it in 1964 to make wasy for a future freeway in Houston that didn't become functional until after I'd moved out of Houston in 1986.  My other grandparents never had home laundry.  I remember going to the washeteria with my grandfather a couple of times where they had Bendix double loaders.  

 

[angus]

Interesting question. My maternal grandmother died well before I was born but as my mother told it, she and her next older sister were responsible for the family wash - that was 10 kids and no washer. That meant scrubbing on a washboard in the bathtub and boiling in a huge stovetop kettle. And this was in Brooklyn in the late 30's and 40's. Then she and her sister saved and bought mama a bolt down Bendix. My grandfather built a cement slab in the kitchen so it could be bolted, etc... However after only 4 or 5 washes, mama decided the clothes were not up to her standard of clean - so back it went and the washboard came out again.

Nana, my paternal grandmother, also someone I never met (she died in 1958 when I was less than a year old) never had a washer either. However, she was second generation American having been born in Stamford, CT (I never really thought of her as Italian, being so Americanized. However she was very progressive. She had only one child, my father, and my grandfather didn't suffer as much during the depression as others. While not in any way wealthy, they were actually pretty middle class. She crafted a rather nice life for herself. They lived in a small apartment but she was meticulous in housekeeping and did most of the daily laundry herself on a washboard. Things like dress shirts, towels, sheets, and other "flatwork" were sent out to a commercial laundry so she did things like underwear, shorts, socks, kitchen towels, etc... by hand.

She also went downtown Brooklyn every Thursday for a matinee at the RKO Albee theater, shopping at Abraham and Straus, Martin's and Loeser's, with lunch at either the Garden Room at A&S or Junior's. Odd family...

 

[tomturbomatic]

These stories are fascinating. Who realized the social research that can be accessed through washing machine ownership. I hope that many of us with older grandparents will take to time to reflect on the hard work our forefathers and foremothers did to make life easier for those who came after than it was for them. Who would have suspected that the appliances that attract us so strongly correlate to the welfare of our families. Some decades ago I read that when modern women were asked about the most important electric appliance in their household lives, the automatic clothes washer was the hands-down winner.

 

[sfh074]

Dad's mom .....

had a brand new BOL '62 Frigidaire washer when I came along.

Proudly positioned in the kitchen directly opposite of the stove. With iron hot and cold water pipes outfitted with outside type spigots at the ends, mounted to the cider block wall to supply the water. The house was built by my grandfather in the mid 40's with handmade cinder blocks. I remember seeing the block molds in the barn years ago and how beat up they were from the hundreds of cinder blocks he and my Dad made to build the little 2-story house back then. They never owned a dryer.

Although not the very '62 machine they had after they replaced it in 1986, but here a pic of the same model I acquired a few years back. I am nearly done restoring the poor thing .... just waiting on the lid and top to come back from being re-porcelained and getting the control panel background reprinted.

Bud - Atlanta[this post was last edited: 1/12/2020-13:54]

 

[fan-of-fans]

I do not remember seeing the machines my maternal grandmother had at the first house she lived in when I was born. When she moved later she bought a late 70s duplex with the original GE appliances including the laundry set. There was a Filter Flo washer and dryer. I think the machines were almond but maybe white.

Something happened to the washer (either a leak or pump issue, I don't recall which) and it was replaced with a Kenmore direct drive in the late 90s. A high MOL model with about 4 dials. The original dryer was still there when the house was sold and she moved in with my aunt in 2007. Since then the house sold again and in the listing photos the washer had been replaced with a front loader but that GE dryer was still there.

At the very first house she owned around the early 50s the washing machine was on the back porch, but I don't know what kind other than it was automatic.

My paternal grandmother had a GE Filter Flo washer also and a Kenmore Soft Heat dryer, both from around the late 80s in the shed at the house she lived in when I was really young. When I was about 6 they moved into a new house with a laundry room and brought those machines over. At some point the washer started leaking around the late 90s and that was replaced with a Whirlpool direct drive MOL. The Kenmore dryer was replaced around the mid-late 2000s, also with a Whirlpool. I'm not sure what was wrong with it. And those are both still in use.

 

[twintubdexter]

Another interesting topic...another boring story

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">Don't remember grandparents. Father's parents died before I was born. Mother and her sisters were raised in a state-run Catholic orphanage in Oakland CA. The nuns were nothing like the ones in "The Sound Of Music". They beat the kids up and threw them against the walls when they were thirsty and ran out of communion wine. They eventually were "farmed out" as teenagers to a family from Italy who owned a huge fruit orchard in what is now prime San Jose real estate. It was very valuable back then too. They were fed and clothed and attended school in exchange for working the ranch...sort of a  legal form of white slavery. No socializing or after-school activities. It was go right home and get to work. They received a nickle at Christmas. I do remember the wrinkled Italian lady having an old grey Maytag wringer with strange levers on the side. It smelled like Ivory soap. These were people that could have afforded the most expensive laundry equipment you could buy in the 1950s/60's and not blink twice at the price. Oh were they cheap!</span>

 

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">If you remember your grandparents you are lucky. Even more so if you still have them.</span>

 

[Unimatic1140]

When I was young.

