Clothesline Cowboys
Finally, after days of rain and cold, the sun is shining here in Pine City. I took advantage of that sunshine this morning and hung the laundry on the clothesline. As I snapped the wet clothes to the line, I thought of my mother and how hanging clothes on the line wasn’t a luxury to be enjoyed on a sunny day, but a chore she did no matter what the weather was like. She would carry the wicker basket of wet clothes to the hill behind our house and clip the clothing on the line, overlapping the edges to save on clothespins. My job was to hand her the wooden pins as she smoothed the creases from the clothing.
Your assignment is to write about your experience with clotheslines. Post your writing below so we can all enjoy. And if you have a few extra minutes, I have posted a poem I wrote titled Clothesline Cowboys which was published in Lake Country Journal. You’ll find it under Writing on this website.
When I was still young and strong I had 8 kids. I enjoyed raising them and wish I were back there but things could get a little hectic at times and i found the best place for a some solitude was out on the hill hanging diapers. I had 48 cloth diapers and found it very relaxing to count and hang 38 of them on the line in the sun and wind. I could see and hear everything from there and the kids didn’t disturb me as they knew I would put them to work helping.
Wow, Dorothy! That’s a lot of dirty diapers. But it sounds like a great memory.