Back in the 1940's, Saturday was always wash day at our house.  My mom
had a green THOR ringer washer and two galvinized wash tubs for
rinsing.  The washer was in the basement and the clotheslines were
behind the house.  We had to carry the wet clothes out the basement
door, up the front steps, and around to the back of the house to hang
them up to dry. 
The ringers on the washer had a release button that we could hit if
anything got "stuck" in there.  Mother was always afraid I was going to
get my hands caught in there and would watch every move I made when she
finally alowed me to use the ringers.
I can remember sousing those clothes up and down to my elbows and
beyond while rinsing them in the tubs.
Mother also had a two burner gas hotplate hooked up in the basement and
cooked a pot of soup beans (pinto) every washday.  After I got a little
bit older, she allowed me and the neighborhood girls try our hand at
cooking on that hotplate.  She could keep a close eye on us while we
were washing, and that's how I and most of the neighborhood girls
learned to cook.  She let us cook just about anything we wanted to. 
Everyone that came to cook, also had to help hang the clothes up on the
clothesline.
Then after the clothes were dry, we had to take them down, fold them up
and put away the ones that didn't need to be ironed.  The ones that did
need to be ironed were sprinkled with water, rolled up, put in a towel,
and put in the ice box; later the refrigerator, for ironing on Monday.
In the early 1950's, my mom re-married and my step-father bought an
automatic washer.  Mother wouldn't let him buy a dryer though.  She
never got one of those until probably the late 1970's to early 1980's.

Doris Mathis