Grandma Was Right About Clotheslines
I grew up in the south where summers were filled with lazy afternoons of relaxing under the shade trees. At least for me. Grownups had to continue with their grownup responsibilities on those long sunny days. My grandma would take the opportunity to dry the wash on the clothesline in her backyard. She’s get up before dawn and start washing clothes. By the time I’d get to her house in the afternoon, the clothes were hanging on the line already dried by the sun and the wind. Grandma grew up before electric dryers were commonplace; putting laundry on a clothesline was the only reasonable way to dry it. The habit was so much a part of her that she chose to do it even though she had a perfectly good dryer. But, Grandma had a good idea.
She saved a good bit of money each year using the clothesline. The US Department of Energy has a formula to find out how much money is spent to run appliances. Drying six loads of laundry a week for a year in a dryer cost her close to $100. She didn’t use dryer sheets either which continued to save her money. And, clothes last longer when they’re dried on a clothesline because lint is created when the clothes brush against each other in the dryer which slowly wears them out. Clotheslines are even good for the environment; a dryer creates over four pounds of carbon with each load.
Grandma was saving money and saving the world. But none of that meant anything me to me when I was young. Instead I would play with the clothesline. I would pull the wire down and watch it spring back up with a mighty twang. Launching clothespins into the air was very fun, but rocketing G.I. Joes into the atmosphere was even better. Eventually, all the stress of the twanging stretched the wire causing it to sag. Grandma had to use a wooden beam to hold the line in position. I’d like to say I felt guilty, but I had already blamed it on my brother.
