What Would Laura Do?

Laura Ingalls Wilder, that is. In preparing for an article today on clotheslines for Early Homes magazine, I came across some clothesline quotes from the "Little House" series. And who could have imagined that a clothesline would save Pa and Almanzo from getting lost in the harsh prairie blizzards while heading to their barns? (Not once but on numerous occasions.) PHOTO: From the Ingalls Homestead (recreated) in DeSmet, South Dakota.

From On the Banks of Plum Creek:

Even though the sunny day was not Monday, Ma washed the clothes and hung them on the clothesline to freeze dry. That day there were no lessons.

From Farmer Boy:

Then the carpets were hung on the clotheslines outdoors, and he had to beat them with a long stick…

From By the Shores of Silver Lake:

Next day Laura helped to wash all the quilts and blankets. She was glad to lug the loaded basket out to the clothesline in the sweet, chilly March weather.

From The Long Winter:

Pa sat down and leaned to the heater, holding out his hands to warm them. But he was uneasily listening to the wind. Before long he started up from his chair.

“I’m going to do the chores before this get any worse,” he said. “It may take me some time but don’t worry, Caroline. Your clothesline’ll hold and get me back all right.”

Same book, different blizzard:

“Jerusalem crickets! This is a humdinger!” he exclaimed. “Good thing the stable is tight. I had to dig my way into it. Snow was packed as high as the door. Lucky I put your clothesline where I did, Caroline. I had to come back to the lean-to to get the shovel, but there was the clothesline to hang on to. Hot pancakes and fried pork look good to me! I’m hungry as a wolf.”

Pa was gone a long time. Ma set the supper back to keep warm. She did not light the lamp, and they all sat thinking that the clothesline would guide Pa through the blinding blizzard.

From The First Four Years:

For three days and nights the blizzard raged. Before Manly went to the barn again, he followed the house wall to where the long rope clothesline was tied at the corner. With his hand on the rope, he followed it to the back of the house. Unfastening it at the corner, he followed the house around to the door and fastened the rope there, and to the loose end he tied a shorter rope, the drying line he had put up in the storm shed. Now unreeling the rope as he went he could go to the haystack at the barn door, make the rope fast, and follow it back to the house safely. After that he went to the barn and cared for the stock once a day.

From On the Way Home (this section, written by daughter Rose Wilder, describes the houses as they appeared in 1894 in their new town of Mansfield, Missouri where they settled for over sixty years):

All the houses had front porches; all were painted and trimmed with different colors and wooden lace. Behind them were vegetable gardens and clotheslines, barns and chicken houses; some had pigpens.

Now those are my kinds of houses!

Catherine Seiberling Pond is a freelance writer on design and historical topics and author of The Pantry–Its History and Modern Uses [Gibbs Smith: 2007].

© Catherine Seiberling Pond