Clothesline Memories

Thank you to the following friends and relatives who responded about their memories of clotheslines, washing, and ironing when growing up:

Irene Ashe, Melanie Eppard, Anne Hollingsworth, Linda Kohler, Fran Moore, Ken Robbins, Madlyn Simkulet, and Linda Robbins

Irene Ashe, Baytown, Texas

About clotheslines, the things I remember are "pants stretchers". Do you remember those? They surely made ironing khakis easer. And the little bag that hung on the clotheslines for keeping clothespins in. Some of them were shaped like a child's dress. Sometimes, we were allowed to pin the top of a sheet to one clothesline and the bottom of the sheet to the next line and play underneath like a tent.

Melanie Eppard, Rhome, Texas

LOL, well this sure brings back memories!

I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania in a duplex. There were ten duplexes, all the same, lined up next to each other with little alleys in between on our side of the street. Across the street were row homes. There was no such thing as "privacy fences" so, on wash day, everyone's clothes, etc. were all hung on the lines in the backyards all the way up the street. We also had an alley behind the yards.

We lived on the corner, and there was a lady who lived all the way up on the other end. She would be outside hanging her clothes in her bra and slip in the summertime.

I also remember our wash line being used as a "dog run" and, on occasion, "kid run" when my brother or I were unruly.

To this day, my mother does not own a dryer and hangs her clothes out to dry. Nor does she have a dishwasher. She refuses, even though my brother and I offered to buy her one She thinks they're "unsanitary".

Anne Hollingsworth, Glendora, California

You and we are dating ourselves! I can remember hanging the clothes out because we didn't have a dryer (That name went to both me and my brother.). We were also known as the dishwasher! This was when I was growing up in Riverside, California around 1953-1957. Then we moved to Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, and eventually to San Diego, California.

We made a game out of both. We would toss a baseball to each other to see who would hang the clothes or who would take them down. The same for the dishwasher--who washed and who dried.

I can still remember the smell of the sheets on a really windy day and they'd make that "flapping" noise. As a baby boomer, I can even remember the old wooden clothespins (both kinds). When I was younger, we had a regular clothesline that was straight between two metal poles with arms Then my mother went modern and we got one of those clotheslines that was on one pole in the middle which would collapse like an opening flower and there were more lines to use. She also kept the clothespins in a cloth bag which hung on one of the lines and she could move it along while she hung the clothes.

My sister had to do the ironing of the sheets and I got to play the sprinkler! We didn't have a steam iron and it was fun listening to the iron sizzle the wet part of the sheet.

Since I'm the youngest of four kids, laundry day was fun for me because I could play with both my brothers and sister. My mother made sure all of us were busy on that day!


Linda Kohler, Surprise, Arizona

I also grew up in the 50's, 60's and it was a great time in my life. Since I grew up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, we would have to make sure it was windy and not freezing outside. I also remember the cloth bag and both kinds of clothes pins. I did not like the "new and improved" plastic pins because they always broke.

We were also lucky enough to have a mangler, at least that is what my mother called it. You would put the sheets folded in and it was sort of like a wringer washer that would move the cloths along the hot iron rollers. I never got to do the good things, only the pillow cases, hankies, and some of the cotton dish cloths for drying the dishes.

I did not like the metal line because it would be hard to hang things on, but the rope line was not much better because it would sag after a large load of clothes were hanging on it. So you had to position the cloths just right so it would all "hang good".

Anyone remember the pant stretchers?? I always thought they were so funny especially when the pants dried and you took them off. They looked like they could just walk away.

This brought back some nice memories that I have not thought about in a long time. Guess I am getting old!

Fran Moore, Powderly, Texas

I still use my clothesline! Especially now that we are on Social Security!

Ken Robbins, Rhome, Texas

When I was growing up on Grant Avenue in Islip, New York, we had a clothesline that ran from the back porch by the kitchen to a post across the back yard. It was first class. There was a clothesline pulley at each end. The clothesline went around both pulleys.

I could stand on the back porch, hang up the clothes on the bottom line, and extend it out until the clothes hit the post that stopped it. I believe my dad invented the clothesline for us based on the ones that ran across streets and alleys in New York City. When the clothes were dry, I pulled them back in and took them off the line. Sheets could freeze if it was cold enough in the winter.

