"Harold and Susan Vordos" wrote in message
...

By contrast, when I took my class in electricity in high school, the first
thing the teacher taught us was to ground washing machines----obviously at
a
time before the ground wire was an integral part of typical wiring (back
in
'55, it was), and death by electrocution while washing wasn't exactly
unheard of.

First thing I did when I got home was run a ground wire to an overhead
water
pipe and connect it to the washer. My mother went to her grave secure
in
the knowledge that I had tried to kill her by electrocution, and no amount
of explaining what the wire was for changed her mind. She refused to wash
clothes until the wire was removed. Ignorance, and lack of trust in
one's
offspring, can create some very bad memories.

Jeez, she thought you were trying to kill her? I locked my mom in the
basement once, when I was 7 and she was being particularly churlish one day,
but she would have stuck her fingers in a socket if I asked her to give me a
hand with my electricity project. g

--
Ed Huntress