Old-fashioned laundry
Apr. 18th, 2004 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaneramosYesterday I cheerfully did a couple loads of laundry. It's nice, now that the dryer is fixed. Without it, I could only do one small load at a time because everything had to be hung to dry around my apartment: on the hall banister, over a drying line strung in front of the bathroom door, over the shower rod, over the rungs of the bunk and on a drying rack Danny salvaged. Doing two loads yesterday meant I could catch up on a pile of towels and place mats I seldom use. Towels come out of the dryer much fresher than after hang-drying indoors. It was heaven.
To do laundry I have to go through the back of the florist shop downstairs to reach the basement. The woman who usually works there, Joanne, is pleasant to chat with, but occasionally someone else comes in to replace her. Sometimes it's a nosey and irritating blond woman in her twenties. Yesterday it was an elderly couple in their seventies; I think they're the owner's parents.
The sun had come out when I went downstairs at noon to check the dryer. As I passed through, the woman said, "The rain has stopped. It's a nice day for doing laundry now."
I said yes or something, but the statement didn't make sense to me. Frankly I would just as soon do laundry on a rainy day. Her comment was one of those puzzling things that gets filed in the G section of my brain, but sometimes comes sifting out later.
This morning it occurs that she probably remembers a time when a housewife's delight was a sunny spring day when she could hang the laundry out.
It reminds me that Mom once told how her hands were always sore in the winter when she was a young woman, and she couldn't figure out why. Eventually my parents got their first dryer, and Mom's winter hand aches stopped. It wasn't until then she realized it had come from hanging out loads of diapers and other laundry in cold weather.
I'm still doing housework, expecting a friend to drop in shortly, but wanted to record this while it was on my mind. I like when people give hints of what everyday life was like in a by-gone era. We shouldn't lose these cultural memories. Maybe someday I'll have a chance to write some of them into a book.
To do laundry I have to go through the back of the florist shop downstairs to reach the basement. The woman who usually works there, Joanne, is pleasant to chat with, but occasionally someone else comes in to replace her. Sometimes it's a nosey and irritating blond woman in her twenties. Yesterday it was an elderly couple in their seventies; I think they're the owner's parents.
The sun had come out when I went downstairs at noon to check the dryer. As I passed through, the woman said, "The rain has stopped. It's a nice day for doing laundry now."
I said yes or something, but the statement didn't make sense to me. Frankly I would just as soon do laundry on a rainy day. Her comment was one of those puzzling things that gets filed in the G section of my brain, but sometimes comes sifting out later.
This morning it occurs that she probably remembers a time when a housewife's delight was a sunny spring day when she could hang the laundry out.
It reminds me that Mom once told how her hands were always sore in the winter when she was a young woman, and she couldn't figure out why. Eventually my parents got their first dryer, and Mom's winter hand aches stopped. It wasn't until then she realized it had come from hanging out loads of diapers and other laundry in cold weather.
I'm still doing housework, expecting a friend to drop in shortly, but wanted to record this while it was on my mind. I like when people give hints of what everyday life was like in a by-gone era. We shouldn't lose these cultural memories. Maybe someday I'll have a chance to write some of them into a book.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-04-18 10:04 am (UTC)reminded me of times spent with my mother growing up. I used to get drafted to do the laundry with her. What that consisted of was me holding out my arms for all of the bluejeans from the washer and then walking out back to the clothes line and holding them till she could hang them all. Then if my older brother wasn't home or my sister was busy I'd be the one who got to go take em down as well.
What a strange and domestic glimpse that was. I am surprised by how vivid the memory is. I can almost feel the warm denim on my arms as I take the clothes pins off and fold the jeans.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-18 03:58 pm (UTC)I remember helping Mom hang laundry, but the memory is fainter. She had a dryer at home before I was born, but when I was one year old we bought the "cottage" on Lake Erie. It was commuting distance from Windsor, so in the summers Mom and I would stay there while Dad and my brothers went to high school and work. I remember helping her with clothespins while she hung laundry on the line, but I must have been very small. I was spoiled that way: I was rarely required to help with housework. They had a hard enough time getting me to clean my room.
By the time I was 8 both my brothers had left for university, then we moved permanently to the place on Lake Erie. Then we had an addition built and Mom always had a dryer after that. The only thing we hung on the line was our towels and bathing suits.
Re: posting!
Date: 2004-04-18 04:11 pm (UTC)Danny is good. We are unable to spend every weekend together. He has a life in Toronto, but he is committed to coming here once a month. I usually go the other way at least that often, but can't afford it all the time. This is the first weekend in about five that we haven't seen each other.
Nevertheless, I had great fun this afternoon. :-)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-18 06:23 pm (UTC)Post a note on the icebox to remind you.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-19 06:47 am (UTC)