Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Give Me A Clothespin and Call Me Dorothy

I did it!! I went to Rural King (a very interesting store) and purchased me a clothes line and clothespins. I came home and hung it up and yesterday I used it for the first time!!


I was so excited--it obviously takes little to amuse me.

Now, let me tell you about Dorothy. She was my great-grandma and she was amazing. I remember going to visit her and thinking how amazing she was. She was an excellent cook and seamstress. She could crochet and paint a beautiful picture. She canned veggies and made jam and apple butter. She lived during the Great Depression and her and grandpa were dairy farmers (they also grew corn, lots-o-corn). She delivered the milk every day and ran her house with perfect precision. Her apple butter was better than I have ever tasted, to this day none can compare. I am saying all this to get to the clothesline. Grandma believed that nothing smelled better than clothes dried on the line. Even after dryers came about and she had a perfectly good dryer, for as long as the weather would allow, she hung EVERYTHING on the line. When we would go visit, her sheets and towels would have this distinctive smell that I have never smelled anywhere else. It was wonderful, it was grandma's house.

When Grandma passed away, my mom inherited her bedroom suite, which I slept on for my remaining few years at home. Along with that bed, came the sheets. The wonderful smelling sheets that smelled like nothing else I knew. They still smelled like "grandma's house".

Since then (about 13 years) those sheets have been washed and dried (in dryer) lots of times and guess what. . . . . those sheets still smell like "grandma's house". It's amazing. I slept on them back in the fall and they still transported me back to that house in Clay City, where apple butter and Apricot Angel Food cake were normal items in a meal and I went to sleep with fond memories floating through my head.

As I was hanging those cloth diapers on the line yesterday I thought of grandma. I thought of the hard times she lived through that I can only slightly imagine, the countless diapers (that she probably sewed herself) she hung a line, she had five children, and how she accomplished so much in a day that it makes my head swim.

So I posted today to tell everyone that I have a clothes line for hanging diapers to dry. I know you all were anxiously waiting for this information.

I also posted today to tell you about Dorothy, a great lady, that lived her whole life and probably never knew that she was, amazing.

3 comments:

forever folding laundry said...

Oh, that's so sweet. I'm sure she knew how wonderful she was to you. This made me think of my grandma (Mamma)...her sheets had a smell, too. A good one. =)

Karen said...

That's cool that those smells take you right back to your childhood. :)

And I know how your grandma got so much done.
She didn't have internet access. ;)
I think about how much I could get done without it.
No, not true, b/c if it went out, I'd spend the day troubleshooting and checking to see if it was back up and still not get anything done!

pungsnotded said...

I just stumbled across this blog and I love your entry! I have been toying with the idea of a clothesline, for a while, and now I must do it! If only for sheets and blankets, this reminds me so much of my great-grandma, who had an acre garden and made her own ketchup! I can just smell those sheets!