True Histories, Part 7

Fig. 1: Clothesliners

Did you know that there are many different New Year traditions around the world? It might also surprise you that one of the most important of them has been lost to the histories of time, and only recently rediscovered. I am talking, of course, about the Clotheslining of the Bulls in Linningham, NE, a tradition that originated, and ended, in the subject of this week’s True History.

As our nation emerged from the filth and the chaos of the 19th Century, it had a lot of laundry to do. Linningham, NE, was there to do its part in helping with the drying. The foresight of the city planners in planting all trees the optimal distance apart to test clotheslines (12-19 feet), put Linningham in the perfect position to take up the thread of history and accommodate this very specific industry. With such a natural resource at hand, Linningham became synonymous with dryness.

The factory, Charles A. McLinusberg’s Line Shop and Grille, doubled as a small diner. Clotheslines were manufactured Monday through Friday, then tested all weekend by the town housewives. Figure 1 shows a group of women testing the tensile strength of a Linningham Classic. Happy just to be included in such an important effort, they worked in exchange for these top-drawer clotheslines.

A Line on the Future

As with so many cottage industries, the Linningham factory shut down with the emergence of more efficient means of drying clothes, such as laundry services and child labor. Though the factory was put out of business, the diner remains open to this day, and the line cooks are happy to tell you all about their town’s rich lineage.

So, the next time you pick up your laundry from the shop down the street, think of Linningham, the town with a line on the future!