An Amish laundry line near New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. This setup is common in Amish communities, and involves stringing a line from a point near the home to a point high up a tree. Turning a wheel moves the lines, taking wet laundry out and bringing dry laundry in. More New Wilmington Amish wash photos.
And the Amish Peace book giveaway contest continues–thanks to all who have participated so far.
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I was reading a comment one time from a ‘hater’ so to speak and he was complaining how he hates to drive by and see the Amish family’s underware flapping in the wind. I just laughed.
Underware is underware…for goodness sakes, men sag their jeans low enough so everyone can see his underware, women walk around in the summer literally in their underware and nobody complains about that, but someone hangs their clean clothes out to dry, oh well, how dare they do that!!!! Right?
Ugh, some people and their lack of brain cells…lol.
I’m not really that old, at least I don’t think so ;), though I do remember laundry lines being commonplace everywhere when I was a kid.
What amazes me is that the lines are out and laundry is hung even in winter. There must be a secret to it. It has to take longer to dry but I’ll bet it smells great when brought in from that cold crisp air.
Oh, and the “Amish Peace” book. I already bought a copy and plan on passing it on to family and friends. Haven’t started reading it yet though myself.
My big question is when is your book due out Mr. Wesner?
Amish bathroom towel
Hi Dawn–thanks for your comments on the undies–right on! I don’t recall if I’ve shared this on the blog before, but I remember one amusing clothesline when I was selling books in the Elkhart/Lagrange Indiana settlement a few years back. One of the bathroom towels hanging from the clothesline in the backyard of an Amish home had a line printed on it ‘dividing’ it in two. On the upper portion above the line was printed the word ‘FACE’. And on the lower portion, ‘BUTT’. Helpful, I thought.
How do Amish keep laundry from freezing in winter?
Bill the winter laundry question is a good one and an unexplained mystery, at least for me. Seems like it might be apt to freeze. I’m trying to think of enclosed areas where it might be hung around the house, but it’s late here, and I’m drawing a blank.
On the book–actually, it is out in stores March 22, 2010–a scant five or so months. In fact, I’ll have an announcement on that shortly on the blog!
In any case, it’s great to ‘be back’–work on the 2 books has meant less time to post and be in touch with you and all. But this is a lot of fun and I did miss it.
Amish clotheslines
Every Amish house I see has clothes hanging from the house to the barn, or on porches with at pulley. Hanging clothes outside doesn’t bother me – I do it myself!
I’m curious why I didn’t see any T post clotheslines in Amish yards. Is there a reason they don’t have them? thanks.