I guess things were a little different in your day.
Just over a year before Del and I were married, in 1991 (I'd been living with my parents up until 1989), we bought our first house, a 'quarter-villa' in Glasgow (such as shown here: https://www.thehouseshop.com/propert...53-7ph/2528448), which is basically 4x one-bedroom flats built into the one property, and it was already fully furnished, not exactly to our tastes, and came with 'luxuries' such as an automatic washing machine, but good enough to last us until we could afford to 'do up' the place ourselves.
We had great times there, as it was in a nice quiet, secluded spot on the south side of the city, near where we both worked. Anyway, as my parents mostly always had an automatic washing machine (although I have memories of a 'twin-tub' being used by my mum in the 70s), I've always been used to having one. Still couldn't tell you how to use it, though!
Marco.