Clotheslines
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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Clotheslines presents an enduring, vivid account of “women’s work,” showing how the creative energies of women have often been zapped by mundane tasks—and, in turn, how such tasks often reflect a ritualistic approach to life and survival.
The clothesline is an emblematic image to represent the unseen work of women. We may look at a clothesline and consider it either utterly beautiful or ashamedly ugly, but we never see the work that went on before those items appeared on the line. Clotheslines examines many different aspects to this realm of housework , a realm which embraces pain, drudgery and isolation at the same time that it celebrates the wisdom in the generational links, the folklore, the humor and creativity that also mark these tasks.
Made in the 1980s as clotheslines were beginning to disappear from urban and even country landscapes, this film stands as a as classic for all the ways in which it documents a fading practice, the result of changing technology and changing attitudes about gender roles.
“Cantow might be a known quantity: an award-winning filmmaker whose work crosses between anthropological film, autobiography, folk art, documentary, and feminist practice. For the uninitiated, Clotheslines (1981) and If This Ain’t Heaven (1984) provide a perfect introduction to her uniquely intimate style. Clotheslines is a perfect city symphony, jettisoning feats of architecture and engineering for the delicate ephemera of clothes hanging on a line. Cantow captures the lines reaching across tenement yards and rural lawns, often signaling more than the women who hung them would have liked to reveal. For all its contemporary resonance, it’s a movie that preserved a world of knowledge, aesthetics, and feeling as it disappeared. The invisibility and underappreciation of women’s domestic labor hardly ends with the laundry, but there is something especially galling about the erasure of what was (and still is) a quintessential element of the urban landscape. Cantow makes a good case for clotheslines being a form of folk art with each beautifully composed shot. The beauty of the lines and the vividness of the women’s testimonies create a nostalgia, even as they paint the laundry as an endless and all-consuming chore.” —Nellie Kellian, Metrograph Journal
“In Roberta Cantow’s masterpiece, Clotheslines, women speak about laundry. Cantow’s subjects discus their pride of their mother’s pride in clean laundry, as well as laundry as an acknowledgement of their drudgery and oppression.” —Maria Garcia, Film Journal International
“Over the course of this thirty-two minutes nearly ekphrastic meditation on the art of laundry, we listen to twenty-one women reconcile their feelings about the mundane chore.” —Nayat Yohannes, Criterion
"One of the last great works of that first wave of innovative and focused independent documentaries was Roberta Cantow’s 1981 Emmy Award winning Clotheslines, It enlightened, informed ad engaged the senses and emotions, yet it had no narrator, no talking heads, no didactic shot sequences. The women’s confessions are expansive in insight and emotion. At the film’s core is a penetrating, humane spirituality." —Douglas Bonner, Boiling Sand blog
"The voices of the women interviewed for the film – proud voices, angry voices, sheepish. humorous, wistful and bitter voices – express layers of feeling and experience that will be a revelation to both men and women.” —Leslie Bennett, The New York Times
“Clotheslines is one of the best films about women ever made. The film taps into that all but primordial task of washing the family’s clothes, known as 'women’s work,' as a means of exploring the quality of women’s lives. From that seemingly mundane task, she brings us riches — the ineffable mystery and beauty, boredom and resignation concealed by the fixed traditions of banal sexist conventions." —Vic Skolnick, New Community Cinema Newsletter
“The most effective sections of the film demonstrate the ways the clothes “lines” connect women in neighborhoods and across generations.” —Alice Reich, American Anthropologist
“Roberta Cantow’s Clothslines is the first public airing of dirty laundry that I have found compelling since Watergate...Laundry as airborne kite, dirty clothes as burden, and washing as social intercourse all feature in Cantow’s genealogy of the wash.” —Carrie Rickey, The Village Voice
“The filmmaker is to be commended for her attention to the creative and artistic ways individuals integrate mundane tasks inio their lives.” Yvonne R Leong, Folklore Women’s Communications
Citation
Main credits
Cantow, Roberta (film producer)
Cantow, Roberta (film director)
Cohen, Alice Eve (composer)
Other credits
Music, Alice Eve Cohen.
Distributor subjects
Women's Studies; Women's History; Urban Sociology; Creativity; Feminist Sociology; New York City; American Studies; Filmmaking; Documentary Films; Urban Studies; Sociology of the Family; CommunityKeywords
Clotheslines transcription
00:00:06.179 --> 00:00:08.762
(wind blowing)
00:00:18.752 --> 00:00:22.252
(piano plays in distance)
00:00:25.696 --> 00:00:28.196
(wind chimes)
00:00:30.417 --> 00:00:31.630
- [Woman] And as they
walked down the street
00:00:31.630 --> 00:00:33.730
a gust of wind was blowing heavily
00:00:33.730 --> 00:00:34.970
and there, as they looked up,
00:00:34.970 --> 00:00:37.710
a pair of bloomers were
dancing on the clothesline
00:00:37.710 --> 00:00:39.903
as the wind was filling up the legs.
00:00:46.530 --> 00:00:48.300
And with one accord the two young men
00:00:48.300 --> 00:00:49.470
took off their top hats
00:00:49.470 --> 00:00:52.640
and tipped very politely as they passed.
00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:54.610
I always had a lovely picture in my mind
00:00:54.610 --> 00:00:56.120
of those two young blades
00:00:56.120 --> 00:00:58.573
showing their respect for the
female outline. (wind chime)
00:01:02.194 --> 00:01:05.527
(gentle wind continues)
00:01:07.770 --> 00:01:09.590
- [Woman] My laundry problems started
00:01:09.590 --> 00:01:11.370
many, many years ago,
00:01:11.370 --> 00:01:13.930
I guess when I first got married.
00:01:13.930 --> 00:01:18.930
And my husband, who was an
electrician at that time,
00:01:19.900 --> 00:01:20.733
insisted upon wearing white
duck pants to work every day.
00:01:20.733 --> 00:01:21.566
(Childlren laugh)
00:01:22.399 --> 00:01:25.079
day.(children laugh)
00:01:25.079 --> 00:01:27.970
Oh yes, they were washed by hand.
