Modesty on the Clothesline

Hanging out the laundry

A lady told me about her recent vacation in San Francisco. She was shocked, she said, to see underwear hung out to dry on balconies above busy streets. She guessed she was old-fashioned because she would never pin her underwear to a clothesline and put it on display to the world. It wasn't modest.

This amused me a little because this lady is no shrinking violet. She spent a number of years driving 18-wheelers all over the nation with her husband. She's a plain-spoken person without airs, and she's about 15 years younger than me. Of all the things that she might have been shocked at in San Francisco, I wouldn't have predicted underwear on clotheslines.

When I thought about it, I couldn't remember seeing any sort of underwear hanging on the clotheslines at Mennonite and Amish homes. I can say with certainty that they hang cloth diapers outside to dry, but beyond that, I'm not sure.

When I used a clothesline faithfully for a number of years, I hung out the whole family's underwear. I usually hung the undergarments on an inside line, behind the sheets or towels.

We live in the country. The clothesline was barely visible from the road, but someone who drove into our yard might have seen the laundry well enough to identify individual pieces. To be honest, I wasn't too worried about it.

I asked Isaac (my 19-year-old son) what he thought about underwear hanging in plain view on the clothesline. He says that if he ever sees anything like that, he's going to lodge a complaint with the board of governors immediately. He also says that the only good weapon for fighting something like that is satire. Whatever, Isaac.

Laundry day at a Mennonite home

Five Steps of Home Improvement

Ideas from 1923 for making your home place look and function better

These five steps to a convenient and attractive home place are from a 1923 Agriculture textbook, (The New Agriculture for High Schools by Kary Cadmus Davis, Ph, D.) Dr. Davis's five steps are listed below in the order that they should be undertaken:

1. Clean up the place and put it in order as much as you can.

2. Study the current situation and think how it could be improved by re-planning or by adding new features.

3. Carry out the proposed improvements.

4. Add trees, shrubs and other plants to shade, beautify, delineate, and disguise.

5. Install modern conveniences.

Dr. Davis was writing about the improvement of a farm's home place, which would include barns, barnyards, chicken house, orchard, house, etc. However, his steps could be applied to any sort or size of home, anywhere.

I like his recommendation to make the most of what is there, first. Before you start spending money, put some elbow grease into it and really clean up the place. That can be a big improvement!

The "re-planning" he mentions in step 2 might include some "re-purposing", as we say today -- that is, simply thinking about the best way to use what you have to meet your needs and to improve the appearance of the place where you live.

I've watched Mennonite families set up farming operations in old farm buildings that weren't in the best of shape. It is interesting that they proceed much as outlined above.

First, they clean up the place, get the grass mowed, take care of the fences, nail down the loose boards, etc. Then, as money permits, they add the most necessary improvements first.

In the case of one of our Mennonite neighbors, he built a big machine shed for his tractor repair business as soon as they moved in. The old house looked pretty rough for a few years, but now they have put vinyl siding on it, and are in the process of building on a few rooms.

The modern conveniences that Dr. Davis suggested for step 5 were running water, bathroom equipment, electric lights and irrigation. That was in 1923. We think of most of those as necessities 85 years later!

In 2007, the modern conveniences we'd like might be a refrigerator with ice and water in the door, a home theater, or a hot tub. They're not necessities and everyone doesn't have them, but they'd be nice. I imagine that Dr. Davis would like us pay cash for our modern conveniences rather than purchasing them on credit, too.

The benefits of home improvement? Dr. Davis lists three:

1. For the members of the family -- better satisfaction with home surroundings, improvement and conservation of health, a valuable education for its younger members.
2. For the community -- good example.
3. For the place itself -- enhanced value.

Source: The New Agriculture for High Schools, by Kary Cadmus Davis, Ph.D. (Cornell). Published in Philadelphia by the J.B. Lippincott Company, in 1923. From the chapter titled "Improvement Projects" (p. 303).

Technorati tags: home improvement tips, remodeling advice, home improvement steps, how to improve your home

A Clutter Battle Fought and Won(?)

Cleaning out and re-accumulating

Casper The Incorrigible had a good time, early this morning before anyone was out of bed. He found the bottom door of the china cabinet open, so he explored that forbidden compartment while he had a chance.

To get in there, he had to push aside a stack of assorted foam and paper plates and plastic cups and tip over several tall flower vases. Most of this ended up on the floor in front of the china cabinet.

