Pin Ups

Old and weathered--the witness of many hangings

It was probably my first puzzle.  Maybe I was three.  Frankly, my memory is unsure of several things in my life time. Regardless of my memory issues, we hung our laundry on the line to dry.  There were perhaps a few home driers around the country at that time, but we certainly did not have one. The clothes line and clothes pins, the sun and fresh air were all that we needed and could afford. The only glitch in the system from time to time was that somehow the clothes pins would separate, refusing to work together. My job was to get them matched up so the wire spring would again clamp the two wood pieces and allow them to pinch the fabric on the line, holding it securely in place until dried and removed for folding.

These things don't
wear out.

Funny how finding an out-of-sorts clothes pin in the bottom of the container can bring back memories of life-changing moments in time.  Some studies of child and brain development suggest that there are little windows of time in which the brain is optimally able to grasp certain tasks.  Tying ones shoes is an example.  Learn to do it when you are, say four-years-old, and it's easy forever.  Wait until you are ten, and it may always be a challenge.  So my window of seeing how things fit together came early--with clothes pins.  And forever since that time, putting things together has been the most fun of Things I get to do today.  I just realized all those connections today as the two halves of the clothes pin slipped back together with a near pinch of my fingers, just like when I was three.