osters.comWet clothing pinned and clipped on lines
Towels and pants on one high end,
Sheets and shirts other end of twines,
Hanging down low as centers bend.
Coming across and sweeping away
The blues, the whites, and the gray,
Onto tractor windows, passing this day.
I have had much experience with laundry on the line, years and years of it.
I wrote this poem with a head full of memories and my mother's commands to hang the underwear in the middle of the second line, out of sight. "We don't want neighbors to see what we wear."
Neighbors? The nearest lived a half a mile away. The lines were behind the house. But I was obedient.
If anyone wants to sing the praises of laundry drying on clothesline, go ahead. I will not be agreeing with you. Too many images carrying laundry basket after each other has left me with a desire to never hang clothes out blowing in the wind. Sorry.
Towels and pants on one high end,
Sheets and shirts other end of twines,
Hanging down low as centers bend.
But, in the middle, too shy to publicly fly,
Hangs the underwear, bleached and white.
Playing hide and seek from those near-by,
Wanting oh-so-badly to take flight.
Oh, for a strong wind to play,Coming across and sweeping away
The blues, the whites, and the gray,
Onto tractor windows, passing this day.
Bras, panties with hearts, boxers brave
Landing square on a farmer's face,
No dignity there is left to save,
Underwear at last has found a place.
I have had much experience with laundry on the line, years and years of it.
I wrote this poem with a head full of memories and my mother's commands to hang the underwear in the middle of the second line, out of sight. "We don't want neighbors to see what we wear."
Neighbors? The nearest lived a half a mile away. The lines were behind the house. But I was obedient.
If anyone wants to sing the praises of laundry drying on clothesline, go ahead. I will not be agreeing with you. Too many images carrying laundry basket after each other has left me with a desire to never hang clothes out blowing in the wind. Sorry.
This was originally post in A-Z bloghop in 2015. I re-posted it in 2021.
Mom did a lot of that in the summer. I remember dad extending the lines, Nailing tin over the slot in the stand posts to keep them from losing the line, and the day that the oldest post finally rusted off.
ReplyDeleteThere is a whole history/story here. Where did you live? Sounds like our place.
DeleteEast of New Haven Indiana, in a flyspeck village that didn't make the map with the other flyspeck villages.
DeleteOur town had about 350 when I lived there. Other farming town were around that or lower. We were on the map, though.
DeleteWhen I say, "flyspeck towns" I'm talking maybe a couple or three dozen....
DeleteWe called those places the hole in the wall towns. We saw that happening after Vietnam. My generation didn't got "home" once we left. The towns fell apart as the old generation died off.
DeleteYou forgot to mention that many of the clothes that dried on the line also had to be ironed. Whew. I didn't mind doing the laundry for our family of nine (my parents are included there. Every Saturday was spent using the old wringer washer and hanging the clothes on the line. The clothes dry so quickly in the sunshine especially if there is a nice breeze. Sundays were for sprinkling the clothes to be ironed. Monday was ironing day. I gladly exchanged my chores of doing the dishes for two days to do laundry ihstead.
ReplyDeleteWe had a wringer until I was in HS. We washed our laundry on Saturday as well. Clothes to be sprinkled, and then we put them in the freezer. I spent the next few days ironing. I hated the dishes. There were 7 in our family, and dinner/lunch was a major meal for the farm boys. Got an automatic washer by itself, and then when I went to college, they got a dryer. Are you sure you aren't from Pittsfield, Illinois?
DeleteI think in this part of the country we all had the same rituals. Doing dishes is not quite as bad as having to use the outhouse but it runs a close second.
DeleteHanging the washing was never (is still isn't) my favourite job but I do love the smell of clothes dried in the sunshine. And hate, loathe and despise wet washing (the things that cannot go in a dryer) festooned around the house.
ReplyDeleteA precious memory is staying in a B&B where they dried their bed linen on lavender bushes in the sun.
Lavender bushes! What a great place to dry linens. Now, there are wet things around our house as well.
