http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u5TlfOiFXo
Initially I dismissed this TV ad, for the pegless clothes line, as just indulging in what I call 'North Korean rhetoric', that is a ridiculous exaggeration of the supposed travails of everyday life, but a discussion with two members of the Oliver family (father and son Oliver) made me think that pegs could indeed be tyrannical.
As I say, recently I got to talking then arguing about pegs with both father and son Oliver. One or other of the Olivers (I can't remember who - we had had a few wines) is a taker down of pegs from the clothes line and then a putter of pegs into a receptacle, after you use them. This is my position as well. The other Oliver steadfastly chooses to leave them on the line. It seems his main problem is having to reach for them from a basket, while pegging out clothes etc. He believes you need both hands for properly hanging out clothes and other items, and this leaves no hands free for reaching for pegs - he refuses to become a peg and clothing juggler, while undertaking the boring but necessary task of hanging out washing. Somehow though, both the other Oliver and I manage this, admittedly with difficulty, and the contortion involved, ultimately, could more quickly compromise us in an occupational health and safety sense (i.e. back and muscle strains).
Of course the peg basket you use can make it easier or harder to store and retrieve pegs. One is advantaged by a peg basket, or indeed bag, that rests on the clothes line and can move easily along the wires or nylon strands, so it is always nearby for an easy peg reach, or peg deposit, if you are bringing washing in. Mentioning peg deposit is an important reminder and acknowledgement that problems with pegging stuff up are replicated or mirrored when you have to remove washing.
The leaver of pegs on the line Oliver admitted to a frustration with hanging washing among a predetermined peg pattern on the line, being faced with possibly having to shift pegs to best fit washing of differing sizes among such pre set peg arrangements. This is a dilemma that doesn't face the other Oliver and I. We come to the clothes line, to hang out washing, facing a tabula rasa or clean slate. The other Oliver and I, while of the put the peg on and take the peg off persuasion, tried to humour the peg leaving Oliver and envisage how we would work with leaving the pegs on the line and suggested one could choose small items and hang them among small inter peg gaps and put large items among large inter peg gaps. He rejected this notion, which to my mind shot holes in his position, betraying a flaw in the 'leave the pegs on the line' belief system. As alluded to above, you can of course just slide the pegs along the line to adapt and fit the inter peg gap you are presented with to the circumstances of the washing. But apparently 'leaving pegs on the line' Oliver holds such a fixed position (no pun intended) , that he doesn't even want to move pegs along the line to adapt to the size of his clothing; it would seem he would just rather hang washing around pegs left on the line, attached to nothing but wire or strand, and serving no purpose.
None of this discussion about pegs and pegless clothes lines has so far touched on how durable pegs are. And of course this issue is impacted by what you choose to do with the pegs when they are not doing what they are designed for. One might easily think that if you leave them out, they are more subject to wear and tear. The proverbial rain hail and shine will lessen the life of pegs one might think, but Oliver of the pegs on the line belief system, says that the action of putting them on the line and taking them off, especially if this is done quickly, can lessen their working lives. I've yet to see experiments that compare how pegs staying on versus pegs going on and coming off the line affects their lifespan, but my money would be on mother nature rending more deleterious effects on pegs' longevity than putting them up and taking them off. People who affix and remove pegs, putting them in a basket, while they are not being used, while at the same time leaving the peg basket on the clothes line, are to my mind asking for trouble and wearing their pegs out both ways. Interestingly the Oliver who I agree with about the need to put pegs on the line and then take them off, when not at use, chooses to leave his pegs in the basket on the line!
I might add, our far reaching discussion on pegs, event went as far as considering how one might lessen the problem of weather induced wear and tear on pegs in a basket, left on the clothes line, and on all three of us agree that in actuality, circumstances look after them self - the mere actions of putting on and taking off pegs, mix them up within the peg receptacle, and ensure the same ones aren't always in the top layer and thus exposed to the full forces of mother nature.
Any discussion of pegs and what wears them out and/or breaks them, needs to consider what to do with pegs that are seemingly broken. Here filial bonds hold and both Olivers agree with each other and disagree with me. When springs become detached from the other part of pegs, let's call them clasps, the Olivers just disregard them or throw them out. They scoffed at my commitment to rehabilitate pegs. To lovingly and carefully search on the ground for broken peg parts, and then retain and restore them, if not to their full former glory, at least to a sense of purpose and functionality, so to delay for a long as possible their journey to their ultimate destination of rubbish bin.
I see one of the Olivers as essentially being lazy in his 'drying the washing' practices, wanting to cut corners and not giving a tinker's cuss about how this relates to the efficiency of peg use and care practices. But if one is to recognise that all the foregoing discussion about pegs, this conjecture, this toing and froing, this analysis of the pluses and minuses of pegs, then this deep rumination about their proper use can ultimately make you to question the value of pegs, and make you seriously consider other options for clothes line arrangements. As such this Oliver's position of leaving them on the line, as an apparent permanent fixture, most closely matches the radical pegless alternative. And while I find myself in agreement with most of the other Oliver's peg practices, I find an internal inconsistency in his peg belief system, which while I respect, I would like to change, both so I could find someone who I am totally at one with, around pegs. I fear though, with pegs, everyone has their own belief system. Ultimately, humanity will only be uniform and find unity with pegs, when ironically we are without pegs - the future with its pegless Ezyline clothes line beckons.
