Pinching and Balancing

I set my pumpkin bucket down on the cool linoleum and knelt down in front of a wooden clothespin near the pantry baseboard. The shiny metal spring in the middle caught my eye, so I gripped the two notched ends with both thumbs and pressed firmly. With a cheerful snap, the wooden jaws spread wide open, then clamped shut tight the moment I eased up. After testing the tension a few times to get the rhythm down, I carefully pinched the jaws onto the folded edge of a clean paper napkin, watching happily as it held the paper straight up like a tiny white sail.