The Clothes Line....The Basic Rules

A fellow farmgirl on the Mary Janes Farm website posted this. I thought it was great and decided to post it on here. Now, the pic is just one I found of the 'net. But, enjoy the clothesline rules and poem!



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 any body'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