Memories (part three) - the bathroom & kitchen

Continuing along with my earliest childhood memories - we move on to the bathroom and kitchen in the tiny apartment. My Dad's older sister moved into this same apartment after we moved out, and lived there for a few years. So some of my memories of just how small the spaces were are not all from age three and younger.

The bathroom resembled more a small closet or hallway than it did a true bathroom. Just like the inherent nature of a hallway - the bathroom was short, narrow and oh so lacking in space. There was barely enough room for a toilet and sink, let alone a bathtub. As memory serves, I recall there was a shower stall at one end of the room rather than an actual bathtub. I vaguely remember my baths at that time being taken in a small tub filled with water and set inside the shower stall.

The kitchen was also more like a hallway - the refrigerator was at the end opposite the door, with the kitchen sink and stove running along one side - and the table against the wall on the other side. If someone was sitting at the table, it was impossible to walk past them or to gain access to stove, cupboards or sink.

Just inside the doorway to the kitchen and across from the sink - sandwiched in a corner there was a washing machine. Not like those found in homes today - but this was a white enameled metal tub with an agitator inside, a motor underneath, and a hose that could hook onto the side of a tub or sink for draining. (see images taken from the internet below).

But most important and fascinating of all were the motorized roller ringers on one side where clothing could be fed through, and the water wrung out of them. More than once I remember getting my hand, or even my whole arm, caught in those rollers as I tried to “help” Mom with laundry duties. Of course the clothes dryer was in good weather the clothes line out back - and in bad weather it was a clothes line stretched from wall-to-wall in the living room.