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This is a good one..."Clotheslines"

Faster horses

Well-known member
And remember - always hang underwear on the inner lines so that sheets and towels will keep it hidden. Our grandmothers would have had apoplexy if "personal garments" were ever seen by the neighbors!



The Clothesline


For all of us that are older, this will really bring memories.
For those of you who are younger It will add some thoughts.

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?



CLOTHESLINES

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 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 clothes
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 raised their brows,
And looked disgustedly away.

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!


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ranchwife

Well-known member
maybe if I encourage the hubby to read this, he will remember how I have been "kindly reminding" him for 4 years how badly I want a clothes line for our clothes...sure the dryer is convenient, but NOTHING smells like sheets dried in the fresh breeze!!!mmmmmmmm
:D :D :D
 

feeder

Well-known member
When I was young we lived across the street from school. My mother always hung the underwear in order starting with dads. At recess the kids at school would tease me and tell me which was my underwear. I never would have guessed that so many eyes would have eyed my underwear in my lifetime!!!
 

EastTexasGal

Well-known member
I was trying to remember what it is my Mom has always said when she wanted you to be quiet around others. Wasnt it "Dont air your dirty laundry in public?"lmao... this gives the saying more meaning to me now. There is another one she use to say too...I was trying to remember it. Maybe it was something like "Dont hang your laundry for all to see"? lol ...just never thought about this till this post.

I guess I was almost grown before she started using a dryer. My g.mother never had a dryer, clothes were always hung out.


Easty
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
Really cute post FH.

Grandma had a clothes line too. No Dryer. Shirts were hung by the tail.....yeap and socks by the toes......pillow cases by the closed end (which I never understood cuz they got ironed after they were brought in anyway ...oh and sprinkled with the pepsi bottle with the do dad on top)
Downside to the clothes line was towels never got you dry.....they just moved the water around, and ruffffffffffffffffffffffffff......
One lesson in west texas ya don't wanna learn the hard way is, puttin the clothes on the line to dry, and then havin a sand storm........tomorrow became washday too!!!
 

cert

Well-known member
the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
pillow cases by the closed end

So the thingys from the maple trees don't fall inside the pillow cases.

the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
Downside to the clothes line was towels never got you dry.....they just moved the water around
I've never had that problem. Matter of fact, Grandma says that modern fabric softner reduces the ability of the cloth to absorb water.

the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
and ruffffffffffffffffffffffffff......
Just give them a good shake before you hang them. I always hang mine on a windy day if I can, that helps too.

Clothes line gets washed before every use here as well. And I bring in my pins every evening so they don't weather and get the clothes dirty.
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
We did it for a while here, mostly becasu the drerculd'tee up wit the wash, but my wife is allergic to a lot of pollens so we stopped... That, and the risk of just the right wind imbedding your clothes with pig perfume from the neighbors lagon... Welll, no thank youuuuuuu...
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
All your comments bring to mind one awful wash day I had.
Really shows my age when I admit when we began our married life,
I had a WRINGER washer. Oh, I hated that thing!! I would let the
wash build up 'til it was a monumental task. This particular day,
I was washing alot of clothes. I had a nice clothesline located under
big cotton wood trees. I had every line full, and double on some lines. I mean to say there was alot of clothes hung out there!!

When I went to gather them in, I noticed this gummy stuff had
landed on the clothes and then...dripped...down...on everything.
It was a mess!!! I didn't know what it was and I was devastated.

It was around noon time or one o'clock and I managed to get Mr.
FH on the phone at the other ranch. I cried, "The bees pooped all
over my clothes." I was really crying. He came home and helped me
rewash them all.

It wasn't bees. It was sap from the cottonwood trees. We lived there
for 10 years and I used that clothesline. Never once did it ever happen again.
 

ranchwife

Well-known member
I, too, had a clothesline "incident".....
shortly after my 10 year old was born, the hubby bought me a bunch of brand-spankin-new WHITE uniforms for work....I took an afternoon and washed them all and hung them (and numerous items of "lingerie") out on the line....the wind picked up as it so often does in this area and I knew my clothes would be bone-dry within half an hour....I checked my laundry after 20 minutes and noticed something awry right away....missing from the clothes line was the majority of my brand-spankin-new uniforms and several "undergarments"....the wind was howling and had literally ripped many articles right out from under the pins....unfortunately, I never found most of my uniform.....if you folks in CANADA ever find a white nurses' jumpsuit (like the life flight crews wear) with "KRIS" embroidered in blue, please send it C.O.D. back to me!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: I have no doubt that the wind probably blew it your way!! :wink: :wink: :wink:
 

Hanta Yo

Well-known member
Thanks for sharing, FH. I hang our clothes out on the line, make sure and hide the undies because if I don't, I am guaranteed company!!! :roll: It's so windy here nowadays it only takes about 30 min to dry clothes! :shock:
 

Ranchy

Well-known member
Lovely! Like a lot of ya'll, I still love to hang clothes on the line outside. It's actually my very favorite household chore, it's the only one I even remotely like, as a matter of fact.

Not long after we moved back here, when Al was about 4 months old, I had a whole line full of diapers (yep, used the old-fashioned kind, till they gave him yeast infections so bad I couldn't stand to do that to him anymore :( ) and a real big gust of wind came along, and took most of the diapers off the line.........

Fortunately, we had a thicket of wild plums (till the guys went after em with the saw :( ) and they were decorated up so nice, with those pretty clean, white diapers........ :roll:

More times than not, in the winter, I could go over there and find various items of clothing that were no longer where I hung them to dry.......also makes the next day washday, too........ :lol:
 

nr

Well-known member
Remember towels that froze stiff as a board on the line?

Our electricity has gone up 60% this summer due to dereg. We might just end up hangin clothes out again- guess we'd call it our SolarDryer.
 

Hanta Yo

Well-known member
nr,

Can't beat the solar dryer!!!! :!: When it's blowing hard early am I know it will blow all day long. I don't have enough lines to do all the laundry, but a line full will be dry in 30 minutes, no kidding - so I can get everything done in a day

Winter time, I use the dryer. :wink:
 

nr

Well-known member
Hanta Yo said:
nr,

Can't beat the solar dryer!!!! :!: When it's blowing hard early am I know it will blow all day long. I don't have enough lines to do all the laundry, but a line full will be dry in 30 minutes, no kidding - so I can get everything done in a day

Winter time, I use the dryer. :wink:

We don't believe in wind or even little breezes here- just heat and humidity- takes forever sometimes for stuff to dry especially with all the showers. Sometimes things even smell mildewed when they come off the line! You take the good with the bad I guess.
 

cert

Well-known member
I had hubby's shirts on the line last week. He wears sleevless T's with a pocket on the left chest. Pulled them off the line right before he was to leave in the semi. Dropped them on the bed for him to choose which one he wanted. He grabbed his favorite blue carhart, puts it on and right away does a dance and starts hollering. Takes the shirt off and low and behold there was a wasp in that pocket!
I couldn't help but laugh. He thinks it is funny now but didn't at the time. :D
 
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