I purchased this Maytag pair from the original owner last fall. They even came with the manuals! Both are 1976 models, the washer is an A806 from July of that year, and the dryer is a DG808 from June of the same year.
They saw little use. The elderly woman was sad to see them go, and as we were moving them up the basement stairs started to cry!
She just turned 90, and was moving (not of her own free will BTW) to a nursing home. What bothered me, was her daughter told her to "stop crying" as she will have new things and new friends where she is going.
The mother replied "you just wait, your day is coming" It seemed to me that the daughter didn't care that her mom was moving from a neighborhood and friends she knew for 50 years..

Dwight, thank you for sharing the story & the machines, but how sad.

Thanks for sharing these wonderful machines; I am glad they're going to a loving home. This lady was proud of her well cared for possessions and rightfully so. She and her husband worked hard for them.

Far as that hag of a daughter, I'll just say good for mom for what she said, and that there's a LOT to be said for being single. No people meddling about trying to tell you what to do that you don't need. I hope she manages to embrace it in spite of this and lives and thrives long enough to use up all her money so the daughter doesn't get a cent! There are many other more comfortable and less expensive alternatives today, including staying put and enlisting help from other sources, and it sure doesn't sound like a nursing home is what this woman needs.

My father has gotten along for 80 years without me or anyone else telling him what he needs to do, and far as I'm concerned he's long since earned the right to continue doing so for as long as God sees fit that he walk this earth.

There is also a lot to be said for not being single - you can give each other exactly the support which is so sadly lacking in this "young" woman.
I think it would be a sweet gesture (obviously, I don't have to do it) if Dwight were to take the nice old lady a picture of the machines in their new home and spend time listening to her stories of domesticity through the last years. Think what this woman knows and has seen!
A treasure trove of knowledge, ideas and experiences with the machines and the era we here all so love.
As for the daughter. Well, let's see. Even if mom had her late in life (that was early thirties back then) then she has to be in her mid- fifties at the youngest.
Ms. Bitches day is coming. Hope her children aren't as cold-hearted as she is.

You can bet on me paying a visit, as she is going to a nursing home a mile and a half from me! My mother passed away from cancer when I was 20, and I would have done anything to see that she lived to this age.
The elderly woman's grand daughter works with my wife. She, just like her grandmother is a strong, and caring person. Somehow, the daughter is just strong willed minus the caring part.

Beautiful set, Dwight! These should make your washdays much brighter! :)

Dwight:

Thanks for sharing this story and the machines pics. Are you going to use them? They are awesome and will be cared for, I am sure.

Steve

Already have! Just put both into service this morning. Here is a shot of the interior, not bad for 30 years.

Center dial Maytag are my favorite vintage automatics... congratulations on acquiring them. The rest of the story.... no one knows both sides of the story except the two parites involved. I will say that when my Grandmother passed away in October of 2005, it was life altering for me. She was the "perfect" Grandmother in my opinion. She never seemed to age until about the age of 83. From 83 to 85 she aged what seemed like 20 years. That was when it became a reality that Gram wasn't going to be around forever. During that time I spent a lot of time with her, visiting and doing the things that she couldn't do anymore on her own. I also told her what she meant to me and that all of my best childhood memories revolved around her. Toward the end of her life, I know she was scared of dying. I felt so terrible that I wasn't there by her side when it happened, but the last time I saw her, which was about 2 before she pased away, my sister and I went out to dinner with her and she was just like "Gram"... full of energy, hair done, dressed up...just like "normal". It was almost like we were supposed to see her that way. I get really upset when I hear about people feeling that their own family are a "burden" because they need a little help...it just makes me sad.

Dwight, your story really hit home with me. My mom is 92, still in her own home even though she had a stroke back in April and is barely ambulatory anymore. She was completely on her own up until then, legally blind with macular degeneration, in a large home that's not as secure as it should be, cooking for herself and fiercely independent except for the fact that she hasn't been able to drive for over 20 years.