There was a special place on the line to adjust the tension of the cotton rope. Sometimes there was a heavy sheet on the line and the tension would have to be increased so the sheet would not drag on the ground. At other times there would be too much tension on the line due to dry sunny weather. The cotton line would be too tight and would have to be loosened.

Most of the clothespins we had were the one piece wooden ones with round tops and two legs. They did not have a clip on them that you could squeeze.

Linda Robbins, Rhome, Texas

We hung (That is correct English for this application.) out the clothes on the clothes line until I was in the 5th grade (1952) when our family lived in Galveston at the parsonage on N 1/2 Street. We had a gas dryer there for the first time. As I recall, it was in the garage.

Even then, probably on some days we still hung out the clothes on the clothes line. That was a job that my mom gave to me and my sister Llew. All of our clothes lines had T-poles at each end. Sheets were the hardest. They had to be folded in half so they wouldn't drag the ground and for a short person, that was a chore.

Also, have you ever dropped a clothespin when your other hand is in the air holding the item on the line? What a wasted effort. You have to start over again. I remember continuing to do that job when we moved to Duncan, Oklahoma in high school (1958-1960) in the first parsonage in the back yard. One day the sky "turned green" and either the clothes were or were not dry yet, but we had to get them off the line quickly, because a big storm was coming.

As an adult I hung out clothes at my first mother-in-law’s home in Tulsa, Oklahoma and later at my second mother-in-law’s home on Amuxen Court in Islip, New York. I recall that the first job was to take a wet cloth and run it over the wire clothesline to get it clean. Next shake out the clothes and arrange them in the basket, which had a sewn in plastic liner or was a bushel basket like fruits comes in. This was in the day before plastic laundry baskets.

Many people probably hung up their clothes haphazardly, but I remember organizing them so that the sheets, towels, and larger items were either on the outside lines or at an end where they covered the more private clothes, like underwear and unmentionables.

Madlyn Simkulet, Baytown, Texas

Here is what you can learn about a community from their clotheslines:

1. You can tell how many people live in the house including their sexes and approximate ages

2. You can tell when there is a new baby in the house. This was back when we still used cloth diapers.

3. You have a hint of what type work the father does. If there are lots of white shirts, he might do office work or if there are lots of work pants on the line, he might be a laborer.

Go to the following link for stories, comments, and other information about clotheslines:
http://www.theclotheslinebook.com/virtual_backfence.html

Carolyn Mandeville, Louisiana

Hanging the clothes out on the line was my job when I was small. It was a challenge to get the sheets stretched without dropping them. There was absolutely nothing more delicious than taking the clothespins off and folding the stiff, sweet-smelling sheets. When I was older, I got to iron the sheets on the mangle out on our screened side porch. While I ironed, I listened to Our Gal Sunday and Stella Dallas. They were radio soap operas.

Go to the following link to learn more about the mangle “mangler” mentioned in Linda Kohler’s writing:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Ironrite_Mangle_Ironer

Ironrite Mangle Ironer 78

One of the appliances pictured in the 1946 article is an IronRite ironer... known generally to the population as a "Mangle". (You can see why the Iron-Rite corporation is so emphatic about calling it an Ironer.)

So, here is an up close look at a small piece of the American Dream
The IronRite Ironer
The Attractive cabinet

Gray Family Connections

There is a wonderful feeling when close and distant family members connect with each other through today's technology. Using http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ Anderson County, Texas Message Board, I have been able to connect with two second cousins who I did not know before. I am a Hollingsworth Gray descendant on my mother's side. One of them is a Brinson Gray descendant on his mother's side and the other is a Simpson Gray descendant on his father's side. We are near each others' ages even though they are first cousins to each other and I am a second cousin to both of them.

They have surnames of Brinson and Simpson, but because their mother and their father were sister and brother, I have a connection with them through my maternal grandfather. The sister's and brother's mother was the oldest sister to my maternal grandfather.

We share a common great-grandfather and great-grandmother who were Richard Lusky "Dick" and Mary Ellisor Gray who I wrote about in an earlier January 2008 post. Their oldest daughter lived from 1878-1924. She married a Simpson who lived from 1861-1942. These two first cousins were born after the death of their grandmother and near to the time of death of their grandfather. The two second cousins did not get to know their grandfather and grandmother.

