The Clothes Line

Well once the rain stopped it turned out to be quite a good drying day.  Not very warm but very windy.  I was able to put quite a lot of my washing out to dry.  I did use the tumble drier as well and I have just discovered that I have caused myself a new problem.  When I taped it up, I ran the tape inside the fridge to trap it in the door.  Just taping the outside of the tumble drier didn't stop it opening.  Anyway, somehow the hot air has got inside the fridge and everything is now all soft and there is condensation!! We really have to get this sorted ASAP! 

Hanging out the washing reminded me of a blog that my friend Vikki did a while back, about the "clothes line".  Do you remember helping out when you were a child? As a child, I can remember helping my Mum with the laundry.

I can also remember back to the days when she used a big kind of tub thing with a mangle on top.  A mangle was a couple of big roller things which you fed the washing through by turning a handle and it squeezed out the excess water. At some point she got an electric spinner which had to be loaded very carefully, otherwise the resulting vibrations would cause it to "dance" around the kitchen!

She moved on from that to a "Twin-tub"  I also began my married life with a twin-tub.  This was a big machine which you manually filled with water from a hose attached to the kitchen tap.  The left hand side was where you did the washing.  You then transferred it all over to the right hand side which was a spinner.  The water removed from the washing was disposed by a pipe which hooked over the kitchen sink.  Thank God for the invention of the fully plumbed in automatic washing machine!

I remember that back in my childhood, the washing was hung outside to "dry" no matter what the weather; even in the depths of winter.  I can still see us carrying in clothing that was absolutely rigid with ice.  You could stand the trousers up on their own!  Stiff as a board.  They didn't have tumble driers in those days. 

I can also remember how, if it began to rain, we would have to dash into the garden to help Mum bring it all in.  If my Mum knew that a next door neighbour was out, she would get one of us to hop over the fence and fetch in the neighbours washing too. Neighbours exhibited neighbourly behaviour in those days.  Nowadays, you'd probably find yourself being accused of theft!

There were a million rules governing the hanging out of washing.  The garments had to be pegged out in a certain order, some went one way up, whilst others were hung a different way.  Some things were hung inside out.  It was an accepted rule that you didn't hang out your washing on a Sunday.

I now have lots of experience of doing my family's laundry; and I think I have just about perfected hanging clothes on the line to dry.  It has to be a proper old fashioned line that runs the length of the garden.  Those rotary lines are useless, the clothes take ages to dry.  They don't blow in the wind they just hang there.  I hang dresses the right way up and also skirts.  Trousers are hung upside down from the legs.  T. shirts, jumpers and shirts are all hung upside down.  Anything that may fade is hung inside out.  I do confess, though that I sometimes forget to bring them in and they are left out over night.  In my Mums day that would have been a real sin!

Things are very different today from when I was child. I know the way my Mum did her laundry was also very different to the way her Mum did it.  Who knows what the future will bring?  Our grandparents couldn't of imagined an automatic washing machine and tumble drier. Maybe clothes will be self cleaning in future..............now there's an idea!

Do the kids today even know what a clothes line is? Our grandchildren may grow up not knowing. For some 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.  (Yes, my Mum did this.  I don't need to as mine is retractable and doesn't get dirty!)

2. You had to hang the clothes in a certain order and always hang whites with whites and hang them first. (YES!)

3. You never hung a shirt by the shoulders, always by the tail. What would the neighbors think? (YES!!)

4. Wash day on a Monday . . . Never hang clothes on the weekend or Sunday, for heaven's sake!  (YES!!!)

5. Hang the sheets and towels on the outside lines so you could hide your 'unmentionables' in the middle. ( My Mum hung her "unmentionables"  near to the door, so Maurice next door couldn't see them!)

6. It didn't matter if it was sub-zero weather. . . Clothes would 'freeze dry.' (YES!!!!)

7. Always gather the clothes pins when taking down dry clothes. Leaving pins on the line was 'tacky'. (Yes again!)

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. (YES!!!!!)

9. Clothes were off of the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket and ready to be ironed. (Oh, definitely YES!)

10. IRONED? Well, that's a whole other subject. LOL!!!!!!!

My Mum must have learnt those rules off by heart!

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
By 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 anybodies 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!

I hope everyone has enjoyed going back in time.  I would love to hear other peoples memories of "wash day".  Also, if you didn't know how to do it "properly", I hope you have now learnt.  Doing the laundry is a serious business!!!