Originally Posted by
maviskw
Old-fashioned? When I was growing up, our wash line was metal. Some kind of strong wire: really a cable of many smaller wires.twisted together. It really held those barn jeans blowing in a strong wind. Such fun trying to hang them up, too. We used clothes-pins made of wood. A round piece of wood about 5 inches long with a slit cut about half way up. The really old clothes-pins had a piece of wire at the top of the slit. They were called "iron-clad". They held on tight in the wind, well, most of the time. Often we had to go collect the dry clothes from various places around the yard.
I also remember metal lines. Never used one, but definitely remember seeing a couple in my day. I can't imagine the discolouration and rust stains that happened.
I actually have a good handful of the old iron-clad pins. I never use them... also have a good number of old wooden dolly pegs, but don't use those either. I quite prefer spring pins.
LOL! I had a few pairs of rubber pants take flight off the line a few times on diaper wash day! After that I started using two pins for each pair of rubber pants is it was breezy out.