How I Live... For Old-time's Sake Pam's Low-Tech Life

PAM GODDARD (73) CHOOSES HER DECADESOLD APPLIANCES AHEAD OF ANY MODERN, NEW-FANGLED WHITEWARE.

“Well firstly, I don’t like anything automatic. I like to be in charge and the thought of an automatic washing machine just fills me with horror because I’ve used a ringer machine for 44 years.

With an automatic you can’t see what’s happening inside and whether the rinsing water’s dirty. I just couldn’t imagine being without my ringer machine to be honest.

We bought it second-hand and my husband David (75) has mended it several times with parts of other old ones that people put out on the side of the road.

You don’t see them now − I think they’re all in museums − so when it broke down the last time he said, ‘That’s it, it’s history if it breaks down again.’ I thought l better have a plan B. That’s when I rang our local paper thinking that maybe somebody had an old one under their house, and that’s exactly what happened.

A kind lady in Cambridge rang and said, ‘I have my mother’s washing machine here. It’s exactly like yours. She died in 1989, it’s never been used since and I can’t bring myself to get rid of it. Would you like it?’ Incidentally, her mother’s name was Pam as well, so it looks as if it was meant to be.