Oh, have I got appliance stories for you................. We married in 1980. My husband got a job in a town of about 600 people. Only one place to rent. We had to live there. He was the new town cop. A 1950s 10 X 55 mobile home was all there was. It took a week to clean. A motorcycle gang had lived there. Bad doesn't begin to describe it, but when we were done that aqua blue range and refrigerator gleamed. Sinks, toilet and bathtub also aqua blue. Really retro. No place to put a washing machine or dryer. There is no laundry mat in town. We bought a tiny apartment size portable washing machine. I stored in in the tiny second bedroom. On laundry day, I rolled the little washer into the bathroom, hooked up a hose to the sink faucet, put the drain hose into the bathtub and beginning filling the basin. When the wash cycle ended the water drained into the tub. I then had to move the very wet clothes to the spin basin which was next to the wash basin. That spin cycle worked like a charm. It was like those spinners you find in the locker room at the swimming pool. Hung wet laundry outside on nice days. Inside on a rack on cold days. Jump forward several years and we buy our first home. 3 kids by now and we moved to a rain forest. There will be no hanging clothes outside to dry. Our budget demanded used appliances vs new. We saw an ad for a washer/dryer set for $100 and jumped on it. When we picked it up the owner says "oh and heres the roll of contact paper. You set the dial on regular. Close the lid and then smack the dial with this" That was the only way to get the mechanism to kick in and get the motor running. We used that $50 washing machine for 2 years and had to smack it with the roll of contact paper for every load. Finally, that no longer worked. We had a repair guy come in and replace the dial and it's innards. It worked for a while longer. Then the dryer died. My husband, who was now a policeman and a fireman, knew of another fireman who had a side job of repairing appliances and reselling them. We bought a dryer for $50. It was coin operated. We took the front of the coin box off so we could reach in and keep using the same quarters to get the dryer going. I told our kids, "Don't you even thinking of "borrowing" those quarters. They stay with the dryer." When my sister came to Alaska to visit from Colorado she said, "Is there anything I can do?" I said you can move the clothes in the washer to the dryer. The quarters are in the box." She went downstairs and I told my daughter, "Aunt Patty does not believe we have a coin operated dryer." Patty came upstairs and said "What in the world???" I knew she did not believe me. If God gives you a coin operated dryer you thank Him and keep track of the quarters. Amen
Oh, have I got appliance stories for you................. We married in 1980. My husband got a job in a town of about 600 people. Only one place to rent. We had to live there. He was the new town cop. A 1950s 10 X 55 mobile home was all there was. It took a week to clean. A motorcycle gang had lived there. Bad doesn't begin to describe it, but when we were done that aqua blue range and refrigerator gleamed. Sinks, toilet and bathtub also aqua blue. Really retro. No place to put a washing machine or dryer. There is no laundry mat in town. We bought a tiny apartment size portable washing machine. I stored in in the tiny second bedroom. On laundry day, I rolled the little washer into the bathroom, hooked up a hose to the sink faucet, put the drain hose into the bathtub and beginning filling the basin. When the wash cycle ended the water drained into the tub. I then had to move the very wet clothes to the spin basin which was next to the wash basin. That spin cycle worked like a charm. It was like those spinners you find in the locker room at the swimming pool. Hung wet laundry outside on nice days. Inside on a rack on cold days. Jump forward several years and we buy our first home. 3 kids by now and we moved to a rain forest. There will be no hanging clothes outside to dry. Our budget demanded used appliances vs new. We saw an ad for a washer/dryer set for $100 and jumped on it. When we picked it up the owner says "oh and heres the roll of contact paper. You set the dial on regular. Close the lid and then smack the dial with this" That was the only way to get the mechanism to kick in and get the motor running. We used that $50 washing machine for 2 years and had to smack it with the roll of contact paper for every load. Finally, that no longer worked. We had a repair guy come in and replace the dial and it's innards. It worked for a while longer. Then the dryer died. My husband, who was now a policeman and a fireman, knew of another fireman who had a side job of repairing appliances and reselling them. We bought a dryer for $50. It was coin operated. We took the front of the coin box off so we could reach in and keep using the same quarters to get the dryer going. I told our kids, "Don't you even thinking of "borrowing" those quarters. They stay with the dryer." When my sister came to Alaska to visit from Colorado she said, "Is there anything I can do?" I said you can move the clothes in the washer to the dryer. The quarters are in the box." She went downstairs and I told my daughter, "Aunt Patty does not believe we have a coin operated dryer." Patty came upstairs and said "What in the world???" I knew she did not believe me. If God gives you a coin operated dryer you thank Him and keep track of the quarters. Amen