It was an ordinary day. Just finished making a small frame with a neat little verse in it. Title of the verse was "Basic Rules For A Clothesline" and I found the catchy idioms hanging on a kitchen wall at the home of friends Hal and Jennie while visiting for dessert. Directly under the title was the subtitle which read: Always wash the line before hanging any clothes - Walk the entire lengths of each line with a damp cloth. Then the five individual sentences that followed are spaced geometrically on the paper. They read:
- Washday is on a Monday! Never hang clothes on Sunday.
- Hang the clothes in a certain order. Hang whites with whites and hang them first.
- In sub zero weather, Clothes can "freeze-dry" once without damage.
- Hang the sheets and towels on the outside lines. Hide your unmentionables in the middle.
- Never hang a shirt by the shoulders. Always by the tail.
- If you're short on pins, Line the clothes up so each item can share a pin with the next one.
Ever hear this before? I did years ago and when I saw it hanging on the wall at Hal and Jeannie's house, I knew I just had to make one for myself. It's something like the daily list that was supposed to be known by every woman that went:
- Monday: Wash Day
- Tuesday: Ironing Day
- Wednesday: Sewing Day
- Thursday: Market Day
- Friday: Cleaning Day
- Saturday: Baking Day
- Sunday: Day of Rest
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This washer was similar to the one that my mom
used when I was younger. |
I can remember my mom reciting the last list when I was a kid in the 1950s. And today, in Lancaster County, it still rings true. Primarily in the rolling hills of Lancaster County which is considered Amish Country and is filled with farm after farm. Mom used to use an electric washing machine that had a ringer on the top that after washing, she would take the wash and run it manually through the ringer to extract all the remaining water before she would hang the wash on the line in the backyard. She would wash all the colored clothing separate from the whites. Wise woman, since I have found out it doesn't work any other way. Then she would hang the wash exactly as it said above, with clothes sharing a clothes pin with the next piece of laundry on the line. In the middle of the wash was where she would hang our underwear, so nobody could see it. On rainy days she would carry the wash basket through my bedroom to the rear second-floor porch to hang the clothes out of the rain. And, always on a Monday. And, we weren't even Amish!
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It's Monday and the wash is hanging on the line at this Amish
farm in Lancaster County. Notice the pulley at the very
top right. the line ran from the house to the top of the barn. |
Not sure anymore if she ironed on Tuesday, but she may have. Monday after Easter I hopped in the car and took a drive around Lancaster County to see if wash day is still the custom on Mondays. Yep! But most Amish families hang their wash on lines that have a pulley on either end of the line so they can stand in one spot to hang the wash. May have more than one line, but all have have a pulley system rigged for hanging.
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Another Amish farm in Lancaster County. Here the wash is
strung from the house to a large pole by use of a pulley.
Fresh smelling wash is one of my favorite smells. |
How do I know which farms are Amish and which are not? The farms that have no electric lines leading down the farm lane are Amish, since they do not believe in being connected to the outside world by electricity. Well, my framed project looks neat and if it isn't given as a gift, will hang in our laundry room so we can remember how it used to be done. Must admit that since my wife works most days and I have a flexible schedule, I do the laundry. And, always on a ....... Friday. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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