Monday morning on my run, I noticed a new clothesline at a
neighbor’s house. It’s one of those single pole types with multiple rows of
lines filling a metal frame. Shirts on hangers hung neatly from each row and
waved in the breeze. I didn’t stop to be certain, but my casual in-flight count
was 24 shirts! That’s a lot for such a small set up.
At our house we have a single line with pulleys on both
ends. One pulley is attached to a pole on our deck and the other is atop a long
metal pole secured in the ground with cement. Because our line runs down hill,
the pole is extra tall.
It’s surprising to me that more of my neighbor’s don’t
utilize a clothesline. A dryer is one of the biggest energy hogs in the house.
Our electric bill goes down by half in the summer thanks to solar powered hot
water and the clothesline. I resisted the line for too many years thinking it
would be too time consuming, too labor-intensive, too ugly.
Now when I drive up my driveway and see the clothes blowing
in the breeze, it makes me smile. And I look forward to the five minutes I
spend each morning hanging clothes out. It’s my time to listen to the birds,
take in the sunshine, and be left alone. No one ever offers to help hang out
the laundry (except my father-in-law’s wife who understands the sacred space
created by clotheslines).