In my family of fourteen first cousins, including my brother, and two sisters, we were fortunate in the timing of the lives of our grandparents because they lived until most of us were out of high school, going to more school, working, and/or married. Even though my maternal grandfather was a younger brother of my two second cousins' grandmother, he was born 15 years later and lived from 1893-1978. My maternal grandmother lived from 1893-1980.

The miraculous part is that, without today's technology and the Internet, these two second cousins and I would not have made contact with each other. The days of holding family history papers and photographs by one family member are over. The sharing of documents, letters, diaries, photographs, and stories is the only way to go. To do less is to hoard and prevent future generations from knowing about their family history.

Publishing family histories with paper is still important. Locating printed documents or copies of original documents that support and cite genealogy research about our ancestors is critical to telling the facts as they were, without leaving anything out or embellishing the truth, more than it was.

I am grateful for hearing the stories that my relatives recall about growing up, or that their parents told them about their parents. These are the stories that are worth writing down for future generations to read.

One of the second cousins' stories is a memory of attending the father's funeral at Pilgrim Cemetery of their first cousin. Another is about one cousin shooting a bow and arrow into the air and both cousins running for cover when they were young. A third story concerns one cousin loaning his cousin his knife to whittle with while visiting each other.

These are private stories, and to protect the living, no names are given. The stories are told about each other in general terms, and we will leave the details of who told what in the stories to the tellers themselves when they choose to reveal themselves and their stories.

I hope my relatives will read this story. I have sent them email notices about looking at this story and others I have posted here about all sides of my family.

I hope one or more of them will post their own story, short or long, humorous or serious, on this blog about our common ancestors. This is the way we will continue connecting with each other and our future generations.

Other genealogy lovers are also welcome to comment or share their feelings about any of the posts here.

My Great Grandfather Richard L. "Dick", from Alabama and Texas

My maternal great-grandfather Richard L., nicknamed "Dick", was born on August 23, 1853 in Alabama to James Malachi (1830-1922) and Henrietta E. Williams (1828-1897). Dick's family came to Antrim Community in Anderson County, Texas about 1848-1849. His father served in the Confederate States of America Army for four years as a Private in Company K, 22nd Texas Infantry, from 1861-1865.

Dick's life began in Alabama, but he lived about the last 60 years of his life in Houston and Anderson Counties in east Texas as a farmer, mostly in the rural area southwest of Palestine and Elkhart, in a community called Antrim where he and his wife Mary raised their nine children.

By 1870, Dick moved with his family to Houston County, Precinct 5, near Grapeland, Texas. The nearest post office was at Crockett, Texas. Dick, 17, was a farmer, along with his father, James Malachi, 45,  his older brother, John Williams, 19, and younger brother, Benjamin "Bennie" S., 15. His youngest brother, James Frank, was 10. The father's real estate was valued at $500.00 and personal estate was valued at $200.00.

Nancy Smith Williams (1810-1870), 59, born in Alabama, also lived with the family in 1870. She was Richard L. father's mother-in-law. Her daughter was Henrietta E. Williams. The Williams family arrived in the Antrim Community about 1850. 

In 1877, Dick, 24, married Mary Ellisor, 18, whose parents were Joshua Malachia (1833-1876) and Lucy Ann Chaffin Ellisor (1837-1908). By 1880, Dick, still a farmer, 26, moved with his wife Mary, 21, and two daughters, Linnie, 1, and Mary Etta, 6 months, to Anderson County near Elkhart, Texas to Antrim Community.

By 1900, Dick, farmer, 47, lived at Elkhart, Texas in District 8 Enumeration District, Justice Precinct 2, Voting Precinct 5, with his wife Mary and children, Linnie, 19, James, farm laborer 16, John Edward, farm laborer, 13, Luna Lenora, 10, Ethelinda, 8, Richard Lusky, 6, Bennie C., 3, and Nora Azalee, 1. Dick stated he was unemployed for 4 months. Daughter Mary Etta was not listed in the US 1900 Census.

By 1910, Dick, farmer, 56, lived with his wife Mary, and daughters Luna Lenora, public school teacher, 20, Ethelinda, 19, Richard Lusky., farm laborer, 17, and Nora Azalee, 16.

I am indebted to second cousin Ivey Maurice Brinson, whose grandmother was Linnie Simpson and whose great-grandfather was Richard L. "Dick".

