Clotheslines on my Mind (why not give yourself one for Earth Day?)
Clotheslines have been on my brain all weekend. It started on Friday morning. I finally got around to reading the rest of The New York Times from the previous day (it took me until then to get the whole Charlton Heston thing that was going on the crossword, and I’m not allowed to read the rest of it until I’m done. It’s an O.C.D. thing, you wouldn’t understand). The International Report had a great article called “A Line in the Yard: The Battle Over the Right to Dry Outside.” It seems some Canadian renegades who like, want to save energy or something crazy like that, have the audacity to hang their clothes on a line behind privacy fences in a neighborhood that prohibits such an obscene act. With Earth Day being in April and all, I thought I would take a look at good old clotheslines.
I was trying to find an image of the clothesline in the middle of Muriel’s burned backyard, and I came across this fascinating and eloquent post over at makingwifi. I love it when that kind of thing happens! Am I the only person that did not realize this contraption is called a Hoist? It’s really rather genius.
This photo from flickr member Vincent Casey conjures up one memory I have of clotheslines: My classmate Peggy had all of her jeans stolen off the her clothesline in Venice (this was back in the day when most jeans were under $100; I know some of you are too young to remember way back then). Unfortunately, Peggy and her roommates had a second story apartment, and the jean bandits would jump up and steal their pants.  Similarly, I figure in my ‘hood, where pieces of cars, lawn ornaments and copper gutters are stolen on a daily basis, a pair of True Religions on the line would not be safe, never mind the bird poop problems, so it’s a no-go for me. However, I have fond memories of my grandparents’ long line in Bristol, Connecticut, and even in historic and perfect looking Hingham Massachusetts, where the town likes to dictate what kind of mailbox one should have, my mom lets her laundry dry in the sun. What’s the big deal?
Later on that day, I was catching up on Bluelines, the blog that has taken the place of Blueprint magazine, and I saw a great feature written by Lena. She had collected some of her favorite flickr clothesline images. You can see all of them here. The one above is from flickr member turkeyfarmtreasures as shown over at Bluelines. The clothesline is a great way to air out and show off her vintage tablecloth collection!
In addition, late last week I noticed hulagirl’s mini-clothesline workspace arrangement on another blog, which right now I can’t remember. I think it may have been shelterriffic. I have been doing this with my holiday cards for the past few years and it’s a great way to show them off without involving tape on the walls.
By the way, I still miss her fabulous booth at Kudzu. Atlanta lost a lot of creativity when Hula and her family left us for Portland! You can keep up with them at her blog, Hula Seventy.
Finally, in this stream of consciousness mixed with blog hopping trip I was on, I remembered a favorite Martha Schwartz exhibit from the 1997 Spoleto Festival. It was called “Field Work”:
In case you are interested in installing your own clothesline, here’s how. Also, here’s another article about the benefits of air-drying and how much it can reduce our carbon footprints.
April 21st, 2008 at 6:46 am
That is crazy that they aren’t allowed to air dry!
Our main worry is also bird poop. We have a lot of birds in our backyard. However, we do have some indoor drying racks, and you can buy indoor clotheslines which can retract, to hang over the tub. I want to buy one and use it more often in the summer.
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:53 am
It would be cool to have one that hides in a cabinet wall like an ironing board. I’ve always wanted one of those built-in ironing boards!
Becky
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:18 am
I air dry all my laundry in my apartment. I started to do that when my daughter was born. Dryer wears out the clothing so quick and I hated how stuffy the clothes felt.