00:01:27.970 --> 00:01:29.960
There was no other way.
00:01:29.960 --> 00:01:32.680
I would work from seven to seven,
00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:33.513
from seven at night to
seven in the morning.
00:01:33.513 --> 00:01:34.346
(wind chime)
00:01:36.880 --> 00:01:37.713
But I had the kind of a
husband that didn't help.
00:01:37.713 --> 00:01:38.546
(Little laugh)
00:01:42.170 --> 00:01:43.003
(Baby crieds)
00:01:43.003 --> 00:01:43.836
In the morning,
00:01:43.836 --> 00:01:46.120
he couldn't leave the
baby to come pick me up,
00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:48.240
so I had to take the buses home.
00:01:49.857 --> 00:01:52.457
And I'd come home and he'd
still be sleeping in bed.
00:01:53.943 --> 00:01:56.526
(bell chiming)
00:02:00.163 --> 00:02:00.996
I think I began to hate him then.
00:02:02.662 --> 00:02:03.495
(Woman pounding laundry)
00:02:12.906 --> 00:02:15.271
- He didn't think it was anything,
00:02:15.271 --> 00:02:17.488
he just didn't...
00:02:17.488 --> 00:02:20.770
Uh...Oh...I was young.
00:02:20.770 --> 00:02:22.130
I was ambitious.
00:02:23.338 --> 00:02:24.171
I really thought nothing and
nobody could get me down.
00:02:24.171 --> 00:02:25.004
(Traffic sounds)
00:02:32.110 --> 00:02:36.837
I did it for years and
I look around me now
00:02:36.837 --> 00:02:39.700
and see young women doing it, I think,
00:02:39.700 --> 00:02:43.523
how could I have thought I was
so modern and be so stupid?
00:02:46.230 --> 00:02:47.230
Really!
00:02:47.230 --> 00:02:49.790
To do it and to do it
with such an attitude
00:02:49.790 --> 00:02:50.980
like I had to do it.
00:02:50.980 --> 00:02:51.813
Like there was just no other way
00:02:51.813 --> 00:02:52.646
Ah...
00:02:59.450 --> 00:03:01.367
It's so many years ago,
00:03:02.965 --> 00:03:05.500
and you know, I could still weep over it.
00:03:10.465 --> 00:03:11.298
(water trickles)
00:03:21.306 --> 00:03:24.780
(laundromat ambiance)
00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:26.030
- [Woman] When I was married,
00:03:26.030 --> 00:03:28.960
there was something about
doing my man's clothes
00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:30.453
that was appealing to me.
00:03:32.670 --> 00:03:36.140
Perhaps it's a status thing
about going to the laundromat
00:03:36.140 --> 00:03:40.040
and pulling men's socks and
men's shirts out of the laundry,
00:03:40.040 --> 00:03:42.210
this thing about people
seeing that you're connected,
00:03:42.210 --> 00:03:45.580
that you've got that connection,
that you have the man,
00:03:45.580 --> 00:03:47.230
you know, that you have your man.
00:03:50.530 --> 00:03:51.760
As a single woman.
00:03:51.760 --> 00:03:52.593
I have absolutely no
interest in it whatsoever.
00:03:52.593 --> 00:03:53.426
(Dryer door closes)
00:04:01.842 --> 00:04:04.380
- [Woman] But I can remember as a child,
00:04:04.380 --> 00:04:07.720
very good sensual memories.
00:04:07.720 --> 00:04:10.010
I can remember walking
in between the lines,
00:04:10.010 --> 00:04:12.890
and the sheets blowing, and the sun,
00:04:12.890 --> 00:04:15.720
and those were good feelings.
00:04:15.720 --> 00:04:16.890
The idea of clean sheets,
00:04:16.890 --> 00:04:18.930
I don't think there's anything
nicer than clean sheets
00:04:18.930 --> 00:04:21.130
that have come in from
being out in the sun.
00:04:22.451 --> 00:04:23.673
And it is energy!
00:04:27.154 --> 00:04:28.844
- [Woman] And thank God
when the line broke.
00:04:28.844 --> 00:04:29.850
Ohh.
00:04:29.850 --> 00:04:31.004
When the line broke.
00:04:31.004 --> 00:04:33.260
You know, like everybody
would come out in the yard.
00:04:33.260 --> 00:04:34.570
What are we gonna do?
00:04:34.570 --> 00:04:36.084
He comes from Italy, my father.
00:04:36.084 --> 00:04:37.551
He went out and I think he cut off
00:04:37.551 --> 00:04:40.037
a telephone pole somewhere
and put it in the yard.
00:04:40.037 --> 00:04:43.023
"You need a pole? I'll be
right back." I remember.
00:04:47.450 --> 00:04:49.440
My mother wouldn't let
him touch the laundry.
00:04:49.440 --> 00:04:50.273
He wasn't allowed.
00:04:50.273 --> 00:04:51.777
The only time he was
allowed to touch the laundry
00:04:51.777 --> 00:04:54.130
was if she was out and it rained.
00:04:54.130 --> 00:04:55.210
He would pull in the clothes
and lay them on the bed
00:04:55.210 --> 00:04:56.043
and that was it (
00:04:56.043 --> 00:04:56.876
High pitched musical instrument)
00:04:57.709 --> 00:05:00.376
That's all he was allowed to do.
00:05:10.412 --> 00:05:14.150
- [Woman] "But more than
anything, it was the wash,
00:05:14.150 --> 00:05:15.563
my mother and the wash.
00:05:20.042 --> 00:05:22.375
(squeaking) (squeaking)
00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:34.120
How could I ever calculate the
depth of peace and security,
00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:37.723
this ritual of weekly cleansing
had accumulated in me?
00:05:39.200 --> 00:05:42.050
A peace and security
that the subsequent years
00:05:42.050 --> 00:05:42.883
had shattered beyond all redemption."
00:05:42.883 --> 00:05:43.716
(Heavy traffic)
00:05:58.453 --> 00:05:59.790
- [Woman] I don't think I could ever
00:05:59.790 --> 00:06:00.623
go through that again.
