Whirly Pooley

I usually give my appliances names.  It makes them feel more friendly.  I am sure that they appreciate it. Or not, it doesn't really matter to me.  I call my dishwasher Whirly Pooley, origin obvious, I suspect.  I recently commented to someone who mentioned that they hadn't had a dishwasher for 13 years that I love my dishwasher.  The one in this house and in the rental before that had not worked well or at all, so I replaced that one with this one as soon as I could.  When asked how often I run her, the answer is every 2 or 3 days.  I am only one person and I don't cook that much.

But, reflecting on the subject of dishwashers, I have to confess that I have had them in my life since I was a teen in the 1960s.  My dad thought that dishwashers were more sanitary and we would all get less sick if we had a dishwasher.  Both my parents taught school and the dishwasher was a way to help out my mom.  But, even more so, it helped me.  I had developed eczema on my hands.  Washing dishes made it worse, so I was one of the reasons we got a dishwasher.  I never had to help wash dishes, just load the dishwasher.

Newly married we lived in an apartment without a dishwasher.  My new husband had no interest in helping with the dishes or being nagged about not helping, so "he" bought a dishwasher, although we both worked, so it seems more "we".  It was a portable dishwasher and we moved it around the world with us.  It went to Okinawa, Japan; Orlando, Florida; and Honolulu, Hawaii before we sold it.

Briefly in Missouri we lived without a dishwasher, but my son was a teenager without eczema and he helped with dishes.  When he started college we moved to a house with a dishwasher and I have had one ever since.  This is a rather long and boring post, but it is just to say, dishwashers have been around a while and have changed some since the 1960s, but essentially they work the same.  To me they are an important appliance in the kitchen and I hope to never be without one.