Clotheslines, Old is New Again

Posted by Susanna McLeod Jun 3, 2008

Pinning the laundry out on the clothesline has been done almost forever, until some urban areas decided it was tacky. Sunshine is the new dryer – again.

There’s nothing like pulling on a fresh pair of jeans fresh from the clothesline, with that certain solid feeling to them that no dryer can provide. My mother always hung out the laundry, socks, underwear, towels, good blouses and trousers, the whole shebang. And she didn’t just hang it out on warm summer days. It went out even in the freezing winter days, as long as there was sun and a bit of breeze to take the moisture away. Sometimes my jeans were frozen when I took them off the line. Stiff like cardboard from a cereal box, they had to be folded gently.

Some newer urban areas decided a few decades ago that clotheslines were ugly. Looking at people’s unmentionables in the breeze? Forget that. Clotheslines were banned. It was against the law to hang out your delicates. Hmpf. Now in this time of electricity shortages and financial restraint, the areas are rethinking their by-laws. Clotheslines are back in style, sunshine making laundry dry and fresh without cost. Hurray!

Clotheslines have had significance in other segments of life. The Clothesline Project was started in 1990 by women in Massachusetts to represent the lives of women lost to violence. “The Women’s Agenda,” said the site, “wanted to create a memorial to bring about an awareness of the women who had been killed, and the enormous amount of violence against them… Tee shirts are chosen for the line to symbolize the airing of “dirty laundry”. The shirts are then hung shoulder to shoulder for public viewing.”

A simple line across a yard can have much more importance than who wears which style of knickers.