DeleteWe still have, and use, a clothesline, though not as much as we used to, Susan. It definitely hosts our bed linens; nothing smells as fresh as when they're dried in the sunshine.
ReplyDeleteBlessings!
Okay, okay. The clothes do smell fresh. UNLESS there had been a rain and the hog mud pits were busy. The smell was unbelievable. It was a no win situation for me.
DeleteI remember my Mom and Grandma hanging clothes on the line. However we took down our clothesline here at the Pines because wasps kept building nests in the ends! I guess we could have plugged it up but time constraints had me using the dryer. We live in Amish country so seeing clothes drying on the line is very common. I don't try and look too close because seeing an Amish person's unmentionables just doesn't thrill ! Ha!
ReplyDeleteWe had sweat bees, which plays a part in an up-coming post about that and my brothers. Glad to hear you were prudish enough to ignore them!
DeleteThankfully, I've never had to hang anything on a clothes line.
ReplyDeleteConsider yourself robbed of a historical experience.
DeleteI think my family may have had a clothes line but I don't really remember. That was way too long ago.
ReplyDeleteThey must have, but it was pretty much a "farm women" chose.
DeleteI remember long clotheslines strung between two poles at each end of the yard, four poles in total and then we had two long forked end poles which were set in holes in the ground to hold up the middle of the lines to keep sheets and large towels off the ground. I loved hanging clothes and still do love it but the line available here only gets an hour of sunshine a day in summer and none at all in winter. The clothes still dry but there is no sunshine fresh smell and just lately the air out the back of the flats is bad from continued drain blockages (very old drains and careless neighbours who put EVERYTHING down the sink and toilets) that seem to never get properly fixed so I have been using a clothes rack inside for smaller things and the dryer for bigger things.
ReplyDeleteWhen we lived in Ireland, we had a clothes line like that. We overlooked the bay and there was always always a sea breeze. I didn't hate so much.
DeleteNice poem Susan. I love hanging washing on the line and having the wind blow or breeze blow on it/through it. Use the dryer sometimes in the winter if necessary. Love a straight clothes line, but we don't have that type anymore, long gone.
ReplyDeleteMy mother said to me, similar to what you mum said, and if the clothes are very clean on the line then the home is usually the same.
What great advice your Mum gave you.
Deleteawe !
ReplyDeletesuch a lovely poem ,believe me i felt the fragrance of memories in it and as you mentioned it is :)
the instruction by your mom regarding undergarments of ladies made me smile as we still do the same here and cover them with extra thin clothing :)
hugs
The extra work would not have been appreciated (by me).
DeleteI love hanging my washing out on the clothes line whenever possible.
ReplyDeleteWonderful! What climate do you have?
DeleteI'm too young to have experienced this. We had a dryer from my earliest memories. Although, I do have to hang some stuff to dry, at least it's not everything. (Doing laundry today, as a matter of fact.)
ReplyDeleteYou are spoiled.
DeleteI hang my clothes on an indoor drying rack.
ReplyDeleteThere was a famous big house in Galveston, Texas, that I toured once. There was a brick wall where It didn't seem necessary, outdoors, and it turned out the original owners of the house had it put there when the father came home one day, rounding the corner and mortified to see all of his daughters' undergarments dancing on a clothesline. The wall was built to conceal the clothesline!
Oh, that is too funny.
DeleteII don't think I have told much about our life in Ireland. We owned and operated a hotel, built in 1769 as a home for a Lord Barry in Cork Ireland. It was a glorious adventure. The laundry thing was a problem. I laundered and hung up towels and linens used in the hotel. It was a legendary line of linens. This naturally contributed to my dislike of hanging laundry to dry. You have no idea..
ReplyDeleteGood poem. My mother was always hanging stuff out on the line. I hated sheets day. Then putting them on the bed they'd be so stiff and scratchy. Ugh! Here in TX, the air is one big dirt clod. I'd never consider hanging something outside like we did in PA.
ReplyDelete