LAUNDRY..........Pleasure or Indifference?

Laundry............the bane of your existence, or a guilty pleasure?

Here's a picture of a perfectly hung line of clothes. Organized, efficient, well done.

Now, I've already admitted to my fondness for ironing, a mundane task if ever there was one. But if you were/are a dressmaker or quilter, it is a necessity. Every Christmas when I had my fabric shop, I would get a ballot box ready for a Christmas draw. All my customers were invited to put in a ballot with every purchase, with the top prize being a basic sewing machine, then a Gift Certificate, then an iron. All necessary for the home sewer. And it was always well received.

And I've always had a good iron, sometimes two on the go at the same time. All you sewers know what I mean.

But back to the laundry. I just had a conversation with a friend about clothes, and the inevitable comparison between line dried vs. clothes dryer. #nocomparison #givemeclotheslineorgivemedeath

My dryer gets a great rest all summer, as I can pick and choose my days for laundry. But I hang out a line lots during the winter too, is there anything that can beat the smell of that cold fresh air? I think not, I wish I could bottle it! Back in the days of cloth diapering, my dear friend Bea would often comment on my clothes line hung with dozens of cloth diapers, just a'snappin' in the ocean breeze here in LRB. She loved the look, and I loved the process. My last round of diapering was quite a while ago, as my youngest is 35, but even then there were people who thought I was crazy, using cloth. Pampers were King!! And did anything make better cleaning cloths or dust rags than old worn out Curity diapers? Not in my experience.

Of course, human beings didn't evolve from a fashion runway in Milan. In the beginning I would imagine that cave people wrapped a dead animal around their nether parts in an effort to stay somewhat warm. Eventually they would learn to eat the animal and save the hide. When I think about it......ew.

But how smart and inventive it must have seemed to gain a few thousand years in evolution and figure out how to use plant fibres to weave fabric. Linen, then cotton, then silk and lots in between.

And how to wash these garments and blankets with no electricity or running water. Well, I'm sure it was never an accident that most settlements were built on rivers or oceans. Plenty of water! Just take the clothes to the river, pound and rub the items on the rocks and sand, rinse, then spread on the rocks or nearby trees to dry in the sun. Campers, you know what I'm talking about..............

And soap. Now where did that enter the equation? Well, my research reads a little like this:

Generations ago in African villages, women learned how to burn coconut husks, banana leaves and other vegetation for cooking and warm water. Ashes remained. Then an animal would be roasted over the flame, with the fat dripping out onto the ashes. Fast forward to the next day, the rains came, washing the now congealed fat from the fires, ashes and all, down the river. The women noticed the big gobs of white matter floating in the water, fished some out, and presto!! Soap was born. And this is exactly how African Black Soap is still made today in Ghana and coveted worldwide.

As a soap maker, I know that lye leaches out of wood ash, and it's the necessary natural chemical that forces fats and butters to "Saponify." That's the magical process that turns all those expensive ingredients into soap. Who knew?

Well, Momma of course, and most other women of her vintage. They would all use a week or so once a year and begin their soapmaking, producing enough to last the family for a year. Nothing pretty like the soaps of today, which are a work of art, and using only the finest ingredients. But at the base of each recipe is a combination of fat/butter and lye. That simple.

And of course Momma ironed and that's where I learned, not with the flatiron on the wood stove, we had electricity by the time I came along, but an iron nonetheless. The clothes often came off the line hard and stiff and needed the steam to give them a nice finish, stretch those wrinkles out, and make them presentable.

Back in the day when I was a stay at home Mom and Jamie was driving a truck of some sort, I took great pride in always making sure his uniforms were kept as nice looking as I could manage. He took pride in his work, and I took pride in him. While with Irving, the drivers had to wear a blue shirt and a tie, everything supplied by the company, so it was on us to make sure they were well taken care of. It just looked so professional.

Oh well, these days the clothesline still gets plenty of usage, just not as big a load at a time. Just the two of us now, and we don't dirty a lot of clothes. And of course I use my dryer, just not all the time.

So in bringing this Blog to a close, a little quiz.........

When you hang your laundry, do you hang:

Pants by the waist or the hems?

Shirts by the shoulders or the hems?

Socks by the cuffs or the toes?

Sheets or tablecloths by the corners, or fold over the line and pin?

Pillow cases by the hemmed end or by the open edge, so the wind can blow through?

No points for correct answers, because there are no correct answers.

Just beautiful line dried clothes!