Interior decorators and consumers still buy them, but about 40% of the washboards sold at The Columbus Washboard Co. are used by musiciansThe Columbus Washboard Co. sold more than a million boards a year in its 1940s heyday. That was when wood-and-corrugated-steel boards were used for scrubbing clothing and linens by hand in a washtub of soap and water.
Sales jumped 57% in 2020 over 2019, the company said, goosed by pandemic fears of societal collapse and limited laundry service. “There were groups of people that were panicking,” Mr. Gerstner said. When the thimbles on her fingers wear holes in Cosmo’s steel scrub board, she orders a replacement from Columbus Washboard. “They’re the only washboard company left in America, but I would be loyal to them anyway,” Ms. Lindsey said.
Jacqui Barnett, one of the company’s co-owners, said she delivered one of the boards to Ms. Parton and joined the legendary singer onstage at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., during a performance of the song “9 to 5.”