The Clothesline

"Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children."







Monday morning usually is laundry day for me. Among other things, the linens from the guest bedroom generally need to be washed. Routinely, after the wash cycle, I load up the wash basket and head out to the clothesline. This morning, for some reason, I reminisced about my childhood and memories of Mom and her laundry day. With a brood of seven kids, she unfailingly did tons of laundry every Monday. No new-fangled washing machine for her, nor a clothes dryer...she had the old wringer for washing and good ol' Mother Nature for drying. Dumping the dirty clothes into the hot water, she let the agitator work its magic. That must have been an improvement over beating the clothes with a rock near the river bank or using the rubbing method on a washboard (which I do believe she used occasionally for tough stains!) Mom had a small diameter club or wash stick she used to remove the clothes from the hot water. It was my job, when old enough, to feed the clothes through the wringer. I loved squishing all the excess water out and watch as the wet clothes fell into a rinse tub of cold water. Another feeding through the wringer; this time the wet clothes ended up in a large wicker laundry basket. Mom would haul the heavy load outside to the clothesline, which seemed to stretch for miles in our backyard. Faithfully, no matter the temperature, she hung the clean clothes out to dry through the day. On cold mornings, I remember when I took the clothes off the line they sometimes were "frozen" straight. The jeans, especially, seemed as if they could be made to walk on their own! To finish the drying process in cold weather, the load was taken down to the basement for the remainder of the day. I really can't remember the day Mom got a REAL washer and dryer; perhaps my six siblings can remember that. What I DO remember, is the fresh, clean smell that Mother Nature injected into the clean laundry, most noticeable in my bed sheets. I had determined during my teen years that I would forever wash my linens at least TWICE a week and hang them outside to dry. The crisp,clean smell and feel of the sheets was truly (and still is!) an aphrodisiac for me! Although I am too busy to hang out the sheets twice a week, I do manage once. I guess I am in the minority; most women find it more convenient to use their dryer. For me, Mom's routine has become enmeshed within mine.