00:06:00.623 --> 00:06:01.550
Never.
00:06:01.550 --> 00:06:03.810
The laundry will never
mean that much to me again,
00:06:03.810 --> 00:06:05.140
in my whole life.
00:06:05.140 --> 00:06:05.973
Never.
00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:08.973
My father and my mother had
wanted to do the laundry
00:06:08.973 --> 00:06:10.890
when I started working.
00:06:10.890 --> 00:06:12.440
But I wouldn't let them.
00:06:12.440 --> 00:06:13.273
I wouldn't let them.
00:06:13.273 --> 00:06:16.160
I figure I had to
conquer this thing myself.
00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:17.770
You know, there's ways women do do it
00:06:17.770 --> 00:06:19.120
and I have to just find it.
00:06:20.110 --> 00:06:20.943
I wouldn't let them do it
00:06:20.943 --> 00:06:22.327
and she'd see me struggling
carrying big bags.
00:06:22.327 --> 00:06:23.370
"Where you going now?"
00:06:23.370 --> 00:06:25.630
Where could I be going
with a big bag of laundry?
00:06:25.630 --> 00:06:27.649
You know, where could I be going?
00:06:27.649 --> 00:06:30.260
It was one of the biggest things
I had to accomplish working
00:06:30.260 --> 00:06:31.093
and going to school.
00:06:31.093 --> 00:06:31.926
(Rhythmic percussion continues)
00:06:37.550 --> 00:06:39.776
- [Woman] I hated laundry
00:06:39.776 --> 00:06:42.563
with a passion you cannot imagine.
00:06:44.870 --> 00:06:49.163
It was, it was the bone in my throat.
00:06:53.620 --> 00:06:57.483
It was the one thing I
never could get rid of.
00:06:59.570 --> 00:07:01.623
Every day there was a new pile.
00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:05.393
But I hated laundry
because I never finished.
00:07:06.226 --> 00:07:08.976
(Traffic sounds)
00:07:12.565 --> 00:07:16.148
It was forever and a
day, every single day.
00:07:18.409 --> 00:07:22.470
And the worst burden that
I could ever remember.
00:07:25.588 --> 00:07:26.421
(Baby cries) (Mother
responds with baby talk)
00:07:26.421 --> 00:07:27.254
(Sound of dishes being handled)
00:07:39.100 --> 00:07:39.933
- [Child] Say what?
00:07:39.933 --> 00:07:41.737
Hang your mittens out to dry?
00:07:41.737 --> 00:07:43.590
You clever kittens.
00:07:43.590 --> 00:07:44.423
Then you shall have no pie.
00:07:44.423 --> 00:07:45.256
Children laughing and playing)
00:07:45.256 --> 00:07:46.089
(Clothes flapping in wind.)
00:07:53.070 --> 00:07:55.403
- [Woman] First of all,
there was a particular art
00:07:55.403 --> 00:07:58.460
about hanging your clothes on the line.
00:07:58.460 --> 00:08:01.170
And everybody had clotheslines
00:08:01.170 --> 00:08:03.650
and you looked at your neighbor's clothes.
00:08:03.650 --> 00:08:07.420
You really did and you sort
of measured her that way.
00:08:07.420 --> 00:08:09.100
- [Woman] When I look at
other women's clotheslines,
00:08:09.100 --> 00:08:10.861
I want to know more about them.
00:08:10.861 --> 00:08:12.710
- [Woman] If he had a spot on his shirt.
00:08:12.710 --> 00:08:13.700
You were rotten.
00:08:13.700 --> 00:08:16.730
If your child had a spot, believe me,
00:08:16.730 --> 00:08:19.150
you were the world's worst.
00:08:19.150 --> 00:08:21.192
- [Woman] Sometimes they
even hang them by color
00:08:21.192 --> 00:08:22.859
which fascinates me.
All the white shirts...
00:08:25.590 --> 00:08:28.500
Or all the socks, all the white socks,
00:08:28.500 --> 00:08:30.033
all the navy blue socks.
00:08:33.777 --> 00:08:36.267
I think that it evokes the ghosts
00:08:37.550 --> 00:08:39.130
of the people that wore them.
00:08:42.387 --> 00:08:44.037
- [Man] "Hon, is my shirt ready?"
00:08:44.980 --> 00:08:47.230
- [Woman] They were like
pieces of sculpture.
00:08:50.140 --> 00:08:52.730
Women who don't consider
themselves artistic
00:08:52.730 --> 00:08:56.293
put a great deal of themselves
into their household tasks.
00:08:57.844 --> 00:09:00.094
(applause)
00:09:02.010 --> 00:09:04.060
- [Woman] My mother, I mean
I never really appreciated
00:09:04.060 --> 00:09:06.117
all the work that she did.
00:09:06.117 --> 00:09:09.284
(applause and cheers)
00:09:11.163 --> 00:09:14.279
- [Woman] I used to hang them nice.
00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:16.340
You know, I used to
put them out in colors.
00:09:16.340 --> 00:09:18.252
I used to play games, you
know, make the line look good
00:09:18.252 --> 00:09:20.740
because I knew them people
were looking at my laundry.
00:09:20.740 --> 00:09:21.573
I knew it.
00:09:21.573 --> 00:09:22.406
(Heavy applause)
00:09:22.406 --> 00:09:23.239
(Women chattering)
00:09:24.197 --> 00:09:25.430
(baby cries) (various percussion)
00:09:25.430 --> 00:09:26.513
(Whispers, laughter, chattering)
00:09:26.513 --> 00:09:27.729
(Women laughing) (Baby cries)
00:09:27.729 --> 00:09:28.562
Women laughing
00:09:32.446 --> 00:09:33.279
Neighbors gossiping
00:09:39.717 --> 00:09:42.635
More whispering and chattering
00:09:42.635 --> 00:09:44.247
She would say, "Come and look.
00:09:44.247 --> 00:09:46.400
"She's fooling around with somebody.
00:09:46.400 --> 00:09:47.430
Look, she got those fancy underwears.
