Homemaking and Other Practical Topics
Wash Day Memories
By Mrs. Dawn Marie Varney
Oct 24, 2006 - 5:47:00 PM

The other day my dryer broke. Right out of the middle of nowhere, it just stopped working. Because we are not currently in a situation to fix it right away, I had to come up with another solution for drying our clothes. I remembered that when I was a child, my mother used to hang our clothes on the line, and I figured I could do the same thing.

My husband went out and bought a rope and clothespins, and I strung the rope around the trees in our backyard. I made a container to hold my clothespins while I was hanging clothes, and I was all set. I felt very apprehensive about this whole thing, though. I was sure, on top of everything else I had to do, that this was going to be too time-consuming and mess our clothes up. Alas, I had no other choice. I washed a load of clothes, put them in a basket, and set out to hang them.

My two smallest children followed me outside and watched for a little while before riding their bikes. After a few minutes, they both came over. My youngest son wanted to know what I was doing and why I was doing it. He seemed fascinated that all his little socks and things were hanging up there on that line. My daughter thought it was fun to see the sheets that I had just hung. "Mom," she said, "we could make a tent." They started playing closer to where I was hanging clothes. A few minutes later, the three older boys came out and started climbing on the trees and hanging out at the picnic table. Pretty soon, we were all outside, experiencing the beautiful sunshine and enjoying each other's company. It was nice. "Well," I thought, "this is nice, but we'll see how well the clothes turn out."

With our sun here in Arizona, an hour later most things were dry and ready to come in. Another load went up on the line, and the same thing happened with the children--only this time, one of the older boys came over and started helping me and talking to me. Once a load was hanging, we would go back into the house and work on school, but once the clothes were dry, we were all outside again. What I thought would be drudge work and time-consuming turned out to be a family event with some good talking time for us all. The clothes came in and seemed to be dry enough. As I folded them, I put them up to my nose and smelled them. I hoped it wouldn't be awful. Do you know what they smelled like? Sunshine--warm sunshine--like a day spent out of doors in the warmth and sun. I was amazed. My clothes were washed and dry, I had a great time with my children, AND the clothes smelled good. What more could I ask for?!

Later that week, my husband asked me how it was going with having to hang the clothes. I said it was a little more work but that I was enjoying it, as were the children. He said that was great, because he really liked the way the clothes, towels, and sheets smelled. I was elated!

I have memories of my mother hanging clothes in our backyard, and I remember playing in the shadow of the sheets and such in the summer. When I laid my head down on my pillow, the smell immediately carried me back to the days of my childhood. It was a wonderful memory.

I know that women long ago used to have to hang their wash. I don't know how much enjoyment they derived from it or how much time out of their days that it required, but it was the only way at one time. A couple of years ago, we visited Campobello, summer home of Franklin Roosevelt. One of the things that fascinated me most was the kitchen and the stories of how they did laundry, hanging it out and stretching certain things out on the grass. It painted a beautiful picture in my mind. My husband's grandmother used to run her wash through a wringer, and I have a picture of my great-grandmother doing her wash in a bucket outside: