Dryin’ To The Oldies
A recent bout of spring cleaning turned into an archaeological dig when Sherry uncovered this piece of ancient history:
Ok, so it’s no dinosaur bone, but who expects to find something this dated in their own filing cabinet? What we had stumbled upon was the installation manual for our old – wait, scratch that – REALLY OLD dryer, which has since been donated to make way for our new front-loaders. (Below is the only pic we have the old stuff, which was taken mid-demo. It was too ugly to photograph otherwise.)
Somehow we didn’t see the manual during our first flip through the files we inherited from our home’s previous owner. But based on the vintage illustrations and old school Sears, Roebuck and Co. logo we were able to determine that the manual (and therefore the ol’ Kenmore dryer) was from the 1950s. Which means that our former laundry appliances were probably original (!) to our 1956 house. We actually shouldn’t be that shocked. As Lowe’s was hauling our dryer away to be donated the guy was rambling about how he’d never seen such an archaic appliance with actual cinder blocks built right into the base to keep it from scooting around.
Admittedly, I now feel some pangs of guilt for letting go of such an “antique”. But we’re sure there have been just a few significant dryer developments in the last half of a century, so we can certainly appreciate that we’re cleaning our clothes in less time with less noise while using less electricity. Oh and the new front loading version is also a heck of a lot easier on the eyes.
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Very cool to find that!!! Do you have the original deed to your house? We were given ours and can trace the house from the land that was given to this man’s daughter in 1910, through selling it, divorces, etc. An amazing piece of history. I love the wife in heels and daughter in matching dress standing back watching the installation man (hubby?) while he slides those cinder blocks across her shiny, sparkling floor!
Fun! I like the flair on their dresses.
I love what you did to the back of the laundry space…so easy and yet such a nice way to hide the mechanicals, but still give easy access to the water shut-offs.
What a great find! Have you thought about framing a page and putting it in your current laundry nook? I could be a fun piece of art…
Ooh, framing it is a great idea. I do love quirky old finds. We actually have a quirky drawing of our lot framed in the living room. It’s funny to see our tiny house drawn on a big rectangular acre of land. Plus at the top there are a few notes about land size and coordinates and the last note is a tiny sentence that crack us up. It reads: “House is old.”
xo
Sherry
do you still have the old manual? i think it would be cool to frame it somehow and use it as art in your laundry closet area???
Hey Tammylee,
That’s definitely a cute idea! And yes, we do still have our retro little manual. It cracks us up and it’s so fun to show visitors. The funniest thing to us is that our dryer was soooo old when we inherited it (hence them passing that manual down to us). Crazy!
xoxo,
Sherry
Ha! I love this! Our 1955 house came with the washing machine hookups in the kitchen, a clothesline in the backyard and the (much later than ’55) hookups for the dryer in the garage! I guess women used to cook and do the laundry in one convenient and central location with a great view of the 7 kids in the backyard!
I’m thankful the previous owners had a dryer installed in the garage, and can’t wait to build a laundry room in the garage, and get the extra counter space in the kitchen. I see an overhaul in our future… distant future!