Menopausal Mountie

THE CLOTHESPIN LADY Part 2 HANG TES HARDES

My lack of marketing experience was evident when I named my clothespin Facebook page “Hang tes Hardes”. Unless you are Acadian, you wouldn’t know what that means, nor would you be able to pronounce or remember it. But I thought it was grand idea at the time and I love the way that Chiac expression rolls off my tongue.

“J’vais hanger my hardes sur la ligne si qu’y mouile pas” literally translates to “I will hang my rags on the line if it doesn’t wet (out).”

Chiac, the patois that is primarily spoken in Southeastern New Brunswick, is a convenient mix of French and English. It makes absolute sense to me and is rather efficient in my humble opinion. Why speak one language at a time when you can pick from two? “Worry pas ta brain je te callerai back” is understandable on both sides of the language line and is rather fun to say. My Southern American friends would recognize Chiac as the grandmother of Cajun.

But with a name like Sandra Christopher, why Chiac?

I was born in 1969 to a mother who grew up speaking French and a father who grew up speaking English. 1969 was also the year that New Brunswick passed the Official languages Act making New Brunswick the only Canadian province with two official languages. I didn’t learn French any more than I learned English. I just always spoke both.

I went to French schools until high school and sang with the Jeunes Chanteurs d’Acadie (Young Acadian Singers). I functioned mostly in English at home, French at school and French at choir. When recalling conversations, I sometimes couldn’t remember which language was used. Admittedly, my mental operating language is now English.

Writing about Chiac brings up some great memories – My grandmother Beatrice LeBlanc used to serve me poutine rapée (while smoking a Benson and Hedges) and to me that will always be the original poutine. For those of you not in the know, poutine rapée looks like a dirty snowball the size of a softball. It’s made with mashed potatoes and grated raw potato made into a ball around a center of chopped or ground salt pork. It’s then boiled in a large pot of water. I like to eat mine with salt and pepper but there are those who prefer brown sugar.

Modern poutine is a plate of fries, with cheese curds (real ones that squeak on your teeth) all covered in a brown gravy. It’s delicious, but not ‘real’ poutine in my books. Poutine rapée is the OG. Neither dish has anything whatsoever to do with clothespins. I am however starting to get hungry. How did I get here? Oh yes, Hang tes Hardes, Chiac, Acadian… oooohhh now I’m thinking about tourtière.

All that to say, “Hang tes Hardes” wasn’t really working in the marketing department. My woodworking friend and great neighbour Tom Stuart started calling me the clothespin lady and it stuck and went on to earn capital letters.

One of the next challenges I faced was finding a spring manufacturer. I had been buying springs 50 at a time from Herrick Kimball in the US, but with his blessing, I decided to find a Canadian manufacturer. I started my search by emailing spring manufacturing companies and leaving voice mails. The first and only company to respond back was Ammtech Springs out of British Columbia. They asked me to mail them a few springs to see if they could replicate them. I did, and they could. The first production run Ammtech did for me was 2500 springs. The last production run they did for me was 20,000.

I’ve had many inquiries over the years about my production process and about the springs in particular. Sometimes it was out of curiosity, sometimes it was someone looking to start their own clothespin business. I’ve always been happy to share the information with anyone who asked however I was a little hesitant with the author who wanted to know about clothespins for a kink novel. To each their own, but clothespins? Don’t look it up. Trust me on this.

When I look back on my business, there was no real plan. I figured out one thing at a time. I never did get good at the paperwork side of it, but I managed. I found a niche that I wasn’t looking for by making a product I couldn’t find to buy. It was never a full-time job for me or a big income producer, but it certainly was a part of my life.

And that my friends, it how I became The Clothespin Lady.

Lache pas la patate, mes amis.