~Simpler Times~: Rules of the clothesline.....and morning muffins

My sister Judy, me and Mom
The era of the clothesline

You have to be from a certain era to know what a clothesline is. As I drive through the countryside on one of my many "photo shoots", I see so many dilapidated old clotheslines, and I think it's so sad that they're no longer in use. They're usually blanketed in weeds and the lines are either sagging or broken.

I have memories of my 5 foot 1 inch Mom hanging clothes on the line. She would lug heavy wet clothes baskets outside to the line, which was no easy task. Especially for a family of 6 or 7!

How many of you can even remember wringer washers? I used one when I lived on the farm in the 70's. Instead of washing filthy coveralls and livestock blankets in the good washer, I'd use the old wringer. I'd then hang them out on the clothesline, even in the bitterest of bitter cold, and let them "freeze dry". I remember a story that my mom told me one time. It was of one of my Grandmas using a wringer washer.....and leaning over and getting a certain body part caught in the wringer part of the machine. I cannot imagine!

My mom told of me one special memory of her and my Grandma. My Grandma's birthday is April 11th, and Mom was due to have me "any day now" in the year of 1956. So Grandma had put Mom to work by hanging out clothes on the line, trying to get Mom's water to break.....but to no avail.....I was stubborn and wasn't born until the afternoon of April 12th!

Another story that I vividly remember.....and you'll see why I remember it in a minute. I was probably around 3 or 4 and I was happily "helping Mom hang out the clothes". I was having a fun time! Not a care in the world! Back then, all the kids ran around the yard barefooted.....and because of that particular fashion, I painfully remember stepping on a wasp!

I thought you might enjoy reading what I stumbled across earlier today. I found the following Basic Rules of The Clothesline from a fellow-blogger:

THE BASIC RULES FOR CLOTHESLINES OF THE PAST:

1. You had to wash the clothes line before hanging any clothes.....walk the entire lengths of each line with a damp cloth around the lines.
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! (I learned the hard way on this one! Little puckery divet-thingy's on the shoulders!)
4. Wash day on a Monday! Never hang clothes on the weekend, for heaven’s sake! (Working full-time, I washed whenever I got around to it!)
5. Hang the sheets and towels on the outside lines so you could hide your “unmentionables” in the middle. (I remember doing this!)
6. It didn’t matter if it was sub-zero weather.....clothes would “freeze-dry.”
7. Always gather the clothes pins when taking down dry clothes! Pins left on the lines were “tacky!” (Being the somewhat neat-freak that I try to be, yes I did remove all the clothes pins and put them in my little clothes pin caddy)
8. 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. (I did this!)
9. Clothes off of the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket, and ready to be ironed. (I wasn't that picky!)
10. Fresh sheets on the bed guarantee a good nights rest! (Oh I do love the smell of clothes dried on the line.....such a sweet clean scent! Nothing like it. Downy tries to emulate that scent in one of their fabric softeners, but it doesn't even come close to the real thing! There's even a candle called "Fresh Linens" that doesn't cut it either!)

And here's a recipe to go along with all the hard work:

Low Fat Banana Muffins