Tom Says: “Goodbye old friend…”
If it’s at all possible to become friends with a washing machine, the Youngs’ — Tom and Diana — this past weekend, finally say goodbye to an old friend.
I’m quite sure neither one of us will be around to find out whether or not they still build em’ like they used to. If your television viewing goes back ten years or more, then you likely remember the late Gordon Jump. After his role as Mr. Carlson on “WKRP in Cincinnati,” Jump went on to become “The loneliest man in town,” playing the role of the Maytag repair man who never got called — because the Maytag washing machine simply never broke down.
The Youngs’ can attest to this claim. More than 40 years ago, shortly after we married, we purchased a Maytag washing machine. This past weekend, we said goodbye to our 40 year old friend. The machine still worked fine, but redoing our basement and installing new carpeting seemed like a perfect time to be out with the old and in with the new. The machine was so old that all of the numbers and letters had been worn off of it’s rotary dial and replaced with magic marker to show where the washing cycle began and where it ended.
We’ve concluded that machine did somewhere around 18-thousand washings while in our home. Our first daughter, Meaghan, was one of those who used the cloth diapers so Mom had to make sure they were washed everyday. The other children in the house graduated from disposable diapers, but even then — one or two loads of washing per day were not uncommon.
Thousands of pounds of detergent, hundreds of gallons liquid and fabric softener and hundreds of thousands of litres of water have all combined to provide the Young family with 40 years of clean clothes. I haven’t had a chance to use the new machine, but one thing I do know — it’s got more dials than the old one. How well it works — will only be answered by the passage of time.
Replacing the machine didn’t exactly bring a tear to my eye, since white always looked better than green anyway. By the way, three dryers came and went before our parting of the ways.
I’m Tom Young.