The laundry, for me, is like the frosting on the cake
September 23, 2016 12:28 PM Subscribe
This dedicated community of middle-aged men LOVES washing clothes. "Founded in 1984, the group now has 3,000 members from around the world. Members gather several times a year for what they call "wash-ins." Some even travel from as far away as Russia or Canada."
Totally awesome. Just what the Internet is for. Thanks!
My brother and I got to take apart an old washing machine when we were kids. I was shocked that there was a big lump of concrete inside. I guess I had the Tom Swift idea that machines, all shiny and white, were high-tech and electronic and super-advanced. But washing machines are a testimony to our engineering: water, electricity and movement, and somehow they last (at least a) few years!
posted by alasdair at 12:38 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
My brother and I got to take apart an old washing machine when we were kids. I was shocked that there was a big lump of concrete inside. I guess I had the Tom Swift idea that machines, all shiny and white, were high-tech and electronic and super-advanced. But washing machines are a testimony to our engineering: water, electricity and movement, and somehow they last (at least a) few years!
posted by alasdair at 12:38 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Oh man, good for them. That vertical agitator...
I have the wringer and the clothesline, I'm almost ready... I just need an old school open top washer to setup outside and I'll be ready for retirement.
posted by RolandOfEld at 12:43 PM on September 23, 2016
I have the wringer and the clothesline, I'm almost ready... I just need an old school open top washer to setup outside and I'll be ready for retirement.
posted by RolandOfEld at 12:43 PM on September 23, 2016
It makes me happy that the internet brings weird people together. Whenever people talk trash about Facebook or the Internet, I think of the paltry odds that I would have met other jumping spider enthusiasts without it.
posted by melissam at 1:06 PM on September 23, 2016 [19 favorites]
posted by melissam at 1:06 PM on September 23, 2016 [19 favorites]
As long as there is a technical aspect to it, no matter what it is, men will find a way to bond and fetishize. We are dope like that.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:23 PM on September 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:23 PM on September 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
Yeah. This made me love the world again, that a bunch of people who love something weird can get together and be weird and happy about their shared interest.
posted by bunderful at 1:26 PM on September 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by bunderful at 1:26 PM on September 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
For much, much more of this sort of thing (though a bit more solitary), find a copy of Men And Collections. Men and their sugar packets; men and their garden gnomes; men and their stovetops...
posted by BungaDunga at 1:28 PM on September 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by BungaDunga at 1:28 PM on September 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
I love that these guys exist and have found each other.
Even though it's there every year, and it makes perfect sense that that's the way things would have been done pre-electricity, I always find myself surprised and fascinated by the antique Maytag that's powered by an internal combustion engine (not this exact one, but similar) in the Old Iron Show at the MN State Fair (autoplay video, good stuff starts at 2m0s).
I am a horrible person however, so this type of washing machine appreciation is more my speed.
posted by sparklemotion at 1:38 PM on September 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
Even though it's there every year, and it makes perfect sense that that's the way things would have been done pre-electricity, I always find myself surprised and fascinated by the antique Maytag that's powered by an internal combustion engine (not this exact one, but similar) in the Old Iron Show at the MN State Fair (autoplay video, good stuff starts at 2m0s).
I am a horrible person however, so this type of washing machine appreciation is more my speed.
posted by sparklemotion at 1:38 PM on September 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
Oh, boy. Thank you sparklemotion, that was just what the doctor ordered.
posted by bricoleur at 2:21 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by bricoleur at 2:21 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Get yr dirties!
Love this. Such joy, no shame, just embrace the weirdness. First heard the video on an episode of Improv 4 Humans.
posted by kittensofthenight at 2:40 PM on September 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
Love this. Such joy, no shame, just embrace the weirdness. First heard the video on an episode of Improv 4 Humans.
posted by kittensofthenight at 2:40 PM on September 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
Do all 3000 members fit in the same basement?
I (a guy) prefer to do my laundry alone, but I'm an introvert. Since my kids were old enough, everyone has done his own laundry. I am perfectly content to do my laundry, but I would never say I LOVE it.
Yet another opportunity to put positive psychology to work.
Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can bypass the (front-loading) door interlock. That should make it more fun. Combined with alcohol intake, maybe.
posted by MtDewd at 3:20 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I (a guy) prefer to do my laundry alone, but I'm an introvert. Since my kids were old enough, everyone has done his own laundry. I am perfectly content to do my laundry, but I would never say I LOVE it.
Yet another opportunity to put positive psychology to work.
Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can bypass the (front-loading) door interlock. That should make it more fun. Combined with alcohol intake, maybe.
posted by MtDewd at 3:20 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Plus, it's a good thing I don't own a trampoline.
posted by MtDewd at 3:26 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by MtDewd at 3:26 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I gave up my wringer machine fifteen years ago when I realized I'd never find the parts I needed to get my old Apex back on the road, but laundry remains my zen practice. I find it bizarre that anyone would not love hanging out clothes on the line or taking them off the line and folding them neatly into little fragrant piles of happy.
