Mangle
In the early thirties when I was just a wee laddie, laundry day involved the use of a mangle. It was used to iron bed sheets, tablecloths, and other items too large to conveniently iron by hand. Mom had one, and I remember watching her use it. The piece to be ironed was smoothed and positioned over the cylinder, and a foot pedal started the cylinder turning and lowered the hot ironing head down on the sheet moving through. A sheet would need two passes through the contraption before it was ready to be neatly folded.
Iron bed sheets, you say? This was before the day of no-iron fabrics, and what conscientious housewife would dare put wrinkled sheets on a bed, forsooth? Grounds for divorce, I would say.
Housewife, you say?
I had better quit while I’m still ahead.
Dave, which I sometimes helped with ironing but forget how.
Yeah you’d better. Quit while you’re ahead. I love my wrinkled sheets. I look for high cotton content so they look the most wrinkled out of the dryer. I sleep better on wrinkles. Darn… I can’t type this in aqua and insert little smiley faces. Sorry dad, you’ll just have to put up with this plain boring type. (=;
I’ve never heard of a mangle. See how much I learn on your blog?? I have heard of the days when sheets and tablecloths were ironed, and always wondered how they managed that without it dragging on the floor.
Let’s hear it for the reintroduction of the mangle!! Or not.
I stole the picture from a listing on eBay. If you want one, there are many still available.
Mom was an amazing person, ahead of her time in many ways. Do I dare say that if she had come along a generation later she would have been an enthusiastic women’s libber? (Okay, I won’t say it.)
You may or may not know that there always was some tension between her and certain of Dad’s straight-laced Methodist sisters. I name no names.
Tension? Straight laced Methodist sisters? Do tell. Don, Tom, do you know what he’s talking about? Sounds interesting!
Marguerite was an amazing person. I loved how she was always interested in current events, always up on everything.