Clothes Lines........

When I read the email at the end of this post it brought back so many memories of a new bride 50 years age! The experience that Edward and I had is at the beginning...... I hope you enjoy it......


When Edward and I married, we moved to a town a distance away where we had no family....and no family washing machines. We lived in a rental house and had one car, which Edward drove to school where he taught. I washed our clothes in the bath tub.....this included bed linens. It was a chore to squeeze the water out of sheets...I weighed a whopping 89 and 3/4 pounds. We didn't have a clothes line but a kind hearted neighor invited me to use hers.


A few years later we bought our first newly built home and we purchased a washing machine from the high school Home Economic's Department. They were replaced every 2 or 3 years. It was a front loader with scales in the drop down door. I was in high cotton!


When the machine finished the washing cycle, it wouldn't empty the water. My dear husband opened the door and all of a sudden there must have been a hundred gallons of water on the kitchen floor and rushing down the hall. Lesson: NEVER OPEN A FRONT LOADING WASHING MACHINE FILLED WITH WATER!!!!!!!!! The house builders had used the drain as a garbage disposal!


I got a dryer after the birth of our daughter, Amy.....and I did get a clothes line. I was using post hole diggers to dig the holes for the poles which took most of one day. A couple of days later, I couldn't move, laugh, cough and it hurt to breathe. My husband carried me to the doctor and he was sending me to the hospital for tests when I remembered the 'post hole' digging. He canceled the tests and I came home to the heating pad! Needless to say, I don't use post hole diggers to this day......

Our daughter, Mindy's husband, Chip, made a new pair of wooden cross arm clothes line posts several years ago and brought them 160 miles on his truck to me. He laughed and said when he stopped to buy gas the attendant cast questioning glances at him. Guess he thought Chip was going to a 'hanging'.....and not for clothes!


Still, sheets hung out on a sunny, summer day surely do smell mighty fresh when you go to bed...

Some old habits still work just fine....

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Basic Rules for Clotheslines
You have to be a certain age to appreciate this. I can hear my mom now...
THE BASIC RULES FOR CLOTHESLINES: (If you don't know what
clotheslines are, better skip this.)1. You had to wash the clothesline before hanging any clothes. Walk the entire length of each line wiping the line with a damp cloth.2. You had to hang the clothes in a certain order, and always hang "whites" with "whites," and hang them first.3. You never hung a shirt by the shoulders - always by the tail! What would the neighbours think?4. Wash day on a Monday . . . Never hang clothes on the weekend, certainly not Sunday, for Heaven's sake!5. Hang the sheets and towels on the outside lines so you could hide your "unmentionables" in the middle (perverts & busybodies, y'know!)6. It didn't matter if it was sub-zero weather . . . Clothes would "freeze-dry."7. Always gather the clothespins when taking down dry clothes! Pins left on the lines were "tacky!"8. If you were efficient, you would line the clothes up so that each item did not need two clothes pins, but shared one of the clothespins with the next washed item.9. Clothes had to be off the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket, and ready to be ironed.10. IRONED? Well, that's a whole other subject!

POEM
A clothesline was a news forecast To neighbors passing by. There were no secrets you could keep When clothes were hung to dry. It also was a friendly link For neighbors always knew If company had stopped on by To spend a night or two. For then you'd see the "fancy sheets" And towels upon the line; You'd see the "company table cloths" With intricate designs. The line announced a baby's birth From folks who lived inside - As brand new infant clothes were hung, So carefully with pride! The ages of the children could So readily be known By watching how the sizes changed, You'd know how much they'd grown! It also told when illness struck, As extra sheets were hung; Then nightclothes, and a bathrobe, too, Haphazardly were strung. It also said, "Gone on vacation now" When lines hung limp and bare. It told, "We're back!" when full lines sagged With not an inch to spare! New folks in town were scorned upon If wash was dingy and gray, As neighbors carefully raised their brows, And looked the other way . . .. But clotheslines now are of the past, For dryers make work much less. Now what goes on inside a home Is anybody's guess! I really miss that way of life. It was a friendly sign When neighbors knew each other best By what hung on the line!