Takes all kinds, I guess.
posted by sonascope at 3:26 PM on September 23, 2016 [7 favorites]
Takes all kinds, I guess.
posted by sonascope at 3:26 PM on September 23, 2016 [7 favorites]
Just a bunch of guys having good clean fun.
posted by sleeping bear at 4:07 PM on September 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by sleeping bear at 4:07 PM on September 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
ever see 3000 men fight over the last dryer sheet.
posted by clavdivs at 4:23 PM on September 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 4:23 PM on September 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
"I'm a spin guy"
This has got to be the drollest satire ever or the weirdest fetish imaginable.
posted by sammyo at 4:34 PM on September 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
This has got to be the drollest satire ever or the weirdest fetish imaginable.
posted by sammyo at 4:34 PM on September 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
More nerdy details in this segment from CBS Sunday Morning
posted by maggieb at 4:59 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by maggieb at 4:59 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I was in another country trying to work out how to use a relative's drier without benefit of the relative or a manual. I googled the model and the top result was a video by an autistic kid who shoots video of washers and driers for his YouTube channel. I can't say his video was useful but the way he recited the serial numbers and kept chanting "it's got a Zanussi drum" was hypnotic.
posted by w0mbat at 4:59 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by w0mbat at 4:59 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
"I'm a spin guy"
This has got to be the drollest satire ever or the weirdest fetish imaginable.
Hey, come on! I used to have a dedicated (single function) 'extractor' with a beautiful solid copper drum.
You wouldn't believe how much dryer time that baby saved -- but you know, looking back on it, that copper drum doesn't make a lot of sense. But it was pretty.
posted by jamjam at 5:21 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
This has got to be the drollest satire ever or the weirdest fetish imaginable.
Hey, come on! I used to have a dedicated (single function) 'extractor' with a beautiful solid copper drum.
You wouldn't believe how much dryer time that baby saved -- but you know, looking back on it, that copper drum doesn't make a lot of sense. But it was pretty.
posted by jamjam at 5:21 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
My dude wears five nice white shirts and five pairs of pants per week. I realized that laundering and _ironing_ all these would take a significant part of our lives, so I lobbied hard for him to take the shirts to a professional cleaner. I got a lot of pushback because he enjoyed the ironing so much. It took a lot of time, though. And there are a lot of other things to do, like reading.
posted by amtho at 5:37 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by amtho at 5:37 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
For me, it's all about taking the laundry out of the dryer and folding and stacking it, and looking at the basket of clean, warm, dry clothing, and feeling like, in the chaos of general existence, there is this one small corner of my life that is organized and fresh and peaceful.
sometimes, I lean over and get my face right up to the pile--almost, but not quite, touching, because it is clean and I am not--and take a deep breath of that clean smell.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:43 PM on September 23, 2016 [12 favorites]
sometimes, I lean over and get my face right up to the pile--almost, but not quite, touching, because it is clean and I am not--and take a deep breath of that clean smell.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:43 PM on September 23, 2016 [12 favorites]
This has got to be the drollest satire ever or the weirdest fetish imaginable.
Or the basis for the next Christopher Guest movie.
posted by octothorpe at 4:58 AM on September 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Or the basis for the next Christopher Guest movie.
posted by octothorpe at 4:58 AM on September 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
I got the distinct impression that the real focus of these gentlemen is not so much the washing of clothing as it is the design and engineering of the machines to do so. That said, those were some really beautiful machines with a surprising array of functions.
My own washer/drier were replaced recently with a pair so engrossing to watch that I call them The Entertainment Center. Microprocessors have really raised the bar on the home laundry process.
As I watch clothing dance about in surprisingly little water in the front-loader, I like to reflect on my great-grandmother who in 1905 was electrocuted by an early electric washer in the basement of her employer's home.
posted by kinnakeet at 5:00 PM on September 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
My own washer/drier were replaced recently with a pair so engrossing to watch that I call them The Entertainment Center. Microprocessors have really raised the bar on the home laundry process.
As I watch clothing dance about in surprisingly little water in the front-loader, I like to reflect on my great-grandmother who in 1905 was electrocuted by an early electric washer in the basement of her employer's home.
posted by kinnakeet at 5:00 PM on September 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
I vaguely remember a BBC TV play from long ago about two people who make friends in the launderette (as it's known there), and meet there every week. Eventually they develop a new art form where they arrange their washing in the machines purely to provide an entertaining show through the window.
posted by w0mbat at 4:55 PM on October 3, 2016
posted by w0mbat at 4:55 PM on October 3, 2016
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