Tuesday, January 09, 2007
WASH DAY.....
We are having a “clothespin” popping day here today. It reminds me of when I lived in Kansas……in those days I hung the family laundry on lines in the back yard and the wind blew so hard the sheets often blew straight out. I had to put plenty of clothespins in them to keep them on the line and some days, they popped loose and drug the ground. I soon learned to watch and make sure that didn’t happen.
In deep winter, the clothing would freeze from the basket to the lines and I’d have to bend the frozen corners over the clothesline to pin them. It even sounds far fetched to me as I write this but trust me, we had some mighty cold wind and weather in Kansas.
The yards were huge and at the bottom of our little hill was a cow pasture so there wasn’t much to break the winds. Now when I go back to our old neighborhood there are apartments and businesses built in all of the empty spaces so it doesn’t even look like it did back then. Of course I miss the way it was but I’ve seen a lot of changes in a lot of places along the way.
I cherish the good memories I have which don’t include those changes. The mind is a wonderful editing machine if you train it. Block out what you don’t like in all those memories and make them just the way you want them to be. Is that what all old women do or is it just me? As long as it works, I’m happier for it.
I miss hanging clothes. It used to be a fun time with the kitties. They would see me heading to the line with my basket and they’d come running, sure to get a petting. They would twine around my legs while I hung the pieces, one by one. After the laundry I liked to pin the pillows to the line for a good airing……and invariably I would walk over to the clematis to see how they were coming along.
I’ve watched big white clouds float overhead, watched the birds busily building their nests in Spring and making such beautiful songs……there is so much to enjoy when hanging clothes. I would always be careful where I put my basket because of the ant hills and the hard work it took to build them.
Clothes hanging is an individual action. It was interesting to see how the neighborhood women hung their clothes. Some doubled their sheets lengthwise, others by the top and bottom hems. The towels and wash clothes were hung in sections together, not helter-skelter……it made easy folding when you took them from the line. They were already separated for the closet.
Most of the time I put the sheets back on each bed. The children got their nightly bath, clean pajamas and snuggled into those clean sheets and blankets. All the while I helped them to bed, I was anticipating my own entry and the good smells of fresh air in the covers. They say “Cleanliness is next to Godliness,” and I believe it because of the good feeling it always gave me on wash-day.
There are so many things you don’t appreciate or miss until you’ve lived a lot. I can entertain myself quite handily just thinking about days gone by. I understand how mom talked about the way they did things when she married and had my brother and me. It sounded to me like she had a hard time of it without much convenience or help…..and when I’d talk about how much better it was now, she would drift off in thought and say things like…..”well, I don’t know…it was just the way we did things then and it didn’t seem hard at all.”
It is such a blessing to love simple things. To love where you are and to be happy with what you have. Mom always said, “I don’t have to own things to enjoy them. Let others own things for I find as much pleasure without having them.”
I had to become my mother’s age to understand the truth of what she said. Life is not about ownership……it is being content with life just as it is, right now.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
In deep winter, the clothing would freeze from the basket to the lines and I’d have to bend the frozen corners over the clothesline to pin them. It even sounds far fetched to me as I write this but trust me, we had some mighty cold wind and weather in Kansas.
The yards were huge and at the bottom of our little hill was a cow pasture so there wasn’t much to break the winds. Now when I go back to our old neighborhood there are apartments and businesses built in all of the empty spaces so it doesn’t even look like it did back then. Of course I miss the way it was but I’ve seen a lot of changes in a lot of places along the way.
I cherish the good memories I have which don’t include those changes. The mind is a wonderful editing machine if you train it. Block out what you don’t like in all those memories and make them just the way you want them to be. Is that what all old women do or is it just me? As long as it works, I’m happier for it.
I miss hanging clothes. It used to be a fun time with the kitties. They would see me heading to the line with my basket and they’d come running, sure to get a petting. They would twine around my legs while I hung the pieces, one by one. After the laundry I liked to pin the pillows to the line for a good airing……and invariably I would walk over to the clematis to see how they were coming along.
I’ve watched big white clouds float overhead, watched the birds busily building their nests in Spring and making such beautiful songs……there is so much to enjoy when hanging clothes. I would always be careful where I put my basket because of the ant hills and the hard work it took to build them.
Clothes hanging is an individual action. It was interesting to see how the neighborhood women hung their clothes. Some doubled their sheets lengthwise, others by the top and bottom hems. The towels and wash clothes were hung in sections together, not helter-skelter……it made easy folding when you took them from the line. They were already separated for the closet.
Most of the time I put the sheets back on each bed. The children got their nightly bath, clean pajamas and snuggled into those clean sheets and blankets. All the while I helped them to bed, I was anticipating my own entry and the good smells of fresh air in the covers. They say “Cleanliness is next to Godliness,” and I believe it because of the good feeling it always gave me on wash-day.
There are so many things you don’t appreciate or miss until you’ve lived a lot. I can entertain myself quite handily just thinking about days gone by. I understand how mom talked about the way they did things when she married and had my brother and me. It sounded to me like she had a hard time of it without much convenience or help…..and when I’d talk about how much better it was now, she would drift off in thought and say things like…..”well, I don’t know…it was just the way we did things then and it didn’t seem hard at all.”
It is such a blessing to love simple things. To love where you are and to be happy with what you have. Mom always said, “I don’t have to own things to enjoy them. Let others own things for I find as much pleasure without having them.”
I had to become my mother’s age to understand the truth of what she said. Life is not about ownership……it is being content with life just as it is, right now.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