00:09:47.430 --> 00:09:49.280
She's not buying that for her husband.
00:09:49.280 --> 00:09:50.330
She's married 10 years.
00:09:50.330 --> 00:09:52.040
That means she's fooling around.
00:09:52.040 --> 00:09:53.820
You can't tell me she
don't have a boyfriend.
00:09:53.820 --> 00:09:54.653
I look.
00:09:54.653 --> 00:09:57.360
She has black bras on the
line and black underwear.
00:09:57.360 --> 00:09:58.550
She didn't buy them for my son.
00:09:58.550 --> 00:09:59.880
She's fooling around with somebody
00:09:59.880 --> 00:10:01.630
and that's how you could always tell.
00:10:01.630 --> 00:10:05.419
If they're wearing fancy
underwear, they're fooling around.
00:10:05.419 --> 00:10:09.002
- [Woman] I remember hearing.
"she hung out some junk."
00:10:09.002 --> 00:10:09.952
(laughs)
00:10:13.445 --> 00:10:14.878
(Laughs) (Hi pitched musical
instrument with clarinet)
00:10:16.546 --> 00:10:17.810
- [Woman] I've always felt that the roof
00:10:17.810 --> 00:10:18.643
was my special spot,
00:10:18.643 --> 00:10:20.021
(Melodic music)
00:10:20.021 --> 00:10:21.063
but there's something about
00:10:21.063 --> 00:10:24.394
hanging the clothes on the roof that's,
00:10:24.394 --> 00:10:28.394
I don't know, It's not really
like work, it's a pleasure.
00:10:28.394 --> 00:10:29.227
(Pigeons cooing)
00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:36.220
There's the light and the air
00:10:36.220 --> 00:10:38.710
and you're not in a dirty house
00:10:38.710 --> 00:10:42.023
and there's something
very liberating about it.
00:10:46.605 --> 00:10:48.712
And it's a chance to go up on the roof
00:10:48.712 --> 00:10:50.970
and, you know, hang out
and look at the skylight
00:10:50.970 --> 00:10:51.933
and the pigeons and everything
00:10:51.933 --> 00:10:54.221
with the wind blowing and
to see the ships passing
00:10:54.221 --> 00:10:57.323
and the airplanes going by
and the rest of the world.
00:11:03.497 --> 00:11:08.260
There's a kind of, a
rebirth, a new beginning,
00:11:08.260 --> 00:11:10.713
the clothes being clean, a fresh start.
00:11:18.710 --> 00:11:20.550
It was sort of like when I gave birth,
00:11:20.550 --> 00:11:24.823
I felt like I was connected
to all other women.
00:11:31.490 --> 00:11:32.650
And when I hang up the clothes,
00:11:32.650 --> 00:11:35.700
I feel connected to all other women.
00:11:35.700 --> 00:11:37.320
It's something that we have in common
00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:40.661
that we share together.
00:11:40.661 --> 00:11:43.452
(Clarinet music ends.
Energetic music begins.)
00:11:45.190 --> 00:11:47.590
I mean if you thhink about
what the courtyard looked like
00:11:47.590 --> 00:11:49.700
with all these lines crisscrossing,
00:11:49.700 --> 00:11:51.663
that line, that connection.
00:11:58.450 --> 00:12:00.690
- [Woman] My mother fights
with the people upstairs
00:12:00.690 --> 00:12:02.590
because when she washes her
clothes and hangs them out
00:12:02.590 --> 00:12:03.620
and they hang theirs,
00:12:03.620 --> 00:12:04.453
their water drips on her clothes.
00:12:04.453 --> 00:12:05.286
(Sound of window opening)
00:12:07.890 --> 00:12:08.723
She would tell them,
00:12:08.723 --> 00:12:09.556
"Well wait till I pull mine in
00:12:09.556 --> 00:12:11.950
"because your water was
dripping on my clothes."
00:12:11.950 --> 00:12:13.870
And then the landlord would fight
00:12:13.870 --> 00:12:15.980
because the water was dripping in the yard
00:12:15.980 --> 00:12:17.430
and it would ruin the cement.
00:12:19.034 --> 00:12:20.050
I had friends out there.
00:12:20.050 --> 00:12:21.530
I could tell who was hanging their clothes
00:12:21.530 --> 00:12:22.363
by the squeak of their line.
00:12:22.363 --> 00:12:24.830
There was Peggy, Carmen,
00:12:24.830 --> 00:12:27.210
but really I knew them all
by the squeak of their line.
00:12:27.210 --> 00:12:29.027
I didn't see them, and I used to yell,
00:12:29.027 --> 00:12:30.570
"Hey, Peggy, How you doing?" "All right."
00:12:30.570 --> 00:12:31.403
You know, doing the laundry--
00:12:31.403 --> 00:12:32.812
And then we'd start talking
00:12:32.812 --> 00:12:35.074
and then you get Mrs.
Murphy down the corner,
00:12:35.074 --> 00:12:36.100
you know you're on your roof
00:12:36.100 --> 00:12:38.070
and you're talking to
everybody and I like it.
00:12:38.070 --> 00:12:39.980
Oh what a beautiful day to hang clothes.
00:12:39.980 --> 00:12:40.813
Isn't it great?
00:12:40.813 --> 00:12:41.646
Wonderful!
00:12:41.646 --> 00:12:42.673
Let's wash the drapes.
00:12:42.673 --> 00:12:44.540
Let's wash the sheets, you know.
00:12:44.540 --> 00:12:45.537
If it was windy, my mother would say.
00:12:45.537 --> 00:12:47.097
"Hang the clothes out right away
00:12:47.097 --> 00:12:48.657
"because they're gonna dry fast today
00:12:48.657 --> 00:12:50.720
"because it's windy and and
it's a little cool out."
00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:51.553
And they did!
00:12:51.553 --> 00:12:53.770
They would dry a tee shirt and--
00:12:53.770 --> 00:12:55.625
- [Woman] On a good day with the sun out.
00:12:55.625 --> 00:12:56.458
Everything.
00:12:56.458 --> 00:12:57.400
Wash everything.
