Clothes Pins

No one has really made a better mousetrap.  In the beginning of time, clothes, if washed at all. were doused in a river and laid out on grass or bushes.   Progress was outside lines with the ends of sheets or trousers tied around the line.  The next step was the one piece, not spring version, with a round ball at the end.  An accessory to help the woman (of course) with the balancing act of hanging out was an apron with pockets.  Even then the sequence was sometimes place the pin in your mouth until one hand could manage to attach the holder. One final Wikepedia fact new to me is that the spring pin was invented in the late 1800’s by David M. Smith, not the one I knew and loved, yet I’m sure my man and the inventor would have found interests in common.

Once the spring one came on the scene, its uses multiplied. Many a Frito was kept fresh because the folded top was clothes pinned in place.  Wood doesn’t rust and no holes were punched because of sharp edges as in paper clips. This very day they hold coverings in place to protect my sweet peas from dipping temperatures.  School teachers require a certain number.  Any piece of cord can become the display line for art work.  One flat side can have a head and arms added, clothing pasted on, and so become a visual aid for a report on an historical person. At school and at home, I seemed to always have an abundance.

However, I needed new fresh ones for a Sunday School project at the last minute and had to try two Dollar Stores and a third grocery before I found a package labeled in Spanish. They are smaller than I remembered. Amazon, though, does have several rows to choose from, even a variety of sizes.  Most interesting is the ad for “needing clothes pins in a pinch”, then order from Just Artifacts.  When I cleaned out my childhood home, the apron with clothes pins was still hanging inside the steps to the attic.  What my mother felt was a defining ordinary need of her life had become at best an artifact of archeological importance.

Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.

                                                            Luke 12:15