Ivey Maurice's grandmother and my grandfather, Richard "Lusky", were older sister and younger brother. Maurice shared the photographs of Dick, Mary, and their descendants and information about the Antrim Community and School in Anderson County, and Antrim Cemetery in Houston County, Texas that he, his sister, and father helped to maintain for many years.

The story here is not documented with citations. However, correct and proper citations are located in my Ancestry Family Tree as well as in Legacy Family Tree. I photographed many Antrim Cemetery headstones in July, 2008.

The home of Richard L. "Dick" and Mary Ellisor, no known date, Antrim Community, Anderson County, Texas. From left to right: Richard L. "Dick", John Edward (known as John Ed), unidentified, and Robert "Rob" Little

Headstones of R. L. (August 23, 1853-February 7, 1917 or 1920) and Mary (December 30, 1858 or 1859-1943) at Antrim Cemetery  Houston County, Texas. 

Left photograph: Richard "Lusky", (1893-1978), my grandfather; John Edward "Ed" (1886- ), Gramma Mary Ellisor (1858 or 1859-1943), Mary "Etta" (1880-1950), "Luna" Lenora (1889-1971), Ethelinda "Ethel" (1891-1965, and "Nora" Azalee (1898-1964).

Center photograph: Jasper Simpson (1861-1942) and his wife Linnie Simpson (1878-1924), Ivey Maurice Brinson's grandmother, on their wedding day in 1900.

Right photograph: "Luna" Lenora, Richard "Lusky", my grandfather, and Ethelinda "Ethel", no known date.

Antrim Community School Children in 1920, Anderson County, Texas. Fourteen of the children were mine and Ivey Maurice Brinson's ancestors.

Note: I recall my mother, Opal "Murriel" Hollingsworth and her sister, my aunt Nora "Azalee" Snow talking about their relatives and calling them by these names: Aunt (pronounced "Aint") Etta, Aunt "Aint" Ethel, and Uncle Ed. I recall when I was a child that I visited most of these relatives, but did not realize the significance of asking questions about their lives. The only one I know to ask now is my second cousin Ivey Maurice Brinson, whose mother told him many stories about his ancestors.

Musings About Eibands

When I was growing up in the 1950s, Eibands was a magnificent, impressive department store in Galveston, Texas. As a child of 8-12 everything looked larger and sounded more wonderful than it was to a grownup. I imagined that the store stretched from one end of the block to the other. That's the way Eibands was to me, especially the days before Christmas. I can still hear those sounds of Christmas music in my head from the speakers above the sidewalk.

My mom and dad took us three kids downtown each Christmas to watch and listen to the colorful animated store displays. The movements were intricate, and the sounds of the Christmas songs were piped out to the spectators on the sidewalk. There was an excitement in the air as I watched the figures rotate their eyes, heads, and arms slowly from left to right, and right to left again. My face pressed against the glass, as if to think I could get closer to the figures. The music was twinkly and bell-like, as though the sounds were coming down from heaven.

The individual displays were larger than life in my mind and filled most of the front glass windows of the store. There was a religious display with the Nativity scene of Joseph, Mary, the baby Jesus, and the animals in the stable; a display of Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, and their elves making toys; and, a display of children dancing and opening their presents around a Christmas tree. It was a special event that I looked forward to visiting for several years, and the memories of wanting to repeat the experience were in my head long before the time came to visit Eibands again.

It is important now to travel forty years in the future to the Bell County Museum in Belton, Texas where my family visited the Christmas exhibits in the 1990s. Lo, and behold, there were the same displays that I enjoyed so much in my childhood as I stood in front of Eibands in Galveston. It was an out of body experience, a deja vu. My eyes blinked. My face did a double take, wondering, "Were those the ones? Could those be the same figures I enjoyed so many years ago?" As it turned out, they were the same, and I was so totally amazed and awed.

I can still dream and hear those magical sounds and see the seemingly real-life movements of the figures in the displays of the storefront windows from long ago. It is amazing how our memory can trigger such joyous and pleasurable occasions from the past. I never want to lose the ability to retrieve those precious moments in time.

Eibands is no longer a four-story department store in Galveston, but the building on Post Office Street in the Strand Historic District still stands. It has been resurrected to lead a new life as condominiums for people who wish to call Eibands their new home. Perhaps you can go there someday and relive the memories of the past.