But here's the deal: She's not rich, has only Social Security income and we are now borrowing against her house (thank God it's worth a lot) to have a mother-daughter team give her care 24/7. It's costing $2K per week--per WEEK!--to do this. A room in a small 6-bed home would be around $3K a month, everything included. We are still paying the utilities and grocery bills on top of the costs of the care my mom is getting. At some point, she won't be able to afford the monthly interest payment on the equity loan anymore. Then we're stuck, we might be able to arrange a reverse mortgage but those are supposed to be avoided at all costs.

My sister isn't much better than that daughter in the way she feels about this. She's 400 miles away and I handle everything. I get sick to my stomach thinking about how my mom could end up destitute and owing a ton of money she can't afford to pay back. It's not easy for the kids involved in this kind of situation and my mom is easily as sentimental as that Maytag lady.

I'm doing what I can to keep her comfortable, she's not as sharp as she was, but she still knows the score, and as long as that's the case my partner and I know she needs to stay right where she is and we won't consider moving her out. I hope that maybe for this Maytag lady, it was a decision based on finances and not for the convenience of those who were caring for her. I know she'll love to have you visit and assure her that her Maytags are being appreciated and cared for the same way she did.

Dwight, you must be a pretty swell guy.

Ralph

are a dream!

Steve

Good for you and your partner. I can sympathize, unfortunately.
Don't reverse mortgage if you can avoid it.
Do expect sister-dearest to take legal action against you at the end when you are weakest.
That's the pattern for these wonderful family members.

I think that if there is a common thread, it is that these older but sturdy and interesting machines we covet represent the people of that generation that bought them and the past we shared with them. They were both a constant and soothing presence. The doing of lanundry cleansed more than the clothes in the family. If we can preserve a washing machine, with all of the great features from the past, our youth, and our parents and granparents can either remain intact, or be washed away by our whims. There is control in preseving the past and making it the present you want it to be. I can see an 80+ year old woman at the top of the cellar steps crying as her Maytag's leave the only home she has ever had. She lost control,no more buttons to press,no more time for laundry Monday, routine,things tht kept her sane. It will someday be us, but wont they have a hell of a time getting them all out, that will be the final joke! Phil

That's so awesome you will visit the lady and stay in contact with her.... what a wonderful thing for someone to do.

And the set is gorgeous, she really took good care of her possessions and now others can enjoy them.

I think pturo has captured things pretty well when it comes to our parents and their machines. Both of my parents went through the depression and unless it was really a fatal problem everything mechanical got fixed instead of replaced. The washer she recently replaced was a 1975 Kenmore. A Coldspot fridge of the same vintage is still her main one. And most impressive of all is the daily driver 1949 Westinghouse electric stove. My mom was always on top of her game, she had a system and routine for everything, and now at 92 she can't even cook for herself anymore. The level of frustration became too much for her and we ended up putting her on anti-depressants. They've really helped. Maybe that Maytag lady will feel better about her situation with the help of a little Zoloft.

Panthera, I think my sister will be OK when it comes time to settle things. She knows I'm doing all the work and has stated that I need to be compensated, but I don't really care about that one way or the other. I don't expect any disputes as we've discussed this enough with all the close calls we've had with my mom over the past several months. My sister is just a cold person who never had a good relationship with my mom, so there's a double whammy in play here. We're trying to avoid a reverse mortgage but will be out of options in less than a year if my mom continues to hang on. I feel bad because even my mom has made statments like "I shouldn't be here" and has apologetically stated that this isn't what she wanted to happen to our inheritance, to which both my sister and I respond, "too bad" because things are what they are and we just go forward one day at a time. The hardest thing is to see the people we pay through the nose to come in to help my mom just sitting around. They are basically being paid to do glorified babysitting and causing my mom to go broke, yet this is the only way she can still stay in her house, which is her wish.

The situation is a little different from the Maytag lady. At this point, my mom might not even know the washer and dryer were being taken away, and they are both cheap machines, a late model BOL GE washer and a funky 80's Norge dryer. Nowhere near the sentimental value of that beautiful Maytag pair that started this thread!

You really should go ahead now and study up on the transmissions and brake packages on this washer before you need to work on it. personally, I don't like this washer because of past heataches with ALL Maytags but as far as the dryer, this is a really tough booger here.