The Pink Maytag

I grew up during a time when orange, avocado and gold were the "in" colors. I guess I am giving away my age but this is one aspect of my life I rarely keep secret anyway. Every decade has its color choices in the 50's it was pink.

One of the first things I noticed when I first visited my biological granma was her pink breakfast nook in her kitchen. She took pride in that it was custom made and also had a small pink booster seat that my half-sister sat in as a little girl. All her appliances at one time were pink. Pink was a significant color in their lives. One of her sister's had a custom-made pink couch and love seat. All this pink ended up in my granma's position at one time or another. She couldn't part with a pink Maytag washer and dryer set that belonged to this same sister so it sat in my granma's garage for many years.

This week in the news was a story that brought me back to all this pink. In 1957 a woman in Oklahoma bought her mother a pink Maytag set for Mother's Day. Her mom was so excited to have this new modern convenience in her favorite color. But the real kicker in this story is that it has lasted for 51 years!! Anytime it needed small repairs they were able to fix it but they handle on the dryer wouldn't stay shut and they had to prop a barrel to keep the door closed while it was operating. A call was made to see if they could replace the broken item but they no longer made the part to do so. Sadly, the mother gave up the appliances but the good thing was that they were going to the Maytag Museum.. The salesman who sold the new set to her daughter was amazed that the set was older than he was.

Today's appliance last usually 5-7 years if you are lucky. They aren't made to repair but to replace..