The wash line

I was sitting in my basement the other day remembering how my mother would hang laundry up to dry down there when I was a kid.  The basement was where the laundry went when you couldn't hand it outside for what ever reason.  My mother had four wash lines tied up down there and you could hand a lot of laundry out there.  I just could never figure out how she got it down there.  The stairs to the basement are so narrow that you have to twist and turn to get past the inside wall on one side and the house foundation on the other side.  I can't imagine how she managed this carrying baskets of laundry.  I can barely do it without hurting myself while not carrying anything.  There were also two lines outside.  The downstairs one was easy enough to use, you just walked out the backdoor and there it was.  The one upstairs was a different story.  To use this line you had to hang out the kitchen window, twist to the side and stretch up to reach the line.  You also had the problem that the roof slanted down right beneath the window so you had to double things up to keep them from dragging along the roof and getting filthy.  When I was old enough to help I would climb out the window and stand on the roof to hang things up.  I never managed to learn the twist and turn thing she did.  I could never reach the bloody line and she was shorter the me!!!   I was remembering all this the other night sitting in the basement.  The ropes she used as wash lines are still there although you can't use them now because of all the stuff piled up under them.
Mom died about 14 years ago, sometimes it seems like yesterday, but I can still see all that laundry in my head.  I have a dryer now.