Somehow, picking up Casper's spill of paper plates and vases morphed into cleaning the china cabinet top to bottom. I "Windexed" the glass shelves and "Pledged" the wood. Then I rinsed the "china" and dried it.

This sounds so simple when I write it, but it took quite a while. I decided to pack away a few things I don't use much, donate a few things to our upcoming church garage sale, and reorganize the rest of it.

In the process, I decided that I don't need much more Anchor Hocking Early American Prescut (EAPC). I inherited my mother's 1960s glassware of this pattern, and I've collected it since then, thinking that I'll give each of my children a set when they set up a stable home. Thus I have two of many pieces -- or you might say, too many pieces!

I packed up the dishes and some other stuff for the church garage sale, and Isaac and I went to town to run some errands. We dropped off the garage sale items at church, and I must say, I was feeling quite virtuous about cleaning my china cabinet and getting rid of a whole box of clutter.

Then we went by the library and used the computers. When our time was up, Isaac went to look for some books. While waiting for him, I accidentally strayed into the magnetic field of the donated-books closet. I do have a terrible weakness for books, especially old books.

I only bought three, and they are in exceptionally nice condition -- well worth the $1.00 each I paid for them. They are:

• The Poems of Eugene Fields (with an ancient strip of paper marking the page with the poem, "A Valentine"
• Leaves of Grass (Carl Sandburg)
• The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson

And I suppose I should confess that I bought an old book at the library on Thursday of this week, also:

• American Notes by Rudyard Kipling

That's one box out, and four books in. Am I making progress in the ongoing battle against too much stuff? Not really, but at least the china cabinet is nice and clean.

Selective Blindness in My Family

Amazing Avoidance of Ice Cube Making

When we had ice cube trays, I was the only one who could see that the empty ones should be refilled and put back into the freezer.

The other members of the family had a peculiar blindness to empty ice cube trays. Unless I pointed out an empty tray to them, they were unable to see it.

Nowadays we have an ice maker in the freezer. It's very easy to operate. It has a little lever. If you push the lever down, it makes ice, and if you push the lever up, it stops making ice.

Here is a curious fact. I am the only who can see that the lever should be moved in either direction. No one can see that he has just removed the last ice cubes from the bin and the ice maker should be started. Nor can they see that ice is spilling out of the bin and the ice maker should be stopped.

Amazing, but true. I can hardly believe it myself.

I know, I know. I could just let them suffer the consequences, but then I wouldn't have ice for my drinks.

Technorati tags: ice cube trays, avoiding little chores

Junk In A Junker

The urge to hoard

I had to run some errands in Clarksville this morning, and I persuaded Isaac to come along for the ride. Coming home, we spotted a yard sale sign and decided to stop.

To get to the sale, we had to walk up the driveway along the house and pass through a gate to the backyard. Along the way, we walked by a weathered automobile that obviously hadn't moved from its parking place for a while. All its tires were flat.

The driver's seat was stacked high with newspapers. An old canister-style vacuum cleaner was sitting in the passenger seat. Several cardboard boxes were piled into the back seat, and they seemed to be filled with miscellaneous junk. I saw some plastic freezer containers and old Tupperware in one box.

It seemed that a yard sale was probably a step in the right direction for this household.

In an odd way, it's good to see something like that. It's a lesson about how hoarding junk can get out of hand. It's also an excuse to smugly say, "Well, at least I..." (the sentence can be finished in any number of ways.)

Fourteen Great Quotations About Home

And What I Think About It...

I chose these quotations because they answer the question, "What is a home?" in a thought-worthy, positive way.

• Home is where the heart is. ~Pliny the Elder
• Home is where one starts from. ~T. S. Eliot
• Where thou art - that - is Home. ~Emily Dickinson
• Home is the nicest word there is. ~Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Home is where we tie one end of the thread of life. ~Martin Buxbaum

• Home is a shelter from storms - all sorts of storms. ~William J. Bennett
• "Home" is any four walls that enclose the right person. ~Helen Rowland
• Home is not where you live but where they understand you. ~Christian Morgenstern
• Home is where the heart can laugh without shyness. Home is where the heart's tears can dry at their own pace. ~Vernon Baker
• The home is not the one tame place in the world of adventure. It is the one wild place in the world of rules and set tasks. ~Gilbert K. Chesterton

