Southern Porch Extension

[Laurie]

Mariane, 6 lbs sounds like a good start on your weight gain. I wish foods were more appealing to you, though. Many years ago I had to force myself to eat (this was years before the eating disorder) and it's a drag. My mom hasn't had much of an appetite since my dad died. Foods don't taste that good to her, and she usually can't eat a lot at a time. I started talking with her about Ensure (mentioning I could look online for some recipes to make it more appealing), but she doesn't want to drink that. I don't blame her, but I get concerned.

Don, I'm glad you had that outing today. I hope it was enjoyable for you. Nice that you've been invited for dinner in a couple of weeks, too.

We should FINALLY get a closing date for my mom's farm this week. I arranged with her attorney to have her sign the deed in his office, which she did last week, so she won't have to attend the closing (which is in a town about an hour away). And this way, I could be with her, too. She's signing over the farm where my dad was born and raised. When my mom moved last year, it was the first time in over 100 years there hasn't been a Glass to live somewhere on that ridge. I just didn't want her to do it alone.

[Laurie]

My surgery is on Wed. If it was just my foot, that would be one thing, but this surgery is bound to cause a flare up in my other chronic pain issues (since I'll be sitting so much, will be using crutches and won't be able to take walks). And I don't tolerate pain medication well, so I take very little of that even after surgery. In addition to the physical stuff, please pray that I will make good use of this time to draw closer to the Lord. It's been full speed ahead for so long, and with some quiet time on my hands, I need to allow him to work in me. There's so much more I could say, but won't since this is a public forum.

[Verna]

Greetings on the porch,
Laurie, I'll be praying for your surgery--that you'll feel the presence of the Lord and His healing power.

Mariane, I'll just write all the stuff I want to eat--and you'll gain more than six pounds! So glad you're getting a little weight back on.

Don, keep in contact with us so we can be you're adjusting well. You know you are in our hearts. I'm glad you're getting some outings.

Yesterday it was spring and 80 and beautiful in the South, but this week is going downhill--42 and rainy today.

Hugs to all!

[Edy]

This just arrived in my inbox - MOM's clothesline, yes! But, MY clothesline still, except I only hang clothes out in winter when the temperature is in the 50-degree range. Nothing is quite so heavenly as sticking one's nose in a fresh-from-the-line wash cloth.

How well I remember Mom's clotheslines - every Monday, of course. Mom and Dad finally got an automatic washer, Mom still hung things outside as she said sheets, etc, always smelled better drying in the fresh air and sunlight

I am sending this to people, that I know will remember their mother's doing this chore on a line in the yard. They for sure know that it's true that our mothers would hang out the laundry even in winter, just as it mentions below! Enjoy the memories!

Remembering Mom's Clothesline

There is one thing that's left out. We had a long wooden pole (clothes pole) that was used to push the clotheslines up so that longer items didn't brush the ground and get dirty.

You have to be a "certain age" to appreciate this one. I can hear my mother now.....

THE BASIC RULES FOR CLOTHESLINES:
1. You had to hang the socks by the toes... NOT the top.
2. You hung pants by the BOTTOM/cuffs... NOT the waistbands.
3. You had to WASH the clothesline(s) before hanging any clothes - walk the entire length of each line with a damp cloth around the lines.
4. You had to hang the clothes in a certain order, and always hang "whites" with "whites," and hang them first.
5. You NEVER hung a shirt by the shoulders - always by the tail! What would the neighbors think?
6. Wash day on a Monday! NEVER hang clothes on the weekend, or on Sunday, for Heaven's sake!
7. Hang the sheets and towels on the OUTSIDE lines so you could hide your "unmentionables" in the middle (perverts & busybodies, y'know!)
8. It didn't matter if it was sub-zero weather... clothes would "freeze-dry."
9. ALWAYS gather the clothes pins when taking down dry clothes! Pins left on the lines were "tacky"!
10. If you were efficient, you would line the clothes up so that each item did not need two clothes pins, but shared one of the clothes pins with the next washed item.
11. Clothes off of the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket, and ready to be ironed.
12. IRONED???!! Well, that's a whole OTHER subject!

And now a POEM ...

A clothesline was a news forecast, To neighbors passing by,
There were no secrets you could keep, When clothes were hung to dry.
It also was a friendly link, For neighbors always knew
If company had stopped on by, To spend a night or two.
For then you'd see the "fancy sheets", And towels upon the line;
You'd see the "company table cloths", With intricate designs.

The line announced a baby's birth, From folks who lived inside,
As brand new infant clothes were hung, So carefully with pride!
The ages of the children could, So readily be known
By watching how the sizes changed, You'd know how much they'd grown!
It also told when illness struck, As extra sheets were hung;
Then nightclothes, and a bathrobe too, Haphazardly were strung.

It also said, "On vacation now", When lines hung limp and bare.
It told, "We're back!" when full lines sagged, With not an inch to spare!
New folks in town were scorned upon, If wash was dingy and gray,
As neighbors carefully raised their brows, And looked the other way.
But clotheslines now are of the past, For dryers make work much less.
Now what goes on inside a home, Is anybody's guess!

