Clothesline
When is the
last time you’ve seen a clothesline? Not
the illegal tackle with an arm to the runner’s throat clothesline, an actual line
to dry clothes.
OK, those at
the shore don’t count. They are in every
seashore back yard, but you only see towels and bathing suits on them. I mean regular home back-yard clotheslines
with towels, shirts, pants, socks et al hanging out to dry.
When we used
to drive by apartment complexes in the city, there would be a line out every
window. The line would be on a wheel so
clothes could be hung and moved to hang the next article of clothes, or bring
in the dry laundry.
In our
backyard, and the yards of most suburban homes was an umbrella type clothes
line. You could load it up and spin it
around instead of the pull it in wheel type.
We had a
dryer in our house, but mom insisted nothing smelled better than clothes that
were left out to dry in the sun. At some
point I think mom decided good smelling clothes was not worth the effort, so
the clothesline was only relegated for towels.
She was
right, towels do not smell as good out of a dryer as from off a clothesline.
I wonder,
did people talk about what they saw on other peoples clothesline? Did they make fun of Mrs. O’Leary’s huge
bloomers? Did they just gossip in
general while hanging and unhanging an almost daily laundry ritual?
I’ll bet you
can still buy a clothes line rig, but I’ve not seen them in forever. I know
I have some rope that is still labeled as “clothesline” but it is for general
use, not clothes.
Remember clothespins? I liked the spring ones, they held BB cards in bike spokes the best.
It was a
different world when there were clotheslines.
A daily ritual performed by every household. A yard meeting place where gossip, recipes,
and news were exchanged while performing the mundane chore.
It was a
time when people actually “Laughed out loud”, exclaimed “Oh My God”,
and would “See you later,” instead of lol, OMG and C U Ltr!
Bye Bye
clotheslines, when we gain something, we always seem to lose something as well.
My mom used a clothesline in our backyard in the 60's before we could afford a dryer. I have occasionally seen clotheslines in Parma, where there's a large Eastern European population. I always wonder how many birds poop on the clothes?
ReplyDeleteNever thought about birds pooping on the clothes, don't remember that happening, now I'm wondering why not.
DeleteMs. JG has a clothesline, sometimes she asks me to hang the laundry for her while i am cleaning. And we had one, but the trees had to be taken down, so i use an indoor rack. If i am feeling adventurous, i move the rack outdoors.
ReplyDeleteWe had a clothesline when I was a kid in North Dakota. In the winter we hung ropes in an extension off of the kitchen and they would get stiff as cardboard.
ReplyDeleteAround these parts, you were more likely to see a pair of T-shaped posts with clotheslines strung between 'em in the backyard. You still see 'em here and there. Altho, they're as likely to be used for a dog run as for a clothesline. . .
ReplyDeleteYears ago, I told Jenn that I was gonna get her a solar-powered clothes dryer. She was all excited, thinking it was gonna be some fancy, high-tech thing. When I handed her a coil of rope, she was, uh, underwhelmed. We just strung it between our garage and the neighbor's, back and forth a couple times (it was a pretty small yard). . .
I sometimes see clotheslines here in the "poorer" parts of town. But heck in the middle of summer you just got to hold your clothes outside and they dry in minutes (an exaggeration but it doesn't really take long if it is 115 degrees out and 3 degrees humidity). Growing up we had the clothesline for pretty much all the clothes. But thankfully it was Southern California so we didn't have the cold weather to deal with during wintertime. I do remember having the chore of helping to get the clothes off the line. Nowadays no clothesline outside, but I hang wearing clothes, minus hubby's dress shirt/pants on hangars and hang them on a clothes rack to save dryer usage and electricity.
ReplyDeletebetty
For being "Cranky Old Man", you sure can bring back great memories, Joe. I remember visiting my grandma in the 1960s, she did have a dryer but if it was summmer, you'd see sheets on her clothesline, flapping in the breeze--and they DID have the best smell. She also had those old fashioned wooden pins with just a long groove down their center. I'm telling you, the woman came straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. How I miss her!
