Everything Old is New Again

Since I love finding out bizarre & random stuff and passing it along to you, I have an important question:

Do you know what week this is?

International Clothesline Week.
Seems there's a growing segment of the population that is urging us to air our dirty laundry let it all hang out to dry. Some feel it's important for the environment as well as the economy because of the amount of electricity used on dryers.

Now I'm all for saving money, but since the claim is that dryers account for 6% of a family's electricity usage, I'm not in too much of a panic. (The clothesline proponents act like it's 60%!) I'd much rather bump the thermostat up a couple of degrees! Besides, this movement is apparently geared for a different and much younger generation, as one site urges consumers to put up "a clothesline, just like your grandparents did".

Well, even though I'm not older than chocolate chip cookies, I do remember the days without a dryer, or at least when the dryer was new enough to only be used on rainy days. And rather than being a pleasant nostalgic memory, I mostly remember it being a lot of work, and I also remember the laundry (especially the sheets & towels) being stiff and scratchy. Experiencing a memory at your own house where your mom assigns the chores is just a tad different from a memory when you go to visit your grandmother!

And with all the pollen that Central Texas is known for, I imagine that most of the time the laundry would have to be re-washed as soon as it was brought in, if I had a clothesline today. I'm not sure I could breathe if I had to sleep on sheets that had hung outside when the oak trees are dropping their flowers. My MIL grew up on a farm, and she talks about how dusty the laundry was when they brought it back in. I suspect West Texas with its dust storms and some other midwestern states have the same problem!

Oh, and the reasoning on that website that asks "Why spend on artificial products to make your clothes smell like mountain meadows, when you can get a better effect from your backyard?" Obviously those folks didn't grow up in southeast Houston, just a couple of miles from Stinkadena!

But if you feel the urge, go right ahead. There are even websites with instructions detailing how to use a clothesline! (I'm just wondering. . . .how much do you think those 20-somethings are spending at Starbucks with their laptops while they read about saving a few dollars and how to hang clothes on a line?) It's also apparently been a hot item of debate & contention in some neighborhoods, and some homeowner associations have even banned them or at least put heavy restrictions on them. (This has sparked the Right to Dry Campaign, and they even have a petition asking the First Family to line dry their clothes on the White House lawn one day! Sorry, but I think there are many issues with greater urgency facing our country than how we dry our clothes!)

BTW, if you are going to be shopping for a clothesline, be sure to check out The Clothesline Shop - they even have one that puts the clothespins on your clothes for you!

What's your preference? The answer is blowing in the wind!

Ironically, one of my clearest memories as a very little girl involved both the clothesline and chocolate chip cookies. My mom was in the middle of making cookies, and toward the end of the stirring process had to stop and go hang another load out on the line. I was about 4 years old at the time, and I thought I would surprise her and finish mixing them. So I climbed up in the chair by the table and stirred the cookies. Stirred them right onto the floor. And in those days, Sunbeam Mixmaster bowls were glass. I saw my life flash before my eyes. But while my mom wasn't thrilled about the loss of her bowl and the cookie dough, she realized I was trying to be a helper, and I didn't get in trouble. I still like chocolate chip cookies, but I don't like clotheslines!

First, the clothesline; next it will be this.