This is a story I remember my mom Helen Wells Ruddock telling about what she had heard from the Ruddock relatives about their days in Ireland.

"When they lived in Ireland, they could look across the waters between Ireland and Scotland and see Wash hanging on the wash lines and blowing in the breeze."

In checking out the story, apparently this is a common remembrance of sayings that many people have heard from the "old folks" from and in Ireland.

Checking out the distances, the closest point between Northern Ireland and Scotland is in the Upper Eastern section of Co. Antrim. I believe at that point, the distance is some 7 miles. Even on a clear day, this does not seem like it was a possibility unless a telescope was used. More likely, what was seen may have been looking across the Strangford Lough and seeing wash hanging on the other side (but still in Ireland), thinking it was Scotland. As some of the family appears to be from the Comber area near or very close to the Strangford Lough, this makes sense to me. Looking across water always results in distortion due to the water vapor and temperature gradients just above the water and this makes it even more difficult to make out images just above the water line clearly, even within a couple of miles.