Iron on Tuesday,
Mend on Wednesday,
Churn on Thursday,
Clean on Friday,
Bake on Saturday,
Rest on Sunday."
I still think that we have to do laundry on Monday and most times I don't have any clothes to iron.
I just take them out of the dryer and hang them up in the closet. Except for the bed linens.
These I like to hang outside on my back porch clothesline, where they are out of sight of people passing by on the street. They flap in the wind and the sun makes them smell so good when they are brought inside and put back on the bed. Jim doesn't understand this at all. He thinks that everything has to be dried in the dryer.
We enjoyed watching the laundry hanging from clotheslines between the houses and barns or trees when we toured the Quaker country in PA. They use a pulley to pull the line high in the air so the clothes would dry faster in the breezes and sun. We once had a clothesline like that in Atlanta, GA and I loved standing on the back porch, pinning the clothes on the clothesline and then sending it high into the air in our back yard. Our house was built on the side of a hill and the back yard sloped to a creek at the bottom of the hill. The clothes line was fastened to another pulley across the creek, attached to a tall tree. Our present home is the first place we've ever lived that we didn't have a clothes line in the back yard. I hung one between the posts on the back porch, using a pulley to retract it when I'm not using it (or when company comes!).
I love this poem about the Clothesline:
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 link, 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 designs.
The line announced a baby's birth, From 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 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 and gray,
As 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 out on that line.
