Friday, May 2, 2008

There has been a lot of talk...

About 'clothes lines', down on Mary Janes Farm site. So ya know, I thought I'd continue that here! Let's see your clotheslines girls!
Full or not, we wanna see where you hang out your clothes! All you bloggers, post em on your blog, lets see those clothes lines! Let me know where you're posting so we can all go and look! Let's see those clothes lines!



Here's the poem and the clothes line rules, that is posted on the site, I love it! If you grew up with a clothes line, were these the rules that your mama used?? C'mon girls, show us your lines!
THE CLOTHES LINE.....THE BASIC RULES

Do you remember?
1. You had to wash the clothesline before hanging any clothes..... Walk the length of each line with a damp cloth around the line.

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.

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 line was 'tacky'.

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.

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

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


A POEM
__________________________


A clothes line 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 design.


The line announced a baby's birth
To 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 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 gray,
As neighbors carefully raised their brows,
And looked the other way..


But clotheslines now are of the past
For dryers make work 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!

AUTHOR UNKNOWN


1 comment:

Rebecca of Sunny Morning Farm said...

The laundry just looks lovely my darling!!