The Art of Pegulation

I have this friend for whom I am her Apprentice Pegulator this last 15 years. Pegulation is the art of hanging clothes out on washing lines or drying rails.

You didn’t know of the art form? Shame on you!

Pegulation dates back hundreds if not millions of years. I’m sure stone age women were avid followers of the practice. The first experts practiced the craft after washing their rugs and pelts in streams of fast running water and then carefully hanging out their washing to dry in the branches of nearby trees. They found there was an art to laying out clothes to dry, handed down by woman to woman over the centuries.

I discovered it quite by chance one day when I followed my wife out into the garden. I carried a washing basket filled with damp clean clothing and sheets. She started with the socks and I grabbed a pillowcase and jumper and proceeded to place them, if I’m honest in a willy nilly fashion on the line. I carried on with a few more garments before being asked to check my emails, make a cup of coffee or for Pete’s sake stop what I’m doing. Its then my mentor introduced me to the true way to stress free pegulation. I have to say my method was pretty stress free as it went but that was only me. She was fit to burst and I was just adding to her work not reducing it.

OK – I will now tell you all I know about pegulation but have regard that I’m still only an apprentice and have much to learn.

Socks

Right. From what I gather you start with the socks when hanging out the washing. Socks hang next to other socks and not close to underwear and certainly not next to jumpers or sheets. Socks should hang in pairs. The implications of unmatched socks is that they may get permanently separated and be matched up with other unrelated socks. The two partners may never see each other again but more to the point they embark on a life of separate washes and so may never have the same shade of grey, black, red or blue that their partner has. Sock marriages are for life not just for Christmas. Split them up and that could be that. You might as well buy another pair.

Socks line the bottom rows on the washing line and next to each other.

Underwear

Underwear is generally a two peggy job and must be pegged from side to side and not in the middle where they sag terribly and may not dry properly round the pouch and could lead to “willy rot” if worn damp. It’s also an opportunity for the female pegulator to cast a critical eye over the shape her partner's underwear is in. It’s not unknown for males to carry on using underwear long after the bottom has dropped out of the market, so to speak. Frayed pants can be easily spotted if hung out to dry on two pegs and can move neatly along to become window polishing rags in their declining years.

Ideally, men’s underwear should hang together as she’d prefer if I didn’t find her panties in amongst my cotton keyhole trunks when restored to the bedroom drawers later that day. My arse is considerably larger than hers and my eyesight not so good at 6.00am on a dark Monday morning. Let’s just say we had a few disasters last Winter and leave it at that.

Of course, segregation is not an issue when it comes to many of the panties worn by women today. I don’t speak of the Bridget Jones style sloggy knickers but the pairs that consist of two shoelaces and a tissue sized cloth covering the essentials. I confess the challenge here is to gather enough material to get a decent peg bite on them.

Now beyond the small stuff comes the shirts and T-shirts, tops and jumpers. Not much segregation here but all are at least a two peg job, often 4 if they have long sleeves. The pegs locations are obvious. Trousers likewise should hold no fear for the beginner. Just don’t hang them from the waist but from the ends of the legs.

The sheets are an occasion when the apprentice pegulator is needed. I hold one end, she halves the sheet in width and walks towards me folding as she goes. She then hangs bit by bit, unfolding the sheet till it flutters loosely in the wind. Now I say I am needed but these pegulators are used to working alone and she has advanced pegulation tricks she uses when I’m not about.

Finally, there it is. A rotating 4 tier washing line, fully loaded and twirling in the class 7 gale that passes as a Spring day in Wexford, Ireland.

My next class for you is in how to de-pegulate but we’ll save that for another day.