Clothesline Poles and Other Memories

Remembering Mom's Clothesline

There is one thing that's left out.
We had a long wooden pole (clothes pole) that was used to push the clotheslines up
so that longer items (sheets/pants/etc.) didn't brush the ground and get dirty.
I can hear my mother now...

THE BASIC RULES FOR CLOTHESLINES: (If you don't even know what clotheslines are, better skip this.)

1. You had to hang the socks by the toes... NOT the top.

2. You hung pants by the BOTTOM/cuffs... NOT the waistbands.

3. You had to WASH the clothesline(s) before hanging any clothes -
walk the entire length of each line with a damp cloth around the lines.

4. You had to hang the clothes in a certain order, and always hang "whites" with "whites,"
and hang them first.

5. You NEVER hung a shirt by the shoulders - always by the tail!
What would the neighbors think?

6. Wash day on a Monday! NEVER hang clothes on the weekend,
or on Sunday, for Heaven's sake!

7. Hang the sheets and towels on the OUTSIDE lines so you could
hide your "unmentionables" in the middle (perverts & busybodies, y'know!)

8. It didn't matter if it was sub-zero weather... clothes would "freeze-dry."

9. ALWAYS gather the clothes pins when taking down dry clothes!
Pins left on the lines were "tacky"!

10. 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.

11. Clothes off of the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket,
and ready to be ironed.  IRONED??!! Well, that's a whole OTHER subject!

To all our kids, nieces, and nephews,

  On the rez you can still see clotheslines in use or the wet clothes are laid across the fence or bushes in the yard.  

  This email brought back lots of memories actually, especially since Grandpa Lewellyn built and sold clothesline poles.  Our job was to paint the clothes poles and the swing sets he made.  If we missed a spot, he would simply say there was a "holiday".  We all knew what that meant.

  Clothes were hung exactly like they describe, but I did not see anything about hanging your "undies"  on the inside lines. ;o}

  To this day I still love the smell of line dried cotton shirts, sheets, and even the scratchy feeling of line dried towels.  The smell reminds me of Grandpa.

  All of you would have loved the swing sets he built.  There was always the glider on one end and the  2 swings.  You could hang upside down on the cross bar at the end.  

  He would take us with him on Christmas Eve to help set up a swing set from Santa.  I remember how fun that was.  I don't remember putting up clothesline poles on Christmas Eve, but I am sure any woman would have loved the thoughtfulness of her husband for getting her one.  LOL  The truth of the matter is that I think she actually would have loved it.

  Dad used galvanized wire, so the lines never rusted, but you did have to run a damp cloth over the line before you hung the clothes, or they had little gray marks where the clothes pins were placed.  You did hang the same items together or at least those of us with COD issues did.  Then of course you had to iron all the things that needed ironing, which was a lot of them.

  I remember Grandma, Verlee, saving all the ironing for me to do when I came home on the weekends after I moved away for college.  Grandpa would not wear a shirt that had not been ironed.  He would go out and buy one.  He always wore flannel shirts.  I would spend 2 days ironing.  The best part of it was I loved to iron, so it worked out well.  To this day I like ironing line dried clothes, but I don't get to do it much anymore.  Ironing gave you lots of time to think about things, maybe that is why I loved it so much.

  This is actually a small part of your family history, so I hope you will print it and add it to your collection of the things I know you are preserving for your own kids.

Love,

Aunt Elaine