I really miss that way of life, It was a friendly sign
When neighbors knew each other best... By what hung out on that line

[BeachGrandma]

Edy, I did a double-take when I saw the article you posted about clotheslines. A month or so ago, I was thinking about our neighbor, Mrs.Swan, when I was a child on Lincoln Street in Waverly, New York. She only had 2 children, whereas my mother had 7. Her house was spotless whereas ours was full of toys and kids (both ours and all the other neighborhood kids) because Mother wanted a kid-friendly house. Mother baked nearly every day and every kid within 2 blocks could tell when cinnamon buns were just coming out of the oven. Mrs. Spotless Swan love to get her washing done and hung on the clothesline every Monday morning before Mother did. Then she would sit on her porch of her spic and span house and watch my mother still struggling with baskets of clothes to hang. It was a race that seemed to go on for years, with Mrs.Swan always winning. We kids wanted so much to stay home from school one Monday and beat Mrs. Swan to the clothesline but Mother couldn't imagine what she would write on the "Excuse my daughter from school" form when we returned the next day.

Anyway, I decided a couple of months ago to write about my mother's clothes line, the long pole with the "V"in one end to keep the sheets from lying on the grass. I agreed with all the things that were in the article and laughed out loud at the memories--the bird droppings down one side of a sheet, Daddy's stiff, frozen underwear which we'd stand up on the top of our shoes and walk around the front yard to the horror of my mother and the smirks of Mrs. Swan. Clothes lines were such a common thing and cutting clothes lines in two at Halloween was a common practice.

Those were the days, my friend.....

[Edy]

True to life, that's for sure!

[ready2go]

When I was growing up on the farm, clothes lines were as important to have as a good outhouse. We had them strung in the back yard, and also in the basement for use when it rained on Monday. I don't believe gas/electric dryers had been invented yet.

After Carol and I bought our first new house in 1966, my first project was to install a clothes line in the back yard. They were a pair of tee frames made from painted, heavy duty metal pipe that were cememted into the ground. If I remember correctly, hardware stores sold them.

Of course, our second new house purchased in 1971 also needed clothes lines, so it was back to the hardware store again. However, we also had a gas clothes dryer for the rainy days.

When we purchased our most recent new house in 1989, everything was different. City ordinances and neighborhood covenants strictly forbid having such atrocious things in the yard. The horror of having clothes waving in the breeze outside was as bad as painting your nice white house with large pink and red polkadots. Outhouses weren't allowed either.

Oh, how the times are a chang'n.

Don

[BeachGrandma]

Don, in some areas flags aren't even allowed to be displayed outside. These Homeowners Associations can be difficult to live with. Our previous house here at the beach was in a development that was so snooty it was pitiful. I wished someone had put up an outhouse or clothesline on their property to see how quickly the president of the HA would be pounding on their door. Our house was directly across from the clubhouse and swimming pool and of course everyone else in the community was forbidden to use them unless invited by a member. I was sitting by the pool with my niece and her 4 children one day, watching them swim when the wife of the HA walked over to us, and without prelude said to me, "What house in this development do you live in, may I ask?" I was startled but replied, "I live directly across the street. Why?" She said, "Well, I've never seen you at this pool before!" And I replied, "I've never seen you before either, so will you please leave so I can enjoy my niece and her children?" She stuttered and stammered and left the pool area. That night her husband came by and apologized for her, saying how sorry he was that it happened, that she could be officious at times. He was so nice and soon became one of our best friends. His wife was also apologetic next time I saw her and eventually we all started going out to dinner together.

It was this kind of attitude that finally convinced us to build another house outside of that development and not have so many restrictions forced upon us.

[ready2go]

Mariane, we don't have a Homeowners Association, but rather, there are written rules established by the originator of our housing development to be used as guidelines for maintaining the integrity of his once-owned land. Even now after 24 years he will often cruise through the area in his pricy Jaguar looking for rule violators.

Here are some examples of his rules:
1) Except for pick-up day, garbage cans must be stored in the garage.
2) Boats, RV's, campers, motor homes, and extra cars must not be kept in the driveway or along side the house for more than a few days.
3) Lawns must be mowed regularly, the weeds controled, and trees/bushes kept trimmed.
4) Storage sheds must not placed anywhere on the property.
5) Fireplace wood must be stored out of sight.
6) Kid's swing sets, jungle Jims, etc. must be placed such that they cannot be viewed from the street.
7) Flags attached to the house in honor of special days are okay, but yard flag poles are not allowed.
8 ) Fences are not permitted anywhere. Note: We have had a back yard fence for our dogs for almost 20 years, but it cannot be seen from the street. No one has complained.

The rule list was poorly distributed. Until recently, many homeowners were not aware of them. We were the first homeowner in the development, and didn't know about the rules until we had lived here for 10 years. It is an up-scale development, so it's not likely there would be any serious violations. But even if there were, I don't believe that Mr. Jaguar would have a legal leg to stand on.

