The Clothesline

We had no dryer.  We had the clothesline, the sunshine and our clothes smelled like summer breeze.

Simply put, we had no real money.  There was a daily struggle to build the house, live life and put food on the table. Looking back, the financial struggle was real. As a kid, I had no idea though. Our lives were rich and full. We were happy doing what we could do and Mama would say all of the time, “We’ll just make do”. Daddy was creative in all that he did regarding fixing up the someplace. He did all he could to fix and take care of the home goods while saving money. When we cleared the land years after their home-going, we found a lawn mower spark plug used as a plug for the water system. Mama could be seen in the bent-can aisle of Solomon’s trying to get a “deal”.  Mama was a stay-at-home Mom and Daddy worked a civil service job with the Navy on Cecil Field. When at home, they both tried to be smart saving money by the do-it-yourself plan.

By the time I was in high school, we had a complete washer and dryer area but up until that time, we used the good ole’ fresh air to dry clothes.

While clearing out places on the property recently, one of the two clothes lines that we had was exposed. It brought back many memories.  The clothes would be washed in the washer, place in a wooden basket and walked out to the line.  There was a bag of clothes pins hanging at the end of the line which had a wire used to whisk it up and down the line for ease.  The clothespins were used to attach the clothing at the top or bottom to the line for drying.

Mama said it was best to put like pieces together so as to be able to fold them together but sometimes pants, shirts, or underclothes might be hung all on the same wire side by side. 

We had two clotheslines.  One was on the right back side of the property behind the house.  The other was on the east side of the swimming pool.  Both were used over time to hang our wet clothes out to dry.  It would take a few hours to dry clothes on a full sun day.

The upside to drying clothes outside was the fresh air smell.  The downside to drying clothes outside was the stiffness of the clothes after they dried.  If you were to forget them on the line, the would have a very different feel and smell from the fresh one day line dry. If it rained and they got wet by rain there was even a more odd smell and feel which would mean another wash and dry before wearing them.

Those were the days, my friend.

See you tomorrow,