00:12:57.400 --> 00:12:58.491
What a beautiful day.
00:12:58.491 --> 00:13:00.330
- [Woman] A windy day is best.
00:13:00.330 --> 00:13:01.163
Hang them out today.
00:13:01.163 --> 00:13:02.516
It's windy they'll dry right away.
00:13:02.516 --> 00:13:05.519
(speaking indistinctly)
00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:07.260
- [Woman] That was pleasure.
00:13:07.260 --> 00:13:08.140
Pleasure.
00:13:08.140 --> 00:13:09.677
On a beautiful day, what do you do?
00:13:09.677 --> 00:13:10.510
Wash cloths.
00:13:10.510 --> 00:13:13.400
You know, they dry extra good.
00:13:13.400 --> 00:13:15.240
The women would all hang out the windows
00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:18.127
and spread the news of the
neighborhood to each other.
00:13:18.127 --> 00:13:18.960
(speaking indistinctly)
00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:23.376
(Many women's voices)
00:13:35.372 --> 00:13:38.480
Who died, who got married,
whose kid fell down.
00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:41.230
The news, the essential
news of the neighborhood
00:13:41.230 --> 00:13:43.630
was not transmitted by
the men but by the women.
00:13:45.920 --> 00:13:48.130
- [Woman] I didn't indulge.
00:13:48.130 --> 00:13:50.550
I really didn't have time.
00:13:50.550 --> 00:13:54.678
I really didn't have time
for any nonsense like that.
00:13:54.678 --> 00:13:59.678
And, I was an extremely busy woman
00:13:59.810 --> 00:14:04.810
and, I liked to do other
things, I loved to read.
00:14:05.900 --> 00:14:08.150
I didn't have a happy married life
00:14:08.150 --> 00:14:11.820
and that sort of kept me from gossip.
00:14:11.820 --> 00:14:14.060
When you have problems,
00:14:14.060 --> 00:14:17.040
you sort of keep a little bit to yourself.
00:14:17.040 --> 00:14:19.333
That may have been part of it.
00:14:21.930 --> 00:14:25.960
Those were the days when I used
to iron my husband's socks.
00:14:25.960 --> 00:14:28.810
Now, if anybody could go
any further than that,
00:14:28.810 --> 00:14:31.383
I really don't know in which direction.
00:14:33.634 --> 00:14:36.134
(radio music)
00:14:47.050 --> 00:14:49.269
♪ This is the way we wash the clothes ♪
00:14:49.269 --> 00:14:52.769
♪ So early in the morning ♪
00:15:04.490 --> 00:15:06.110
- [Woman] I iron on the floor laying down.
00:15:06.110 --> 00:15:07.167
They can't get over this.
00:15:07.167 --> 00:15:09.950
"How could you iron laying down?"
00:15:09.950 --> 00:15:10.870
Very good I iron.
00:15:16.512 --> 00:15:20.179
♪ She's my Texas sweetheart ♪
00:15:33.722 --> 00:15:37.139
- [Van Morrison] Women, women, women.
00:15:50.544 --> 00:15:53.794
(light haunting music)
00:16:04.620 --> 00:16:05.684
- [Woman] She was really a perfectionist
00:16:05.684 --> 00:16:08.161
and didn't have an outlet
for the perfectionism
00:16:08.161 --> 00:16:12.661
but it seemed to take form
in the way she did clothes.
00:16:14.483 --> 00:16:17.100
And there was very strict ritual
00:16:17.100 --> 00:16:19.580
for the way in which the
clothes were then to be folded
00:16:19.580 --> 00:16:21.960
and put away and put aside,
00:16:21.960 --> 00:16:25.730
and they were done beautifully
with a skill and a craft
00:16:25.730 --> 00:16:28.190
and a kind of a mastery
that she did not enjoy.
00:16:28.190 --> 00:16:31.003
I think It's important to
realize she did not enjoy it.
00:16:37.450 --> 00:16:39.750
[Women]It was sort of like
an art the way she did it.
00:16:45.319 --> 00:16:47.440
[Woman] And, I miss very much,
00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:48.973
miss the smell of those clothes,
00:16:48.973 --> 00:16:50.447
the stiffness of the sheets,
00:16:50.447 --> 00:16:55.310
and I can listen to her
still in my head telling me
00:16:55.310 --> 00:16:56.660
how I should fold clothes
00:16:56.660 --> 00:16:58.677
and why I didn't fold them well enough.
00:17:02.567 --> 00:17:06.450
But the memory and the
missing of the quality
00:17:06.450 --> 00:17:07.843
is still very strong.
00:17:15.690 --> 00:17:16.523
- [Woman] Yeah, it was a routine.
00:17:16.523 --> 00:17:17.830
You knew it was done
00:17:17.830 --> 00:17:19.813
and you know everything is done for you.
00:17:24.020 --> 00:17:26.870
- [Woman] It is a sense
of security because,
00:17:26.870 --> 00:17:28.813
because, that's living.
00:17:30.392 --> 00:17:31.225
(whispers)
00:17:36.091 --> 00:17:36.924
(drawer closes)
00:17:40.330 --> 00:17:44.997
- [Woman] The linen closets
were really a show place.
00:17:46.510 --> 00:17:48.800
I had a linen closet.
00:17:48.800 --> 00:17:53.800
When you opened the door,
it was an amazing thing.
00:17:54.234 --> 00:17:58.782
But I kept extra linens
tied up with satin ribbons
00:17:58.782 --> 00:17:59.949
in the closet.
00:18:01.360 --> 00:18:02.193
I did.
00:18:03.660 --> 00:18:07.049
I want you to know, I had
some very high standards.
00:18:07.049 --> 00:18:09.370
This she took pride in.
00:18:09.370 --> 00:18:10.203
I did.
00:18:10.203 --> 00:18:11.036
(Wind)
00:18:15.280 --> 00:18:17.720
I mean if I had to go
through all that trouble
00:18:17.720 --> 00:18:20.600
about ironing and washing, which I hated,
00:18:20.600 --> 00:18:23.855
I might as well get some
pleasure out of looking at it.
