CLOTHES LINE RULES

CLOTHES LINE RULES

How many of you remember clothes lines?  How many of you have actually used clothes lines?

I do and did.  My sister and I when growing up would help Mother on wash-day do the laundry.  First - gather up all the dirty clothes, bed linens, etc.  Second lug it all down to the basement, where the wringer washer lived.  Do you remember, or have used, a wringer washer?

In addition to the washer there were two cement laundry tubs for rinsing the clothes.  Fill the washer with hot water and soap, a lot of times the scrapings from a bar of home-made soap.  Always wash the whites first.  That consisted of the bed sheets and underwear.  In the hottest water.  Then the clothes you wore, towels and stuff like that, ending with work clothes.  Now here is where the clothes line rules come into play.

1.  ALWAYS hang the socks by the toes, NOT by the top.

2. PANTS were hung by the bottom cuffs, not the waistband.

3.  WASH the clothes line before hanging clothes.  Using a damp cloth you walked along the line wiping it off.

4.  ORDER - clothes were hung in a certain order, always the whites with the whites, and hang  the whites FIRST.

5.  NEVER hang a shirt by the shoulders - always by the tail.  Otherwise what would the neighbors think?

6.  MONDAY was wash day!  Never hang clothes on the weekend or on SUNDAY, for Heaven's sake.

7.  SHEETS and TOWELS always on the outside lines so you could hide your "unmentionables" in the middle.  In other words, your underwear.

8.  ALWAYS gather the pins from the clothes lines and take the lines down, rolling into a ball until the next week. 

9.   RAINY days it was permissible to hang the clothes in the basement.  Otherwise you would hang them in the rain hoping it would stop and the clothes would dry.  In winter, you often had freeze-dried clothes.

10.  EFFICIENCY - lining up the clothes so that so that by over-lapping slightly you could use 3 clothes pins for two items instead of 4 pins.

11.  CLOTHES off the line before dinner (supper) time, neatly folded placed in the clothes basket ready to be IRONED.  That is a whole 'nother subject.

12.  POLE - a long wooden pole, usually notched on one end, that would be used to hold the line up high enough so the clothes would not drag on the ground.  The notch fitted onto the line.

THE CLOTHES LINE POEM

A clothesline was a news forecast to neighbours passing by

There were no secrets you could keep when clothes were hung to dry.

 

It also was a friendly line, 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 also said "on vacation now" when lines hung limp and bare

It also said "were baack" when full lines sagged without an inch to spare.

 

New folks in town were scorned upon if wash was dingy and gray

And 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.

 

I received this as an e-mail, from my sister.  This was the way of life when we were growing up.  It may sound strange and hard now, but back then --- that's just the way it was.