• Home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve; it is life's undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room. ~Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration. ~Charles Dickens

• The home is the bottom line of life, the anvil upon which attitudes and convictions are hammered out. [It is]... the single most influential force in our earthly existence. No price tag can adequately reflect its value. No gauge can measure its ultimate influence ... for good or ill. It is at home, among family members that we come to terms with circumstances. It is here life makes up its mind. ~Chuck Swindoll

• Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. It is the place of confidence. It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts. It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness and without any dread of ridicule. ~Frederick W. Robertson

Flea market booth that inspired this post

Technorati tags: home, happy home, quotations about homes, great quotes, what is a home

The Need for More Storage Space

And What I Think About It...

Some things don't change much.

I read a few of the little stories and comments on life in my farm women's book tonight (This Way of Life, edited by Maude Longwell and published in 1971.)

As I've mentioned before, this book is a compilation of 25 years of letters to the editor from farm women. The letters were written from 1944-1971. I had to smile about a note that was titled, "Husband heard from."

Mr. George S. Whipple wrote that women were always "asking, cajoling, pleading and yelling" for more storage space, but they just need to clean out the storage space they already have. He suggests that women should throw some stuff away, "which no female seems to be able to do."

He goes on to say that women should also clean out the freezer from time to time, because that would solve the lack-of-space problem there, too.

Mr. Whipple is giving the same advice I've read in dozens of home-organization articles: get rid of the junk. He was a man before his time! But he'd never make it as a professional organizer with his snotty remarks about how women can't throw anything away. Don't we all know that can be a problem for either sex?



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Messiness Defended

Some Interesting News...

A new book by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman, A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder, claims that a degree of disorganization is a good thing. The authors think that keeping things in perfect order reduces efficiency and wastes time. They also think a messy home is more nurturing for children.

"There are people who spend all day keeping things in their places who really wish they had time to do other things," Freedman says. "But they feel obligated to do this."

Source: Clutter: New book strikes a blow against the cult of über organization, an article by Valerie Finholm, The Hartford Courant

The quote above reminds me of a basic principle of organization that I read in some book: Always put every single thing on any project away, even if you are going to work on it again tomorrow. To me, that seems a perfect example of excessive neatness being a waste of time.

I appreciate the permission to keep various reference materials stacked around the computer, even if it does look messy to the unaccustomed eye. I think I had better continue to strive for some order in the house, though. The stacks would get pretty deep around here if I just embraced my messy tendencies.

If this topic speaks to you, you'll enjoy one of the interesting book reviews currently in the news: "Embrace the Clutter", by Penelope Green of the New York Times.

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Eric Abrahamson
David H. Freedman

Hanging Out Clothes To Dry

Another Trip Down Memory Lane...

I enjoyed some comments about clotheslines by Victoria Malaney of Flintstone, Maryland, in the January/February, 2007 edition of This Old House. In her letter to the editor, Ms. Malaney, who describes herself as "a nearly 80-year-old", wrote,

"...Women back in the day took great pride in how the clothes looked on the line: all like things together by color and size. Shirts were hung by the tail unbuttoned, to catch any welcome breeze that would help get rid of the wrinkles. Pants by the back waistband only, socks by the toe.

"In spite of all the work, hanging clothes meant time outside the house and didn't seem like a chore. It is a time I remember with love and pride."

Clothesline plans are given in the October, 2006, This Old House: 15 Green Projects for Under $500.

Related posts:
Washers, Dryers and Clotheslines
Ironing Clothes in the 1950's

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attitude

Cornbread for Supper

Another Trip Down Memory Lane... Chores and Duties...

I usually try to make a well-balanced and fairly attractive meal for supper. Sometimes I just don't feel inspired though, and tonight was one of those times. I ended up fixing chili, cornbread, and sliced cucumbers. (Wow -- lots of "c" words there.)

As I was stirring up the cornbread, I realized that I've been baking cornbread for 45 years or more. I've probably baked over a thousand pans of it. (Mental math done while stirring suggests this is a reasonable estimate.)

Cornbread was one of the first things that I ever learned to bake. Mama always told me how good my cornbread was. I don't know if she was telling the truth or if she said that to keep me interested in baking. However, I did have a secret ingredient that I always added -- 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Whenever we had cornbread, Mama heated a pan of milk. You could crumble a piece of corn bread into a cereal bowl, sprinkle it with a little salt and pepper, and pour a little hot milk over it. I liked it with just enough milk to soak the corn bread, but not to fill the bowl. I haven't eaten it that way for many years.