00:18:23.855 --> 00:18:24.883
So I did.
00:18:26.560 --> 00:18:28.990
When I walked into a friend's bathroom,
00:18:28.990 --> 00:18:32.230
I always snuck a look in the linen closet.
00:18:32.230 --> 00:18:36.395
And I know darn well that
everybody looked in mine.
00:18:36.395 --> 00:18:38.270
Because they told me.
00:18:38.270 --> 00:18:41.577
They'd say, "Oh, I was
looking for something
00:18:41.577 --> 00:18:43.847
"and I opened your closet.
00:18:43.847 --> 00:18:48.097
"And oh, Paula, I never
saw anybody's closet
00:18:48.097 --> 00:18:48.930
"look like yours."
00:18:48.930 --> 00:18:50.770
I used to love to have company
00:18:50.770 --> 00:18:53.160
because I knew everybody
looked in the closet.
00:18:53.160 --> 00:18:58.160
And it was just, it was just
one of those things, you know.
00:18:58.514 --> 00:18:59.347
(chime) (whispers) (drawer closes)
00:18:59.347 --> 00:19:02.347
(little wind chime)
00:19:13.091 --> 00:19:13.924
(drawer closes) (gentle chime)
00:19:13.924 --> 00:19:14.757
(whispers)
00:19:14.757 --> 00:19:15.590
(chime)
00:19:17.998 --> 00:19:18.831
(Drawer closes)
00:19:20.323 --> 00:19:22.064
(energetic violin music)
00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:31.860
- [Woman] The first time I
hung them out, I did it wrong.
00:19:31.860 --> 00:19:33.130
My mother came up, she went crazy.
00:19:33.130 --> 00:19:34.840
She said, "How could you do that?"
00:19:34.840 --> 00:19:36.877
I had like a towel and
then I had a pair of pants.
00:19:36.877 --> 00:19:39.270
"You can't hang the clothes
like that. Pull them all in."
00:19:39.270 --> 00:19:40.520
She pulled everything in.
00:19:42.070 --> 00:19:44.537
Said, "Now put all the towels
and it's a certain way.
00:19:44.537 --> 00:19:47.237
"See your towels gotta fall
like with a loop in the middle.
00:19:47.237 --> 00:19:48.549
"If they don't have the
loop they're no good,
00:19:48.549 --> 00:19:50.649
"you just can't throw them over the line."
00:19:51.640 --> 00:19:52.960
Everything was hung out perfect.
00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:54.097
Then she said, "At the end,
00:19:54.097 --> 00:19:56.842
"you hang the underwear and the socks."
00:19:56.842 --> 00:19:59.792
And everything was just perfect.
00:20:03.310 --> 00:20:05.000
So I got to like it and
I used to tell my aunt,
00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:06.418
"I'll hang them out."
00:20:06.418 --> 00:20:08.410
And I love it, and I really
love hanging clothes.
00:20:08.410 --> 00:20:09.293
(wind)
00:20:10.290 --> 00:20:13.335
And sometimes she'd
just sit there for hours
00:20:13.335 --> 00:20:16.412
staring out the window
at what she had done.
00:20:16.412 --> 00:20:19.579
(clothesline squeaks)
00:20:25.442 --> 00:20:27.330
- [Woman] And I hang
my clothes out at night
00:20:27.330 --> 00:20:28.163
and I used to have to oil the wheel
00:20:28.996 --> 00:20:30.200
because I didn't want people to know
00:20:30.200 --> 00:20:31.700
that I was hanging my clothes out
00:20:31.700 --> 00:20:33.170
at two o'clock in the morning
00:20:33.170 --> 00:20:36.220
because it's the only time I had to do it.
00:20:36.220 --> 00:20:37.053
(birds squawk)
00:20:38.090 --> 00:20:39.810
Then there was a thing with lace curtains
00:20:39.810 --> 00:20:41.968
that I remember that was so complicated.
00:20:41.968 --> 00:20:42.826
(Bird Squawks)
00:20:43.700 --> 00:20:47.390
She had lace curtains, you
know, the "lace curtain Irish,"
00:20:47.390 --> 00:20:51.630
and they had to be stretched
onto these enormous frames,
00:20:51.630 --> 00:20:53.860
you know, with little
nails all the way along.
00:20:53.860 --> 00:20:57.073
But it took hours and
hours and hours to do that.
00:20:57.073 --> 00:20:58.690
And you had to put sugar on them
00:20:58.690 --> 00:21:00.120
so that they would be stiff.
00:21:00.120 --> 00:21:02.870
Some women used starch, but
a lot of women use sugar.
00:21:02.870 --> 00:21:06.930
But what I did with mine,
I got stains on mine.
00:21:06.930 --> 00:21:09.477
So instead of doing them
with the sugar in the water,
00:21:09.477 --> 00:21:13.617
I used coffee or tea and
I stained them all brown.
00:21:13.617 --> 00:21:16.800
So I wouldn't have to wash them.
00:21:16.800 --> 00:21:18.700
I still have them.
00:21:18.700 --> 00:21:19.533
I've never washed them yet.
00:21:19.533 --> 00:21:20.366
(Little girls laugh)
00:21:21.199 --> 00:21:23.817
I just keep dipping them in tea.
00:21:23.817 --> 00:21:25.433
She would die if she knew that,
00:21:25.433 --> 00:21:29.704
after all the work
she'd done to make them.
00:21:29.704 --> 00:21:32.195
(laughing turns to crying)
00:21:32.195 --> 00:21:33.028
(crying)
00:21:33.028 --> 00:21:35.527
(Melancholy cello music)
00:21:42.824 --> 00:21:44.557
- [Woman] I said, "Ma,
I joined the college,
00:21:44.557 --> 00:21:45.580
"I'm going back to school"
00:21:45.580 --> 00:21:47.680
She said, "did you do your laundry today?"
00:21:49.248 --> 00:21:51.367
So she said, "Who cares about college?
00:21:51.367 --> 00:21:52.743
"You know, you got to
worry about your laundry."
