Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Old Wives Tales


Five generations of my Russian peasant ancestors are rolling over in their graves. Long did they toil, sweat, struggle, to escape the shtetl. To make it to the New World, to live the American dream of streets paved with gold and Hebrew National salami. A chicken in every pot and a dryer in every mudroom. And now their progeny reduced (voluntarily, no less) to hanging her clothes out on the line in the garden. Oy.

G., of course, thinks it’s perfectly normal to hang our undies out under the stars. It smells good. It saves electricity. Yes. But. I’m American. God help me, I love a good tumble dryer.

Not only does the sun not fluff your towels, it comes with folklore as well. The other night, G. hesitated on his way out with an armful of laundry. "I feel like there’s something about not hanging your white sheets out in the full moon." he said.

Huh?

This was how I felt the first time I burned my finger in our apartment in Paris. G. sliced open a raw potato and put it on my hand. The starch, he said, would soothe the skin. I swear, sometimes it’s like being married to a Trappist monk.

PS – The potato actually works. As for the sheets in the moonlight, I’ve since heard various theories, all having to do with UV rays and bleach. Anyone. Anyone?

PSS - My mother arrived this week. I left the sheets up on the line, just to see her reaction. (What's the point if you can't have a little fun at the expense of the city folk. Especially since, until about three weeks ago, I was city folk...)

9 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh! What a pleasant life! Good food, nice weather, close contact with nature, and many things to discover about the people and culture.
    I think that's the closest to heaven someone can get! Enjoy!

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  2. I am going to try this potato thing. I love good simple suggestions for issues in the kitchen!
    By the way, my book club group chose your book to read and sometime this month we'll get together to chat about it. Perhaps the other members will find the way here just as I have. Thanks for bringing me to Paris. I do love it there and wish I could actually travel there too. -Erin

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  3. I lived in Arles in 2008 and helped run a 5-room B&B-- we had a washing machine but NO dryer for all those sheets and towels. And no yard. And no cute French courtyard. We had 5 lines outside the upstairs living room window. So, I leaned out the window and hung everything out to dry. I grew up hanging everything out to dry so I knew how to do it. But I told my mom one day that if she never heard from me again it would be because I fell out the window while hanging out clothes, broke my neck and was floating in the Rhône River! I MISS PROVENCE!!! You are so lucky.

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  4. Oh my... I am just now reading your Lunch in Paris book..... and LOVING it! I may have to stay up late tonight to finish it as it's a library book due tomorrow.

    But on my next outing I'll be heading to the bookstore to get my very own copy. That turns out to be a must, what with all those great recipes you've shared.

    SOOO glad I bumped into you! We'll be back!

    Happy Day.................

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  5. I don't know about the moon but as children we grew up in rural Australia and Mum would leave the white sheets out overnight if there was lightning and thunder ~ something about the electricity in the atmosphere brightens the white! Our sheets and linen although very old were always brightest white!!!

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  6. That's the way we Spaniards dry our laundry since...well since forever :-) But I must confess when I come to America one of my first love was the dryer ...I made the same voyage as you, but from there (Europe) to here and because of love also, I stayed. Your book at times made me somewhat nostalgic, but with no sadness, I kept reading it again and again, and I buy as a gift to my sisters and my girlfriends there and here.

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  7. I would love to have another clothesline! I love the smell of clothing & sheets dried outside. I'm never heard of the moonlight thing, but have heard of putting your white sheets over green shrubs in the sunlight. Apparently the chlorophyll in the leaves helps to bleach them.

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  8. Hi, I just wanted to say that i loved your book and was wondering if your writing another one or thinking of in the future??

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  9. I'm not sure what I prefere. Here in the Caribbean we have the "best" of both worlds. As an American territory we have our bunch of electric dryers... By the other hand, our old population still hanging their undies under the tropical sun... Which I prefere??? The Sun... I'm caribbean!

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