“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out”.
~Ray Bradbury
What coffee taught me about life: History of Laundry
I am not a big fan of coffee. I don’t particularly dislike it either. But long and meaningful conversations over coffee, definitely! It’s limitless–where random thoughts eventually develop into creative ideas, deeper insights and even potentially life-changing realizations. Ranging from life, family, culture, religion, history, sports, fashion, literature, travel, you never know where a cup of coffee will take you.
Today, it transported me back in time to the 1930s.
This is a vintage hand-operated wringer washer that we spotted earlier in an antique shop for $175.
I was fascinated by how this contraption was designed–the simple yet remarkably fine workmanship of this piece (which I thought was a baking equipment at first, it looked like a rolling pin! Haha)
I learned it was widely used in the UK and in much of Europe and North America–back in those days before automatic washing machines were invented.
The roller on top of the machine is the “wringer”, made of either wood or hard rubber that squeezes excess water out of the clothes when fed into them.
Yes, it’s a sloooow and laborious process which will most likely take up your entire day. Whoah! But hey, when I was a kid, I used to walk down to the river with our househelper to wash our clothes. She would mercilessly beat the clothes with a wooden bat, stomp or slam them on the rocks (pretty brutal thinking about it now!). You don’t even wanna know how long the entire process took, probably twice or thrice the number of cycles on a standard washing machine nowadays. But it was a very effective method in getting rid of the dirt and the clothes came out cleaner than I thought. Surprisingly, despite the technological advances and improvements in this modern age, this antiquated laundry method is still being practiced today in my hometown and even in some parts of the world.
What’s your coffee story today? 🙂
Life Through the Windshield 