00:21:52.743 --> 00:21:54.793
That's how they are with the laundry.
00:21:55.850 --> 00:21:57.660
- [Woman] Every day.
00:21:57.660 --> 00:22:00.520
Every day she has the
washboard and everything.
00:22:00.520 --> 00:22:01.970
I don't know how she does it.
00:22:03.510 --> 00:22:05.680
I mean it's like people
have coffee every morning.
00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:07.670
She has to do the laundry every morning.
00:22:07.670 --> 00:22:09.325
- [Woman] Yeah, I mean unbelievable.
00:22:09.325 --> 00:22:10.677
[Woman] I think the laundry
is like a confession.
00:22:10.677 --> 00:22:12.940
You know, if they seen
your drapes on the line,
00:22:12.940 --> 00:22:15.340
boy, they knew you were
into cleaning the house.
00:22:20.410 --> 00:22:21.243
She loved it.
00:22:21.243 --> 00:22:22.897
She used to call up, "Bring the laundry."
00:22:24.955 --> 00:22:28.288
(Muslim call to prayer)
00:22:36.201 --> 00:22:37.870
[Woman] As long as they came
white, it was all right.
00:22:37.870 --> 00:22:40.600
That was the most important thing,
00:22:40.600 --> 00:22:42.440
that they had to be white.
00:22:42.440 --> 00:22:44.010
Otherwise you couldn't
hang them out on the line.
00:22:44.010 --> 00:22:47.390
And people would read your
fortune by your clothesline.
00:22:47.390 --> 00:22:48.767
I was hanging clothes while I was working
00:22:48.767 --> 00:22:51.030
and going to school but in anger.
00:22:51.030 --> 00:22:53.160
Like I was stabbing the
clothespins on the line.
00:22:53.160 --> 00:22:54.503
Really stabbing them.
00:22:55.500 --> 00:22:56.407
My mother used to say,
00:22:56.407 --> 00:22:58.990
"But ain't you ashamed to
hang them out like that?
00:22:58.990 --> 00:23:01.756
I said, "Ashamed? I gotta be ashamed?"
00:23:01.756 --> 00:23:06.739
(melancholy cello) (wind)
00:23:22.347 --> 00:23:23.241
- [Woman] My mother was the only person
00:23:23.241 --> 00:23:24.680
who did the laundry
00:23:24.680 --> 00:23:26.360
and I remember the lady
who owned the house
00:23:26.360 --> 00:23:27.423
didn't want her husband to come home
00:23:27.423 --> 00:23:29.310
and see diapers hanging on the line.
00:23:29.310 --> 00:23:32.160
And he thought that there was
something wrong about that.
00:23:33.940 --> 00:23:36.380
It couldn't go up before
nine o'clock in the morning
00:23:36.380 --> 00:23:38.050
because her husband was leaving for work
00:23:38.050 --> 00:23:40.300
and had to come down before
four in the afternoon
00:23:40.300 --> 00:23:41.870
because he was coming home from work.
00:23:41.870 --> 00:23:43.640
So my mother found another
girlfriend down the street.
00:23:43.640 --> 00:23:45.630
She used to go down there
with the car and the clothes,
00:23:45.630 --> 00:23:47.270
and hang up the clothes
at another girl's house
00:23:47.270 --> 00:23:48.520
because she couldn't be bothered.
00:23:48.520 --> 00:23:50.100
- [Woman] My mother
had a wash her clothes,
00:23:50.100 --> 00:23:52.050
she still does, in the
morning at six o'clock
00:23:52.050 --> 00:23:53.582
so they would be dry by the afternoon.
00:23:53.582 --> 00:23:55.900
Because the Italian people used to say
00:23:55.900 --> 00:23:58.320
if you left the clothes
out once it got dark
00:23:58.320 --> 00:24:00.567
they were no good because
the devil would get in them.
00:24:00.567 --> 00:24:02.213
All the evil spirits would get in them.
00:24:02.213 --> 00:24:03.046
So they had to be pulled in
before it got dark at night.
00:24:06.979 --> 00:24:07.812
(snaaps towel)
00:24:08.705 --> 00:24:10.410
- [Woman] If you have a washing machine,
00:24:10.410 --> 00:24:12.250
you think the work is gonna be easier.
00:24:12.250 --> 00:24:14.127
But what happens is you do more wash.
00:24:14.127 --> 00:24:17.468
You do it more often
and you do more of it.
00:24:17.468 --> 00:24:19.384
As soon as I got a washing
machine, man, I went
00:24:19.384 --> 00:24:20.226
crazy.
00:24:20.226 --> 00:24:21.950
I was washing all the time.
00:24:21.950 --> 00:24:23.170
I mean I was washing every day.
00:24:23.170 --> 00:24:26.030
I was changing the kid's
clothes like three times a day.
00:24:26.030 --> 00:24:29.567
And then he'd come home and
say, "What'd you do all day?"
00:24:31.180 --> 00:24:32.700
You could have a stroke.
00:24:32.700 --> 00:24:34.870
You could really have a stroke.
00:24:34.870 --> 00:24:37.337
I used to think to myself,
"how stupid can you be?
00:24:37.337 --> 00:24:40.470
"I mean you're not deaf, dumb and blind."
00:24:40.470 --> 00:24:41.780
He was home for breakfast.
00:24:41.780 --> 00:24:44.320
He came home every day for lunch.
00:24:44.320 --> 00:24:46.390
And he's home every day for dinner
00:24:46.390 --> 00:24:49.647
and how could you say
"What do I do all day?"
00:24:50.630 --> 00:24:54.270
So I finally got up
the courage to tell him
00:24:54.270 --> 00:24:55.760
that I had gone to see the diaper service.
00:24:55.760 --> 00:24:58.330
I was going to have the diaper service.
00:24:58.330 --> 00:25:00.590
Well, he hit the ceiling.
00:25:00.590 --> 00:25:03.620
He raised hell. "How lazy can you get?
00:25:04.490 --> 00:25:08.915
"You don't want to do
your own baby's diapers!
00:25:08.915 --> 00:25:11.697
"I, I, I never heard of
such a thing," he said.
