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Bliss Bubble Monday Reminiscing


Monday was always
wash day
This was the very same washing machine
we had in our kitchen,
The Hotpoint Empress,
not the Princess, 
but the pretty impressive Empress!
Largest washing machine on the street, so mum said!

It had a very big, black agitator
in the middle swishing the clothes round.
First delicate whites,
next white sheets,
next colours,
last dad's mucky pit clothes! 

I loved the little door
 to the house underneath!
It was a storage area for all associated
wash-day paraphernalia. 
I nearly fitted  inside that house, as I remember!
I also remember my very best friend Elaine,
she got her wrist stuck in the mangle, 
 putting her fingers where she oughtn't
when mum had her back turned,
she ended up at the doctors! 

The Empress sat next to the pot sink,
it doubled up as a counter
where I was sat at night to get rubbed down
after my bath!

HAPPY DAYS

Comments

rebecca said…
i love memories...and yours has taken me right there to that comfort in childhood of fitting into small cozy spaces. and being small enough to be bathed in your grandmother's kitchen sink. and dried off with the hands of those who loved you even before you were born.
it's so easy for me to imagine how we would have sought each other out as childhood friends, recognizing a perfect connection, had our worlds squeezed a bit smaller to place us in arms length.

how blessed are we to realize a kindred spirit across all miles and time...


xoxoxoxoxoxox,
rebecca
11 January 2011 at 00:07
gma said…
I remember wash day too. Hanging clothes on the line still connects me to the old ones.
Even though I have a dryer now some things are better air dried.
11 January 2011 at 02:29
Noelle Clearwater said…
I love the way you weave such a tale out of this old and lovely memory of family wash days from your childhood. "delicates, whites, sheets, colors, and dad's mucky pit clothes" I wondered if the "delicates" were you and your siblings? I can recall fitting into small places myself, mostly under bank tables when my mom was writing checks, since we didn't own a house, but lots of mischief there. I think the most important thing was the love, the getting "rubbed down" after a bath wasn't it? That was the best part of wash day. Lovely post Sue.
xoxo,
Noelle
11 January 2011 at 06:53
Charlotte said…
A lovely nostalgic story

The pic of you at the bottom looks like mysterious code 7M10 - wonder if that has any hidden meaning for us? Might Google it!
11 January 2011 at 15:55
Carola Bartz said…
What is it with Mondays and wash day? It's been like that when I was a child, and while we were in Amish country a few years ago I noticed that Monday is their wash day as well. My wash day is Saturday of all days since I need to wash my daughter's sports uniform that she will need on Mondays again for school... But with modern washing machines laundry is not a big task anymore! That was pretty different when I was a child. My mom had a seperate spinner because the washer wouldn't do spinning, and every time she had that spinner going she had to hold it, otherwise it would dance through the kitchen!
12 January 2011 at 05:36
ana @ i made it so said…
such sweet memories... (except the mangled fingers bit! yowch!).. something i admire so much about the way things had specific days back then. you knew what to expect, and what was expected.

i'm dropping by to wish you a happy new year sue!
13 January 2011 at 01:56
Annie Jeffries said…
Such a tender memory. Your words created the clearest picture in my own mind of this scene. I remember that washing machine and the bathing in the kitchen. We didn't have one but it was the one everyone wanted. My bathtub in the quonset hut we lived in was my own little bathtub for the year we lived there.
15 January 2011 at 17:04
Jane said…
Thank you, Sue ... for the white washer in the kitchen, and the tiny door underneath, the evening rub-down, and even the mangled fingers. Part of your story that give your readers a chance to remember ... thank you.

Been missing you, and thinking of you often. Just been scattered, but I'm still here :)

xo Jane
27 January 2011 at 20:55
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