A friend was talking about the old twin-tub washing machines that finally went out of fashion in the early 1980s with the advent of modern machines. I couldn't help but think back to my experience with a twin-tub machine.
My children were small, so my twin-tub was always on the go. Sometimes I needed to do a couple of separate loads of washing to keep on top of things. It was a particularly busy day, the kids were getting under my feet, and I had two separate loads of washing to get through. The first lot was washed and spun. And the second load had started its wash cycle, I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when the machine stopped suddenly in mid-wash. I was aghast, I couldn't take the children and the washing down to my mother's or my mother-in-law's. For a start, my mother never cleaned. She was far too glamorous for that; she had a housekeeper, even in the outback of Australia and the edge of the South African jungle, she still managed to find house cleaners to employ. I couldn't think who I could call on to help, then, suddenly. I had a brainwave. Living in isolated places, you see people using all sorts of strange methods to resolve tricky situations. I vaguely remembered watching someone siphon petrol from a car into a can. What a brainwave! I got the big, long tube from the washing machine and placed one end in the filthy, soapy water. Then, without further ado, I stood over the machine, placed the dry side of the tube in my mouth and took a gawd almighty suck!! It all happened so fast. Suddenly, I was choking and unable to take in air, the filthy, smelly, soapy water was clogging my throat. No air at all was getting into my lungs from my throat or nose. I staggered back and collapsed on the floor. Just then, my children came into the room. My eldest daughter wasn't quite five years old. Her little sister was just three, and my son, the baby, was 17 months old. The four-year-old sister was parading around the house with one of my bras around her neck (unfortunately, a tatty old one). Her little sister had one black stocking hanging from one of her arms. My baby son was caked in makeup and lipstick.. I think they all realised Mummy was in trouble because of the way I was pointing frantically to my throat. Clever little children panicked and ran out of the house, leaving me to my fate. I never found out which neighbour they went to first, but they came back very quickly with half the entire neighbourhood in tow.
Fortunately, the adults wasted no time in calling 999 and an Ambulence. deciding who would care for the children and getting the men to work on my washing machine. No one had a clue what had happened; the neighbourhood thought I'd had a heart attack!!
At the hospital, I was rushed into the Crash unit. Doctors and nurses surprised me. "Her pulse is extremely high noted one. It seemed they all had something to say while I lay there, unable to speak, crying internally, "WATER U NEED WATER." No one could understand by blabbering, I have no idea how long I lay there with all these doctors giving different opinions. Finally, I dont know how I managed it, but somehow I croaked "WATER" A shape nurse managed toi work out what I was saying, she brought over some water and held my head while I carefully sipped it. Never before or since have I sipped anything as wonderful as that fresh water. The endlessly kind neighours looked after the children, feeding and bathing them, then getting them into bed and telling them stories. I could hardly look at the neighbours, they made such a fuss of me, in fact, for days, they brought me gifts. I never had the guts to tell them what really happened that day. They couldn't fix that nasty twin tub, so eight of the neighbours chipped together for a REAL Washer/dryer that "Drained automatically."
I will always regret that I could NEVER bring myself to tell those lovely neighbours that I was a ploinker and an idiot. <3
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