00:25:11.697 --> 00:25:14.809
"I never heard the kid'll get rashes.
00:25:14.809 --> 00:25:16.585
"You're going to subject your baby
00:25:16.585 --> 00:25:20.490
"because you're too damn
lazy to do diapers."
00:25:20.490 --> 00:25:23.257
But I said, "until the baby gets a rash,
00:25:23.257 --> 00:25:24.847
"I'm gonna have the diaper service
00:25:24.847 --> 00:25:26.790
"and you could stand on your head.
00:25:26.790 --> 00:25:28.437
"I-I just don't give a damn."
00:25:30.540 --> 00:25:35.540
So, I had the diaper service,
and the baby never got a rash,
00:25:38.891 --> 00:25:43.891
and that was my one big
indulgence, and I loved it.
00:25:47.690 --> 00:25:48.523
- [Woman] Well, my mother was
00:25:48.523 --> 00:25:49.930
a real rebellious personality
00:25:49.930 --> 00:25:51.650
and my grandmother would
come over occasionally
00:25:51.650 --> 00:25:53.450
and throw up her arms up in despair
00:25:53.450 --> 00:25:55.030
at the way my mother kept her house.
00:25:55.030 --> 00:25:56.340
But my mother did other things
00:25:56.340 --> 00:25:58.460
which I think were more important.
00:25:58.460 --> 00:25:59.940
My mother used to say
00:25:59.940 --> 00:26:01.820
when she'd be dragging me off to the woods
00:26:01.820 --> 00:26:02.880
to look at nature,
00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:05.330
that those things in the
house are dead things.
00:26:05.330 --> 00:26:07.040
They'll always be there.
00:26:07.040 --> 00:26:09.730
She was more concerned with the living
00:26:09.730 --> 00:26:10.563
and I'm grateful to her for that.
00:26:10.563 --> 00:26:12.971
(whistliong swans and children playing)
00:26:12.971 --> 00:26:14.079
(Haunting melodic music)
00:26:23.871 --> 00:26:26.204
- [Woman] The memory I have
that relates to my mother
00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:32.360
is of sitting on her
couch in her living room
00:26:32.360 --> 00:26:37.323
about seven years ago talking
about a dream she had.
00:26:42.140 --> 00:26:45.800
This dream, laundry blowing in the wind
00:26:45.800 --> 00:26:47.313
was a recurring dream.
00:26:49.600 --> 00:26:51.670
The most recent time
she remembered having it
00:26:51.670 --> 00:26:54.010
related to a premonition of death
00:26:54.010 --> 00:26:57.369
of someone who was close to her.
00:27:02.067 --> 00:27:05.490
And she remembered that
she had been doing laundry
00:27:05.490 --> 00:27:06.500
when her mother died,
00:27:06.500 --> 00:27:08.700
when she received news
that her mother died.
00:27:28.843 --> 00:27:30.640
18 years after that,
00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:35.190
she'd probably been
dreaming about laundry.
00:27:35.190 --> 00:27:37.290
(Music continues) (Bird squawks)
00:27:55.326 --> 00:27:57.008
It was an awful thing, you know,
00:27:57.008 --> 00:27:59.088
and none of us ever helped her with it.
00:27:59.088 --> 00:28:00.505
I don't know why.
00:28:12.937 --> 00:28:14.780
The laundry was like hers.
00:28:14.780 --> 00:28:15.773
It belonged to her.
00:28:18.420 --> 00:28:20.010
The laundry was like hers.
00:28:20.010 --> 00:28:20.963
It belonged to her.
00:28:33.752 --> 00:28:34.585
- [Kid] Hey, mom!
00:28:37.343 --> 00:28:38.176
(Soothing music)
00:28:45.060 --> 00:28:49.090
- [Woman] It's everyday
living and you're part of it.
00:28:49.090 --> 00:28:51.190
It isn't the only thing in life,
but to me, it's part of it.
00:28:56.490 --> 00:28:57.473
Window closes)
00:28:58.413 --> 00:29:03.413
And if you let it go for a
couple of days you were finished.
00:29:03.620 --> 00:29:06.808
It was just one of the
trials and tribulations
00:29:06.808 --> 00:29:10.940
of married life and that's the way it was.
00:29:10.940 --> 00:29:14.813
I always think of my mother
when I'm hanging up the clothes.
00:29:16.186 --> 00:29:17.404
When I'm putting the clothes in the dryer,
00:29:17.404 --> 00:29:19.654
I don't think of my mother.
00:29:27.180 --> 00:29:30.470
"And the pleasure I take
from these sun dried clothes
00:29:30.470 --> 00:29:32.263
is more than I can describe.
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:38.180
I feel some satisfaction of existence
00:29:39.430 --> 00:29:41.700
that strikes so deep a note in me
00:29:41.700 --> 00:29:44.100
that it's almost as though
00:29:44.100 --> 00:29:47.227
I'm not performing these
actions for the first time.
00:29:52.797 --> 00:29:55.047
Why do I have this feeling?
00:29:57.671 --> 00:29:59.254
What is its origin?"
00:30:10.171 --> 00:30:11.835
[Woman]It's like the
soap operas, you know.
00:30:11.835 --> 00:30:14.336
There's always tomorrow,
00:30:14.336 --> 00:30:15.280
no matter how dirty everything gets,
00:30:15.280 --> 00:30:17.510
there's always a fresh beginning,
00:30:17.510 --> 00:30:20.690
which is a spiritual feeling with laundry.
00:30:20.690 --> 00:30:23.490
I don't think you get it with
any other household tasks.
00:30:25.360 --> 00:30:27.530
- [Woman] It's just
something that we got to do.
00:30:27.530 --> 00:30:29.280
It's our job to do it and that's it.
00:30:29.280 --> 00:30:30.730
There's nobody else to do it.
00:30:50.833 --> 00:30:53.833
- [Woman] It's so many years ago,
00:30:58.913 --> 00:31:02.246
and you know I could still weep over it.
00:31:03.746 --> 00:31:04.579
(melancholy instrumental
music through credits)
