Gone With the Wind

A friend on Facebook remarked that she was excited about doing her laundry so she could hang it out the next morning. A flurry of remarks resulted, split half and half between the pros and cons of line drying clothes. I was surprised at the zeal of those who were in favor-- if they loved it, they really loved it! Of course, the others disliked it equally intensely.

I have been having the urge to dry clothes outside, myself. There is nothing like the fragrance of sun-dried sheets and towels. No dryer softener sheet can match it. I often hung our laundry when the kids were young, especially when our dryer would go on the blink. There is something invigorating about getting out into the fresh air and sunshine and going through the homely task of hanging a husband’s shirt, a child’s pair of jeans, or pajamas out to dry.

One day a few months ago, I checked the clothes in the dryer and they were still wet and cold. The dryer had breathed its last! The warm days of autumn were upon us, and I tried to persuade my husband to put up a clothesline for me. I didn’t want one strung across the yard, though, but one on a single pole with multiple lines forming a square around it. That way I could discreetly hang unmentionables and raggedy items on the inner lines, shielded from view by towels and sheets on the outside. Then the whole thing would fold up when I took the dry clothes inside.

Alas, he didn’t want to dig a hole, set the pole in concrete and put up my new appliance, nor spend the money on it, either. Instead, my husband replaced the dryer, and a good thing, too, since winter was coming on. But warm weather is here again, and I think I will renew my efforts for the clothesline. Call me old fashioned, but I even wash my dishes by hand. I got tired of streaked glasses from the dishwasher, so now I use its racks to store food containers and miscellaneous dishes.

Like all kids, when I was young I hated washing dishes. Once in fourth grade, our teacher tried to shame us by saying, “You should be glad to wash the dishes for your mother. When you have good Dreft, and hot water, it’s not hard at all.” That was in the days before dishwashing liquid, and it was a choice between milder Dreft detergent and Oxydol or Tide to do the dishes in, if I remember right.

I noted on Face book a favorite memory I have of my sister’s homespun philosophy when she said, “Many a time I’ve gotten a new lease on life under the clothesline.” I’m sure it was a brief reprieve from other household tasks of the mother of six to be outside surrounded by nature, her perspective renewed and inspiration gained seeing her children’s clothes dance gaily on the line. No doubt her spirit was refreshed by God’s creation, the wind billowing the laundry like clouds above, floating her cares away. She expressed my sentiments exactly.