Wondering about wild grapes

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Wondering if I am on the mends?

I feel a little better today, but the day is not over yet.  I kinda feel like the clothes going through the ringer in my Mother's washing machine when I was a kid.  Now, should I hang myself out to dry?  Do any of you remember clothes washing day way back when?  My job was getting out the clothes line poles.  My Dad's job was putting up the clothes line.  The line zigzagged back and forth across part of their back yard.  She always said that laundry didn't smell clean until it was hung outside.  Now, of course, that was back before air pollution got so bad (grin).


I always feel warm and fuzzy when I think back to my youth.  Not that I didn't have problems, I sure enough did.  They said I had rheumatic fever twice and would be left with a heart murmur.  Well, I wasn't.  I owe my growing up healthy to my Mom.  She took real good care of me.  You see, they didn't think she could have a baby, but I surprised everyone, being born to a woman past her prime.  I had to be born by Caesarean section.  Then while my Mom was still in the hospital, a blood clot went through her heart and lungs.  They said she was very, very lucky to have survived that.  My Mom said that it caused some serious pain.

Yep, I am an only child and yep, my Mom spoiled me.  But she taught me well and I think I turned out not too much of a spoiled brat.  You see, she taught me to share my toys.  I always took real good care of my toys but when I shared them, the other brats messed them all up.  Some of the ones that I didn't share, I saved and gave to my sons.  They finished the job of messing them all up.  Now, the sun is finally shining and I want you all to have a great day, you hear?

18 comments:

  1. When I was a real small kid I got my hand too close to the wringer and it went in up to my elbow! Scared my mom to death. I still hang my clothes out on the line to dry except for today when it's just too darn cold. The cold didn't stop the old folks though - they had no choice.

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    1. Those ringers would suck anything into them. You had to be careful. Well tell me, is your one arm longer than the other one (grin).

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    2. I think it's a little more flattened out!

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  2. Howdy DD,
    When I was a little bitty boy, well, I was born at 4.5#, I ran the 'pokin' stick through the wringer !!! A neighbor kid 'flattened' her arm with the wringer, up to her shoulder !!! When we came to the ranch I put 'new' coated wire up for Joyce to 'air-dry' clothes, but as soon as she could she got her a 'dryer' and I've been wearing scratchy clothes ever since !!!
    Hope you get to feelin' better and have a HAPPY DAY !!!

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    1. 4.5# is a little boy!! Yes, there is something refreshing about putting on clothes dried outside.

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  3. Mom and dad used to talk about our neighbor lady who had pendulous breasts. One day, as she was turning the wringer handle....you got it.

    Mom always tried to save water by not rinsing our clothes. She'd drape our cotton socks over the buckstove in the winter to dry. I can still hear them "cracking" as we'd shove our feet into those soap-stiff socks.

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    1. I guess you wouldn't have to wash your feet if the socks contained all that soap.

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  4. I remember the wringer type washers well... did a post about them with a picture ... can't remember when though but related the story of my Aunt Maudie Mae... I'm not kidding!

    She was large breasted woman ... 8 kiddos ... she wore no brassiere ... the story goes ... she bent over and well, got a breast caught in the wringer... my Mother (a very dainty preacher's wife) giggled with her hand over her mouth when she told the story and how it took three men to tear the machine apart while comforting her....

    I remember the smells of sun dried clothes ... nothing like it. HOpe you feel better!

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    1. I will never feel the same when I think about wringer washing machines. . .

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  5. Bro B has my mom's old magtag wringer,,, she never got rid of anything. He ices down beer in it sometimes.

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  6. Ahhh... wringer washers.... such memories. This comment just isn't long enough for all my memories .. funny as they are. But... a couple of years ago we lived in Costa Rica and the washing machine (?) there was quite interesting... and we only had a clothes line to dry (clothes got dry before noon).... I'll report back next week when we're there again... maybe we'll have another 3rd World Country washer comparable to that "T-T in wringer washer you're writing about. ;-)

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    1. I think the old method got the clothes cleaner, at least they smelled that way.

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  7. Oh darn... I forgot to ask you how you're feeling? Did I miss your post yesterday or did you have the "feel bads"? I sure hope all is okay.

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    1. I am still under the weather, but am improving tonight. Have a bad cough that I just can't get rid of. It is making me tired. It is a lot of work to cough all the time.

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  8. " I always took real good care of my toys but when I shared them, the other brats messed them all up."

    I too am an only child and though my mother tried and tried to get me to share...that lesson was lost on me and to this day I do not like to share a single thing...I guess that makes me "selfish" ?

    Hope you get to feeling better.

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    1. I am a lot more selfish now than I used to be. I worked hard for all I got and I am going to keep it. . . Well, at least until my will is read. If one doesn't work hard for something, they don't put a high value on it. I also cherish relics from my family's older generations.

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  9. I do remember how wringer washer and put rubber diapers through that wringer diapers and explodes and I ruined a couple of shirts
    Did you ever get anything caught in a wringer?or ruined a couple of shirts?

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    1. Yes, and do you remember what happens when you get a big air bubble in heavy wet fabric that is going through the ringer?

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