1968 Sears Kenmore Washer, In Action

            1968. 45 years ago. "Oliver" and "Funny Girl" were hits at the box office. "Respect" and "Grazin' in the Grass" were blaring out of every transistor radio. Mini-skirts and Nehru jackets were the style. The Chevy Impala was the nation's best-selling car; VW had 52% of the entire U.S. imported-car market.

And my parents, after five years of laundromat visits after our old Bendix Duomatic died, bought this Kenmore washer-dryer pair from the long-gone Sears at 63rd and Halsted. Sears, in those days, had everything, even motorboats in its famous "Wish Book"; in those pre-Wal-Mart days, it was where America shopped.

This washer-dryer combination has been extremely good to us; in all this time, the only time the washer conked out on us was in 1983, when it suddenly refused to go through the various parts of the cycles. The repairman diagnosed a transmission that was low on fluid. (Yes, washing machines have transmissions to govern the transition from fill to agitate to empty to rinse to spin.) He showed me how to fill it through the VERY tiny hole provided for that purpose, and the machine soldiered on for the next 30 years, until two weeks ago.

An unbent paper clip stuck down the hole diagnosed the problem: bony dry. A refill with a 1/4" tube with one end tapered and a tiny funnel on the other refilled it (it took about 6 ounces of a 12 oz bottle of trans stop-leak)

So now, it runs like a top again, ready for another 45 years, and possibly its own display at the Smithsonian, as a reminder of a time when large appliances were actually built to last, and to actually be repaired when they broke down.

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Taken on: May 4, 2013

Tags:

Chicago

Sears

Kenmore

500

washer

dryer

agitator

agitate

transmission

water

fill

clothes

wash

rinse

spin

permanent press

normal

delicate

water level

water temperature

hot

warm

cold

white

large appliance

Wish Book

1968

'68

1960's « less

Sets appears in: • Elderly Sears Appliances

Groups appears in: • Chicagoist Photos • WBEZ more » • South Side of Chicago • Chicago Reader • Chicago Fiction Writing • Mature Chicago Fiction « less

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