In the autumn of 1987, the entire household of Mira Kos of Ljubljana held its breath. The old washing machine, a rattling, rust-bitten contraption that Mira’s husband had “borrowed” from his cousin’s garage, had finally given up the ghost mid-spin. It groaned, shuddered, and died, leaving a small flood of grey water and three sets of muddy football clothes from her sons, Tomaž and Luka, sitting in a tub.
Thump-thump-thump.
The Gorenje WA 543 ran for another ten years. When it finally did stop—the motor burned out during a heavy wash of muddy curtains—Mira didn’t throw it away. She cleaned it, dried it, and put it in the garden shed. She planted geraniums in its drum, and the blue lid became a little roof for the flowers. Gorenje Wa 543 Manual
Then, the new century arrived. Plastic became chrome. Buttons became touch-sensitive screens. The Gorenje sat in the corner, looking blocky and quaint. Her daughter Ana, home from university, scoffed. “Mama, this thing is an antique. It uses 80 liters of water per wash! My new washing machine connects to the internet. It has an app.” In the autumn of 1987, the entire household
For the next fifteen years, the Gorenje WA 543 was the silent heartbeat of the Kos household. It washed the tiny, hand-knitted jumpers for Luka’s baby sister, Ana. It spun the mud off Ivan’s gardening trousers every spring. It endured the teenage years—the leaked biro pens that turned an entire load of whites a delicate shade of navy, the forgotten tissues that exploded into a blizzard of fluff. Each time, Mira would sigh, consult the Troubleshooting section of the manual (“Problem: Laundry is covered in white residue. Solution: Reduce detergent. Or stop leaving tissues in pockets.”), and fix it. Thump-thump-thump
