Online: 1900

I thought it was a pain hanging clothes on our back yard line that was five feet off the ground. At least I didn't have to worry about falling out of a fourth floor window while doing it.

I read someplace (don't remember where) that in the days of laundry lines here in NYC, there were young boys who would shinny up the poles and adjust, repair, and replace the lines. I think twenty five cents was the going rate.

My understanding is that corsets and other personal items were hung inside other things such as sheets or pillow cases. However I doubt if corsets were washed very often -- if ever.

I like the messy, rebellious line of washing about 3 lines in from the top. At first, I decided to attribute it to the wind, but since everyone else's is so neat and straight, I wonder.

I do see what looks like "unmentionables" towards the top right, and despite the predominance of plain longjohns, I do see some ladies print dresses in the bottom left corner.

When I see these back porch clothesline photos I can't help but think of Mrs. Frobisher's squeaky pulley that concludes one of "Uncle Claude's" funniest vaudeville routines ever. W.C. Fields worked it into "It's a Gift" and the whole movie is a nonstop riot, perhaps his best. Well worth the looking into if you have never seen it.

I wonder who had the job of climbing those tall poles to place / replace / rethread the pulleys.

I see a lot of men's underwear and kids' undershirts but nowhere can I find any ladies' undergarments -- corsets and such. I wonder if they aired those out to dry or if they had to be much more modest about it.

Not only is this a community of laundry, it's a Community. I miss neighbors, and sitting on the stoop on a warm summer evening, kids playing in the street, all of it.

this isn't the French Quarter.