To all who are reading this that were born in the 1940’s and 1950’s in the States, reflect on when you were a child playing outside. What did you commonly see? What did you frequently run around? Am I wrong to say you commonly saw clothes hanging from a clothesline, and ran around the clothesline poles?
My first memory of seeing a clothesline along side a home was at the age of 9 when my mother took my brother and me on a road trip to Pennsylvania; there, we visited the house she grew up in which still had its original clothesline. In both Quito and the Galapagos just about every home hang dries their clothes outside. Some families have a washing machine, but few have a drier. Also, the families that do have a drier rarely use it because driers are known to use a lot of energy and increase the electric bill.
The home I stayed in in Quito had a drier but the family preferred to use their clothesline just as often as their drier. Sometimes we were forced to use the clothesline because the propane tank, which provided the heat for the gas-drier, was empty.
One time when I had my bed sheets hung outside along the clotheslines, I came home to find the family dog (who lived on the roof terrace where the clothesline was) dragging my bed sheet all around the terrace. When I finally got the sheet away from him, he went for the other bed sheet still hanging- although he waited until I went back inside to make his attempt.
I purposely hung the bed sheets in a fashion to prevent the dog from doing this too. Several clotheslines run alongside each other with about a foot and a half between them. I draped my sheets over 3 clotheslines to make the bottom of the sheet higher off the ground. The sheets were a good couple of feet above the dog’s head, so I figured the sheets would be safe. Apparently, I was wrong. After taking the one sheet away, I watched the dog through a window leap and snap his jaws at the sheet. After about 10 tries the dog succeeded in clamping the bottom of the sheet between his teeth. He then pulled on the sheet until the force made the clothespins pop off and continued to drag the sheet around like he did the first one. That’s when I opened the door, retrieved my second sheet, took the rest of my clothes off the clothes lines, went back inside and placed my now filthy sheets in the washing machine for the second time that day. Thankfully, the home had a washing machine, as many do not- which brings me to another common practice in both Quito and the Galapagos.
This common practice (from my observation of course) is hand washing the family laundry. Behind every home, whether in a poor neighborhood or in a wealthy neighborhood, is a waist high wash table constructed out of concrete with a faucet above one side of the table. When I was living in Quito, I would wake up on Saturday mornings, open the window curtains, and see the neighbor two floors below me washing her family’s clothes on the concrete table. She, like all the others washing clothes by hand, rubbed a bar of soap used specifically for clothes all over the damp item of clothing then dunked it in a bucket of water, gave it a little rub to get the soap off, rang it out several times, then clipped the piece of clothing on the clothesline.
Before my trip to Quito, I never saw a bar of soap made specifically for clothes; I’ve only encountered powder and liquid detergent, both of which are used in washing machines. Mom and dad, did my grandparents use a solid bar of soap to clean your clothes when you were a child?
While in the Galapagos, I do not have access to a laundry machine nor a hand-wash counter; so, I bring my clothes to La Lavanderia, aka the laundry service. All the lavanderias on the island charge $1 per kilo ($1 for every 2.2 pounds) of dirty clothes. The first time I dropped my clothes off at a lavanderia near my host family’s home and picked the clothes up roughly 8 hours later. I was and still am impressed over how the family operated business treated my clothes. All of my clothes have been pressed and folded military style, including my underwear. So the following week, after I moved to a hostel roughly 15 blocks away from my first home, I figured my clothes would receive the same wonderful service at the lavanderia three doors from my hostel. After I picked up my clean clothes at the end of the day, I discovered green yarn sewn to every clothing item, including each sock. I became so frustrated while removing the green yarn from my clothes. And my shorts and pants were incredibly wrinkled- I learned, not every lavanderia irons the customers clothes and some sew yarn to the clothes as well. At dinner I discussed with my friends this strange occurrence. They informed me I should be happy there was green yarn sewn to all my clothes, and to think of the time spent removing the yarn as an exciting time, similar to when removing a clothing tag on a new piece of clothing. The yarn is sewn on to function as a tag. That lavanderia puts my clothes with another persons clothes into the washing machine. The other persons clothes have a different colored yarn, to prevent our clothes from getting mixed up.
Well, even though I should be glad none of my laundry was lost, I still prefer the first lavanderia. So the following week, I carried my bag of dirty laundry 15 blocks to the first lavanderia, passing many lavanderias along the way, and once again received excellent service.
My friends have had clothing gone missing and have sometimes found a child’s sock or another piece of clothing not belonging to them in their clean laundry bag. They know which lavanderias not to go to- which ones make mistakes, which ones damage your clothes, and which ones give you another persons clothes. So if you spend time in the Galapagos, get to know some people and ask for their advice on which lavanderia’s to use and which ones not to use.
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