Backyard Clothesline

Growing up it was a given here in North Carolina that every yard would have a backyard clothesline. I know we had a dryer but it was rarely used unless we were in a sustained rainy pattern. I have been trying to remember if my Grandmother ever had one.

Anyone that has grown up with the heat and humidity of the South knows one of the last things you want to do in the summertime is add any extra heat to the house. That is exactly one thing that a dryer does. Now people tend to run a/c all day and do not even think about using a dryer. One thing I miss is the smell of the clothes that have been hung on a line.

One of the best pleasures in life is to lay down at the end of a long hard day and take in the sweet nectar of sheets that have spent a summer day outside drying. My son asked me as we were drying his sheets if the sweet smelling gardenias would be captured in his sheets. There is no other way for sheets to be done.

So why would people willing choose to use a dryer that costs them money and can arguably not be good as good for the life of clothes choose to use them. I think one of the reasons is convenience. It is easier to put the clothes in a dryer.

For some people they can not have a backyard clothesline as it is prohibited. Never in our ancestors lives could they have imagined being told they can not have a backyard clothesline.

I think the demise of the backyard clothesline is one of the realities of a distracted nation. Why are we paying to dry the clothes when it can be accomplished for free. Our we that vain that the time can not be spent and our underwear can not be displayed? If you know me by now then I can guarantee you I hang mine outside and always will.