Clotheslines - a poem

Clotheslines

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 clothes
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 raised their brows,
And looked disgustedly away.

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

with the cost of electricity and gas these days I think we may be seeing more and more clotheslines in the future

I have a couple of those collapsible dryer things that I got from Target. During the winter I position them in the breakfast nook next to the sliding glass doors that face south and directly under a ceiling register. Even the blue jeans dry fast in that spot.

A friend just sent me that poem and it took me back. What I miss is the fragrance of cotton sheets that dried outdoors on a windy autumn day. We still haven't installed a base for my umbrella style clothesline. But his list is so long and if I start digging the hole I know he'll drop everything. I'm hoping to get it done by the end of next month. Just in time for clear windy days.

too big a chance of dusty winds springing up here with little notice

to do. I will never own a dryer, or use one in a laundromat. Living in Florida (UGH! but I am moving back to New England SOON), I can't get over how, in this warm and sunny place, clotheslines are a rarity, even banned in subdivisions as though they are "low class" or something. :wtf:
Clothes last longer and smell so fresh when air-dried!
Some of my earliest and fondest memories of my mother are hanging out clothes in springtime in Connecticut in the early to mid 1950s, when I was about 5 years old. My father (who is 90) and sister and I were reminiscing about that recently (my mother died 22 years ago) and they both had the same fond memory of her. Both of them have dryers, I think, but said they still prefer to hang out sheets to get that great sunny smell in them.

I can't believe more people aren't hanging their clothes. Even more astounding is that so many places have a ban on it. We save SO much money during the summer just by hanging the clothes out. The savings counterbalances the constant AC running, so much so that this summer's energy bills haven't been that bad. And that's with Maryland's recent increase.

We have all this heat and sunshine, for free. Why on earth would I want to spend the money on electricity to heat a dryer (in a house that I'm also spending money to cool down with AC), when sunshine is free?

I swear the clothes is nicer. My whites are whiter, the sheets smell fantastic. Yes, the towels are slightly more "crunchy", but they are also more absorbant. I put baking soda in with the detergent to soften the water and a little vinegar in the rinse to soften the clothes a bit.

My 15 y/o DD initially balked at the idea of hanging clothes. I told her if we hang our clothes, we can afford to run the AC. Or we can use the dryer, but we have to use the window and ceiling fans. She decided running the AC was more important. Ironically, for years we rarely ran the AC because of the expense. Analyzing this summer's bills has shown that running the dryer uses way more energy than using the AC (especially because we keep the AC at 78 and use ceiling fans - i swear it is cold in our house even with the AC so high).

the new tables and added a vent divert-er. now it blows out across my toes and I need socks!! :rofl:

we have it set at 79 now and it's plenty cool where 74 was warm before we changed the airflow drastically

:shrug:

as for the clothes lines, I looked at them yesterday at the lumber store and am figuring I'll have one soon. we are moving or removing all the fence lines soon and I'm thinking I can plan one to run out to a corner post from the deck which opens into the laundry room. how convenient is THAT??

back. I used it sporadically but this summer I have been using it frequently. I also have two of those wood dryer racks that I normally use to dry my lingerie in the winter. But I plan to make more use of them and to also hang clothes outside for as long as I can.

When I was growing up in the 60's nobody had a dryer. Everyone used a clothesline. It was considered normal. Besides, machine drying your clothes beats it up a lot.

I don't hang socks, underwear or bras outside, just so the neighbors don't have anything to complain about and because they're fiddly and a pain. Socks and undies go in the dryer (20 minutes a week) and bras hang inside.

But everything else goes outside. No wrinkles (and DH would look like a wrinklebomb hit him if I let him use the dryer) and it's so easy to just fold stuff as it comes off the line that I don't have to spend extra time folding. It's relaxing and good exercise (all that bending and stretching), and it's so dry here that clothes dry in no time. I'll probably keep using the clothes line through the winter, since we get enough sunny days that there's no reason to stop. I don't even mind the scratchiness of the towels; it feels good and helps exfoliate my copious dead skin. And no shrinking...

In theory, I live in one of those communities with a no clotheslines rule, but we also have a state law that supercedes local law that allows any resident of the state to make use of renewable energy sources without penalty from local government. I think this was originally intended to prevent cities banning solar panels on roofs, but it also applies to clotheslines. Since all three of my neighbors (we live on a corner lot) have put in clotheslines, too, and we meet quite frequently while we're out, I don't think there's going to be a problem.

I love the way sheets smell after being outside, too.

My only real problem with the line was actually getting it. I couldn't find one when I went to buy the hardware. Modernity strikes again. I couldn't even find an umbrella one, though that was what I didn't want. I ended up building it myself, out of 2 inch iron piping and cast iron T junctions and pipe caps. I drilled holes through the cross pieces and used 3 inch eyebolts and wingnuts to hold the lines. And I spraypainted it with black paint so that it wouldn't rust.

I mounted it in concrete in holes; the first time I've ever used concrete, to be honest. It wasn't hard, just heavy. We'll see how it does over the long term, but it's been through a couple of major freezes already, and no heave so far. I think, since it's on the south side of the house with the garden, the ground may stay warm enough to not cause lift.

that she was hanging out her clothes to dry. I was amazed that she would spend the time doing that (she has a full-time business). She says she doesn't want to spend the money but is also thinking of the environmental issues.

Solar clothes drying...nothing new :) but seems very radical to me! I love the convenience of dryers. Maybe I will hang out sheets and towels as a compromise.....

When I was little we didn't have a dryer. The sheets really smell nice coming in from drying on a line. Especially in cooler weather.