ReplyDeleteThose umbrella style clothes lines were invented by an Aussie eons ago...they're called Hill's Hoist
ReplyDeleteAs a kid, we had the T-shaped poles with two lines strung between them. I practiced my BB gun shooting by opening up the door and listening for the PING when I hit the pole. The wooden groove clothespins were the best. Especially for playing that birthday party game where you drop clothespins into a mason jar between your feet.
ReplyDeleteI can walk outside and see two clotheslines and walking around the flats here I get to see many more. The ones in "my" backyard are communal, two of the Hills Hoist type, each one to be shared by four flats. Hah! They're old and often dirty with cobwebs that I have to wipe off every time I want to hang something and the one closest to my flat is also too close to the communal rubbish bins which are filthy. Most places in Australia do still have clotheslines and pegs too and most people have dryers as well, for the rainy days. I hang my things on airing racks in my closed in back porch and rarely use the dryer, only using the outside line for hanging bedsheets which don't fit on the airing racks. Then I wind down the rotary line so it can't spin my sheets onto the rubbish bins.
ReplyDeletewe spread our clothes on wire in frontyard dear Joe as luckily we got lots of sun here
ReplyDeletei summer when sun is bad mood clothes get dry in minutes though in winters they take whole day
yes clothespins were my favorite thing to play with whcih was so annoying for mom as she would not allow to play with useful things
my sister would put tat pin on my nose and would laugh lol
I still have the rotary clothes line and pegs but don't use them anymore. Washer-dryers put an end to that fashion. So sad.
ReplyDeleteIn the UK it is illegal to have clotheslines in some areas if the washing can be seen from the street. OK if you have your own secluded back garden.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I do remember those clothes line days and the judgement that they brought. Underwear brought the most criticism. I mean you couldn't not notice.
ReplyDeleteI live near Lancaster, PA and almost every home has a clothes line. The Amish do not use electricity.
ReplyDeleteWe tried to talk my mom into getting a dryer for 30 years and she refused because she liked the smell of clothes dried outside. Finally, with arthritis slowing her down and fingers damaged, she accepted our gift. She never admitted that she loved it, but I know she was grateful, especially in the cold winters.
We had a clothes line until about 20 years ago when I took it down. I didn't use it and my mother had gotten too old to hang out the washing. I was cleaning out the garage not long ago and tucked away in the corner was the thingie that you hang on the line that held the clothes pins (I suppose that thingie has a name) and it was full of clothes pins and it even had a bird's nest in it.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in Maine, everything smelled good drying outside but we had a crow that would steal the clothes pins. Also in the winter the clothes would be frozen stiff...why bother to hang them outside? When my mother moved to Florida I remember how horrible the heat from outside made the towels feel...the dryer was a Godsend. So there's my dissertation on clothes line... I definitely don't miss them! There were always spiders on the clothes and I hate spiders! That gets an OH MY GOD!!!
I remember playing hide and seek with my sisters between sheets hung out to dry at our house and at grandma's - who lived in back of us. It was just a good, fun feeling!
ReplyDeleteI miss clothes lines. Apparently they're an eye sore in newer communities. Obviously, those newer communities do not share the wonderful memories of the clothes line. For me it was sheets... Nothing smelled better than sheets on the line. I remember laughing and running outside with my mom when a storm was coming thru to get those sheets off the line before they got soaked! There should be a movement to bring back the clothes line.
ReplyDeleteVery few people in Germany had dryers when I grew up. Yes, birds do poop on clean clothes.
ReplyDeleteI have one of those foldable thingies that you can use indoors. I throw my clothes in the dryer for a bit and then finish them off on the foldable rack. I hate the idea of polo shirts getting dry in the dryer and the collar is still wet. Also, you'd have to dry jeans for a loooong time to get that little front pocket (you know, the one nobody can use for anything) dry on the inside. So I let the drying rack finish the job without wasting a bunch of electricity.
Building codes in most places forbid them, and even in the country, building communities have a code of no clotheslines visible. Ev-er. I've always had one, I can't imagine using a dryer for anything except making the dial on the meter spin--I think we've turned a sad corner when you see a package in the grocery store with a 'clothesline kit", complete with about ten feet of rope, a dozen clothespins, and an instruction booklet. Now you can't even buy the rope unless you go to a hardware store.
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