More About Clotheslines

I’ve done enough ranting about clotheslines that a good friend sent me this via e-mail. I have her permission to post it here.

Another friend to whom I sent this, who grew up some ten miles away from me (but Brooklyn is like a foreign country, if you’re from Queens) wrote back and said, “This brought back so many memories!” But I bet one of them wasn’t of our mothers washing the line before they hung out the clothes — with lines that could only be strung either from the back porch to a pole at the very back of a minuscule yard, or actually hung between buildings, trying to wash the line would have been suicidal.

THE BASIC RULES FOR CLOTHESLINES (if you don’t know what clotheslines are, better skip this):

1. You had to wash the clothes line before hanging any clothes–walk the entire length 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! What would the neighbors think?

4. Wash day on a Monday! . . . Never hang clothes on the weekend, or Sunday, for Heaven’s sake!

5. Hang the sheets and towels on the outside lines so you could hide your “Unmentionables” in the middle (perverts & busybodies, ya know!)

(Another NYC note: Not really possible with one or two lines strung out from the back porch–it was acceptable to hang out men’s unmentionables, but women’s were always dried on a rack in the bathtub.)

6. It didn’t matter if it was sub zero weather . . . Clothes would “Freeze-dry.”

(And indeed they did! Something I discovered early on was that if I left my wash out for a couple of days, eventually it would thaw enough that it actually dried, and the softness was incredible.)

7. Always gather the clothes pins when taking down dry clothes! Pins left on the lines were “tacky!”

(My mother-in-law always left her pins on the lines, and my husband still does. What that’s about, I don’t know.)

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.

(Still do that–even with just two of us in the house!)

9. Clothes off of the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket, and ready to be ironed.

(Is there any other way?!)

10. IRONED? Well, that’s a whole other subject!

A POEM

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 out carefully with pride!

The ages of the children could 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, “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 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 on the line!

Amen to that!