When we lived in Bolivia, the little Indian lady who did our laundry often told me, "Oh, Señora! Your cornbread is just like cake!" Dennis and I laughed about that because she had previously worked for an American named Steve. Steve was (in)famous for his cornbread and proud that he never used a recipe. We had tasted Steve's cornbread at a potluck dinner. It was a gummy, baked, cornmeal mush -- apparently made without baking powder.

If we have soup, Dennis always wants cornbread with it. He crumbles it over his bowl and it becomes one with the soup. Isaac, Keely and I all agree that we don't want to waste our cornbread or ruin our soup that way. We'll just have butter and maybe a little jelly or honey on ours, thank you.

When I was a little girl, I used the cornbread recipe on the back of the Quaker Cornmeal box. In about 1972, I bought a Fannie Farmer Cookbook, and ever since, I've used its recipe for cornbread. Here the Fannie Farmer recipe, doubled as I usually make it:

Corn Bread

Stir together:
1-1/2 cups corn meal
2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar (or Splenda)
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Mix in:
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil

Spoon into two 8x8" baking pans. Bake about 20 minutes at 350°. Or bake in a 9x13" pan for 25-30 minutes or until bread tests done.

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Update: I've posted this recipe and another for Mexican Cornbread on my recipe blog.

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Fannie Farmer cornbread
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Housecleaning Hints

Chores and Duties...

Over the years, I've read at least a hundred thousand hints about housecleaning. Most were quickly forgotten, but here are three that I actually remember and use.

1. Carry a laundry basket as you clean. You can quickly gather all the items that are in the wrong room and throw them in the basket. Then make everyone get their stuff out of the basket and put it away. In an emergency, you can quickly gather a lot of clutter in the basket and shove it into a closet to deal with later.

2. When in doubt, throw it out. This is a rule for the refrigerator, but it applies to all sorts of clutter. You could "throw it out" at the Goodwill. It doesn't always have to be thrown into the trash.

3. Start at the outside and work toward the middle. This is a rule for cleaning a spill without spreading it, but it's a good principle for attacking a room also.

If anyone else has any tried and true rules or principles to apply to cleaning house and controlling clutter, I would enjoy reading them.

Technorati tags:cleaning housecleaning hint hints clutter control
clutter control

Disgusting Refrigerator Stories

All In The Family... Another Trip Down Memory Lane... Chores and Duties...

I found myself in the mood to clean the refrigerator this afternoon. I took out the shelves and drawers and washed them in the sink. I threw out a few virtually empty salad dressings and pickle jars. I didn't find anything too nasty except for one lemon that was starting to go moldy. It didn't take too long and I'm glad it's done.

When I had my first school-teaching job, I shared a little basement apartment with my sister who was in high school. There wasn't any bus service in our county and we lived 32 miles out in the country, so it saved a lot of driving for Charlotte to live with me.

We cooked for ourselves, but we didn't usually have much in the refrigerator. Maybe that's why we didn't see a need to clean it out very often. One time, a little bowl of pork-and-beans sat in the back corner of a shelf for months.

One day I came home and Charlotte told me that she had defrosted and cleaned out the refrigerator. "You know that bowl of pork and beans?" she asked. "Those were peas."

Since then, I've tried to clean out the fridge more regularly.

When the kids were little, I went through a phase of using Hidden Vallen Ranch Dressing mixes. I would stir up the dressing and keep it in a jar in the refrigerator. The dressing was white with dark flecks in it and even though the jar was never labeled, we all knew what it was.

One evening as we were eating supper, Keely wanted some ranch dressing to dip her carrot sticks in, so she got out the jar and spooned some onto her plate. I didn't pay much attention to what she was doing until she made loud spitting and gagging noises.

"That dressing's spoiled, Mom!" she sputtered indignantly. Then I realized what she had got from the refrigerator -- not a jar of ranch dressing, but a jar of cold, congealed sausage gravy, left over from the biscuits and gravy I'd fixed as a treat for Dennis that morning.

After that shocking experience, Keely wouldn't taste sausage gravy for many, many years. The morning after Christmas this year, I fixed biscuits and gravy, and I noticed that she had some. I'm glad she has finally recovered.