My maternal grandmother had a 1958 Frigidaire Pulsamatic washer that I just adored! Before that she had a 1950 Westinghouse Laundromat that was replaced with the Pulsamatic before I was born.

My grandmother on my Dad's side had a 1957 middle of the line Kenmore with a straight vane agitator and water-fall lint filter.

 

[vacerator]

Mom's had

Kenmore model 70's from 1959 0r 60 until 1970 when replaced with new Kenmores. Her old wringer washer and Ironrite were still there. I never saw Dad's mom's basement in Pa., so I don't know. I was 6 when we moved away. I doubt my older cosuins remember. She lived in a duplex until I was in high school, and used a laundromat, then moved to a brand new apartment with coin op.laundry, then to one with it's own, and Dad found her a lightly used set of compact Kenmores.

 

[robbinsandmyers]

The ONLY washing machine my grandmother ( RIP 1988 )ever owned was a Blackstone 150 she bought new in 1950 and it overflowed one day not long after she bought it and she was too scared to use it again. She went back to the wash board in the bathtub. It sat 30 years before I got it in 1988 and sold it to gansky in 2006 when I moved. I'm sure its happy in its loving new home after traveling half way cross country lol.

 

[luxflairguy]

My Grandparents (Dad's side) never had a dryer. The one and only washer Grandma ever had was a early 30's Easy wringer washer with a copper outer tub and 3 suction cups inside that went up and down and then rotated. It was a thrill as a child to get to push the red "on" button, hear it buzz and then throw across the knob that activated the cups. Was in college before I was allowed to operate all by myself!
Grandparents lived in a flood plain- on a river and I can't count the times the washer got wet in a flood. Gramps would removed the GE built motor, wrap it in foil and put it in the oven to "bake it out" and replace on washer and it would work! I sadly, gave the washer to a museum in the late 90's! Took lots of work to do a load! Miss it!! Greg

 

[gmpayne]

I remember grandmother on my mothers side was a Speed Queen wringer washer, it had a pump. Then she would hang the clothes out side.

My grandmother on my dads side had a Maytag square sided wringer washer, I never saw her using it. She use a wash board and made her own soap.

 

[akronman]

1968

Grandma had been gone 2 years, but her unmarried daughter still lived in the house:
mid-60's model aqua-blue(ish)Hotpoint automatic paired with a Hamilton Gas drier from the early 50's. I remember the tall side door on the right of the clothes door, just like my 1952 or so electric Hamilton. When some load of clothes, hotter than hell fresh from the drier, started on fire, the old drier was replaced with a new Kenmore, Sears got lots of business from Aunt Pat. And I remember the washer as DIRTY, like no one ever wiped the top clean. Clean clothes just dragged out across 5 years accumulation of underwear dirt, dog bed dirt, etc!
There was also a GE Mobile Maid in the kitchen, mid-50's rounded edges type as opposed to the squared-off 60's era. Bow-tie impeller, not a spray arm.
And a 30" Hardwick range, as close to BOL as I can remember. Would the cheapest have had all 4 gas burners the exact same size? I seem to remember that. No clock, nothing electric at all, and I think the pilots did not work and everything had to be match lit. Lol, maybe some more money should have been spent at Sears.

 

[lotsosudz]

Memories

My Paternal Grandfolks had A matching Westinghouse laundromat, W/matching how dry I am dryer. Later when my Gramps passed, she moved into an apartment with a 56 GE filter flo pair, Later she inherited a 59 80 series Kenmore washer with an old mechanical timer Norge dryer. My Maternal Grams had a Voss Wringer, Bendix Economat, then a 1963 Lady Kenmore washer.

 

[seedub]

Shown here is a representative of my Grandfather's (maternal) Laundromat stacked pair, bought new in 1964. His were white in color. They replaced the early '51 Laundromat pair that were my family's first automatic laundry machines. My Aunt claimed he bought them solely because Betty Furness was hawking them.

The architect of the house that the family built in 1962 committed malpractice and designed a laundry closet that had a 220 volt outlet for a clothes dryer...but no room for a dryer. We used a clothesline until the washer died.

Despite what I've seen here at AW about spotty reliability, we were very lucky - ours had only two repairs, and outlived Granddaddy; and I went from Watching The Clothes Go Round at age 3 to washing the last load at age 20, when we decided to replace the thing rather than repair it. The dryer was replaced three years before with a 1981 Spacemates.

 

[seedub]

On my Dad's side, my Grandma had two sets of machines, loosely represented here. The Kenmore I saw at the age of 4 for a total of two hours (she and her husband lived on the other side of the USA from me) in the first house she moved in when she arrived in Los Angeles. It would be another three years before I visited my Dad; by then, Grandma had relocated to a bungalow that had a Westinghouse stacked Laundromat pair. Hers were yellow, and more deluxe than these, with the multicolored pushbuttons. I last was in California in 1976. When I visited again nine years later, she had replaced the washer with a gold unit circa mid '70s. It featured a tub light and a Weigh-to-Save drop down door which locked during the spin portions of the cycle. She still had that and the ancient yellow dryer when arthritis and Alzheimer's forced her out of the bungalow and into my Aunt's house.