M-E-M-O-R-I-E-S!

The Clothes Line. Do you remember?
The clothes line... a dead give away. Do the kids today even
know what a clothes line is? For all of us who are older, this
will bring back the memories.

THE BASIC RULES
1. You had to wash the clothes line before hanging any clothes.
Walk the length of each line with a damp cloth around the
line.


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 neighbors think?

4. Wash day on a Monday - never hang clothes on the
weekend or Sunday for heaven's sake!

5. Hang the sheets and towels on the outside lines so you
could hide your 'unmentionables' in the middle.

6. It didn't matter if it was sub zero
weather, the clothes would 'freeze dry.'

7. Always gather the clothes pins when taking down dry
clothes. Pins left on the line was '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 clothes pins with the next washed
item.

9. Clothes off of 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.


A POEM
A clothes line 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 design.

The line announced a baby's birth
To 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 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 gray,
As neighbors carefully raised their brows,
And looked the other way.

But clotheslines now are of the past
For dryers make work 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!

That is so wierd you posted that poem about clothes lines. I'm in the process of moving to a new home this weekend. I took my son by Monday to see the place and we walked around back. There were two clothes line poles but no line on them and I turned to my son and told him he could help me put up a clothes line.

He asked me what a clothes line was and I told him and he politely said, "why would you hang clothes outside on a line? I told him women have been doing it for centuries and that it also made your clothes have that clean, fresh, outdoor smell. He was curious now, he asked "but why would you hang clothes outside when you can just throw them in the dryer, besides, I don't want to smell like the outdoors, snuggles smell is good.

Well, I guess I'm going to have to get that clothesline up and hang his sheets outside in the sun one day and see if snuggles beats that clean fresh smell.

Thanks for the nostalgia.

donna

Hi CAA! Yes, we have dryers here in Australia, but guess what - we have clothes lines, too. Still! The weather is usually so good that clothes dry quickly on a line. Until this past summer which was so wet, in the nearly ten years I've lived in this country I've never needed a clothes dryer. In our push to save the environment we are all being encouraged to use our "solar powered" dryers, instead of the ones that run on electricity.

This was a great difficulty for me after my mva. For about 2 years my son had to hang the washing on the line, as raising my arms over my head caused bad pain. All good now, though.

So, if you want a nostalgic vacation, come to Australia - where we even have a clothes line as a national icon. It is a rotary clothes line and is called a "Hill's Hoist", and it was invented here. At the Sydney Olympics it was showcased in the parades along with other Australiana.

I'm with you, Donna, you can't beat the smell of sun & wind dryed clothes. Now the ironing - that's a different story!

Love & Light!

LOL!

Well I hung my bedding out on our solar powered line today.

I try not to use the dryer if we don't have to. The darn electricity costs too much.

I read your story and got to thinking I don't believe any of my neighbors have lines.

I too like Donna and Oz love that fresh clean outdoor smell. And crawling into the bed after you've washed and then dryed the bedding on the line is the best feeling in the world too.