It's Laundry Day!



(That's not at my house, that's laundry hanging in Italy!) I love the smell of freshly washed clothes! I don't really LIKE doing the laundry, but I like having clean clothes hanging in everyone's closet and folded neatly in our drawers. I do laundry once a week, on Mondays. I sort it all out, everything from towels, to my clothes to the boys' clothes. Then I keep the washer and dryer going ALL day, folding and putting away what I take from the dryer. For a couple years now I have been air drying all of my children's nice clothes because I got tired of the dryer shrinking and fading everything. Drying them this way has also kept our hand-me-downs looking almost as good as new! Swedish washer and dryers are considerably smaller than U.S. ones. They also take longer to go through a cycle. But since I air dry some clothes, it works out ok. While they are laying flat to dry, towels and whites and play clothes are drying in the dryer.

This reminds me of a poem I found a long time ago:

The Clothesline

A clothesline 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 on the line;
You'd see the comp'ny tablecloths
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 raised their brows, and looked
Disgustedly away.

But clotheslines now are of the past
For dryers make work less.
Now what goes on inside a home
Is anybody'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!

Marilyn Walker

I have a picture of ~N~ when he was about 2 years old (which I tried to post but all you could see was that dern red x.) In the picture, he is standing underneath our clothesline where his blanky is hanging out to dry. When he saw it there he grabbed the corner and began sucking his thumb with it! I'll have to do some more research to figure out why the photo didn't post properly.

Rejoice evermore!
Marla