Fresh New Day» 092 – Along came George

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
– Arthur C. Clarke

There are many electrical appliances (aka energy leeches) we use every day that have been designed for the express purpose of saving time and making certain chores easier to do. These appliances utilise modern technological advances to help convert onerous tasks into something that can happen at the push of a button. The problem is you can become so dependent on these appliances that you forget what it was like before they ever existed – that is until one of them breaks down as it did for me a few days ago.

Our washing machine stopped working. I had a pile of clothes to wash and we needed some of these items for work the next day. I ended up arriving on my mother’s doorstep with a basketful of clothes and it felt odd. Lynsey did try to wash his shirts by hand (this really impressed me but then again he was desperate he needed a shirt to wear to work in the morning) but the problem was that he couldn’t wring out enough water so we could dry them quickly.

This got me thinking …

When I was little my mother did all the washing by hand. This was a mammoth task which involved boiling water in a copper. I remember the wash shed in the back of our house. It had the obligatory concrete tub. There was the washboard with its ridged surface where individual items were scrubbed using harsh soaps that were definitely not kind to the skin or the fabric. Water was wrung out of all the articles by hand. It is no wonder there was no such thing as gyms in those days – women had a workout just doing the daily chores. Doing the laundry reeked of hard work in those days. Imagine how heavy the items must have been when you were hanging them out to dry.

Then I remember the agitator washing machine with the wringer that you had to feed the wet washing through over and over to squeeze the water out. Along the way there were the odd mishap with fingers, and even hands, finding their way through the wringer as well.

I next remember the twin tub hoovermatic – one tub washed, the other tub spun the clothes. They were nifty little machines even if they did sound like a plane taking off when they were spinning the water out of the washing.

By the time I was married I was fortunate to have an automatic washing machine – water came into the machine automatically and filled the drum to a preset level, it washed and spun the items and expelled the water through hoses out into the pipes. I just had to turn some knobs and load and unload the machine. Over the years as one machine wore out, and couldn’t be repaired any more, the next model I would purchase would have some new feature making it supposedly ‘smarter’ and more efficient than the one before.

My current washing machine has a touch panel. No effort is required. You place your clothes in, add some soap powder, select the programme from a number of options and walk away. What could be easier – as long as it works. When it doesn’t I find having a friendly George who I can phone always helps. Along he comes, works out what’s wrong, replaces the necessary component and then we’re back in business.

In my time I’ve done a fair amount of hand washing – mostly of delicate items and woollens – but this has been by choice because I wanted to look after these particular items. Today many people in the modern world don’t hand wash anything. I have looked at so many house that don’t even have a wash tub in the laundry – all they have room for is a washer and a drier. However in some parts of the world nothing has changed and women have to wash items in buckets of water or down at the river as depicted in this video. I wonder how many children in our society would know how to wash their clothes by hand like this little girl.

I am so thankful that I have hot and cold running water so freely available to me in my home.

I am so thankful that I have the money to buy a washing machine and pay for the electricity that runs it.

I realised as I watched George fix our machine this evening how grateful I am that there are people out there with the skills to repair these appliances when they stop working.

I also realised how much I relied on my washing machine, and all the other appliances available to me in my home. They make such a difference in my day and being without them … oh, I can’t even stomach the thought.

Manifesto
28. Every day you will be tested.
44. Every day remember how far you have come.
47. Every day you are responsible.

Fresh New Day

092 – Along came George

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