Don

[BeachGrandma]

We had a $2,000 a year homeowner's fee which covered getting our lawns all mowed the same day by a company and the shrubs trimmed twice a year. Use of the clubhouse, the pool and tennis courts were included in the purchase price of the house (something like $30,000). Admittedly, the whole development looked good all the time but there was a sense that everyone was spying on each other. There were a series of lakes around which the houses were built (with the backs of the houses next to the lakes). One day our little granddaughter wanted to go fishing in the lake (which had large turtles and small alligators in it and a few tiny fish. But Johnny fixed up a fishing pole with a piece of shrimp on the hook and sat on the bank with Abby while she fished. She jumped up and down when she caught a tiny fish and agreed with her dad that it should be put back in the water. The next morning we received an Email from the Homeowners Association telling everyone that no fishing was permitted in the lakes. The HA board had met briefly after they saw Johnny and Abby fishing and quickly passed a law forbidding fishing. Most people were disgusted with the decision and a few even told us they enjoyed so much sitting on their back porch watching how excited 4-year-old Abby was to catch a fish and how patient Johnny was with her, teaching her how to cast, etc.

There were several doctors in the development who wanted their neighborhood to be the best and most sought-after in town but they made a lot of enemies enforcing their silly laws.

[ready2go]

We have two doctors, a lawyer, and a commercial pilot living on our culdesac, but they have been okay and have not hasseled anyone. Since there is no association managing the development, there are no fees and no services.

The lake management people are a different story. We do have a lake association fee for having a 265 acre lake in our back yards. They rule what is permitted on/near our lakeshore with an iron hand. The DNR is also involved. There are about 100 homes butting up to the lake.

For several years as the homeowners were developing their lakeshore property, the lake management people would slowly cruise along the entire lakeshore on pontoon boats looking for violations. With clipboard in hand, they would note suspect conditions and report the possible violations. The homeowner would then receive a sternly worded letter demanding that corrections be made within a specified time frame.

I knowingly did several things that were in violation, but never got caught. Violations included: size of dock; adding sand and/or rocks to beach areas; cutting down trees near the shoreline; weed control near the water line; planting unacceptable bushes/shrubs near the beach; and removing unwanted vegetation in the water including the protected rare Lotus Water Lily that grows in the lake.

Don

[Edy]

I was startled to see that I must have been posting, here, this morning (in my sleep?). Then I recognized it is BeachGrandma - she's been borrowing my posting color, I see!

Did I tell you folks how I beat the city inspectors at their own game, here? Good, I'll tell you, again, anyway.

Our old garage was built in such a way - wood too close to the ground - that even new paint would blister and start shedding within a year of painting. I got so tired of the city Dunning letters telling me I had to scrape and paint the garage (the side facing the alley was always the bad area, and I rarely went out the alley, so wasn't aware).

Then, one day I got a letter telling me I had to paint my picket fence. That did it. I phoned the inspector and asked her if it was against the law to have a rustic natural fence. I told her I'd tried painting it in the past, and it was futile, so I decided to let it go. She back peddled and said that if it were cedar or treated wood that wouldn't rot, then it was okay. I told her, well, that fence was here when I bought the house in 1970, and it hasn't rotted yet! I won!

Some time later, another letter cited an ordinance about the length of our grass. I thought, oh-oh, did Howard neglect to mow the little strip between our house and the neighbors? No, it was cut. Then, I looked at the area across the front of the house, under the windows. Ever since I had my lawn dug up for the sewer line, I had a depression in that area. Rather than having dirt hauled in, I've just been building it up naturally, raking in all the leaves in the fall, etc.

So, I decided nothing ventured, nothing gained. I recalled a notice we'd received that the city planned to do less mowing along the West River boulevard, letting things go "natural," too. I called the inspector and asked her, "Are you talking about my ornamental grass?"

Strike two, for the inspector department!

[deejay]

When we bought a house after our return from Australia, the backyard had one of those umbrella-shaped, rotary clotheslines. Our garage only had room for the washing machine, so if it rained, we had to take the clothes to the nearest laundromat to dry them--if I remember right.Otherwise, laundry was hung over backs of chairs, etc. to dry all through the house. However, of those "rules" of hanging wash, the only one Mom did was using one clothespin for two items, and whenever I used a clothesline, I did the same thing. It saved clothespins, so you could hang everything.
As for visibility, our house had high fences, so nobody saw or cared. When I lived in my apartment during Bible college, and didn't have enough money for laundry, I had to use a red plastic washboard, the kitchen sink for the undies and socks, the bathtub for shirts and pants--ugh! And I strung a line on the fence on my patio, after checking with the manager--she said okay as long as it was not visible to others, which it wasn't.

I agree, the smell of sun-dried clothes was best.

[Verna]

Love the clothesline article, Edy, and the comments after. The funniest sight I remember is the girl down the street who hung her unmentionables labeled for every day of the week in order on her clothesline. It's true. Nothing smells better than fresh-air-dried sheets and pillowcases!

We haven't lived where a clothesline was permitted for 30 years--Sad!

[Edy]

Sad, indeed, Verna. The sight of a clothesline, especially with something hanging on it, shows life on the street and in the house, to me. I cannot imagine living in such a sterile environment where one can see no such evidence of life. Are backyard barbeques allowed?