CLOTHESLINE

Clothes Line.
I read an interesting, and provocative, human-interest story in today’s (9/18/07) Wall Street Journal.
A lady in Bend, Oregon, put up an outside clothesline. While this sounds pretty innocuous to me, I don’t live in a neighborhood such as hers. There was a big brouhaha with her neighbors! They claimed that she violated the Neighborhood -homeowner associations’ rules. While the violator was cognizant of the covenants, she thought that her reasoning trumped those regulations. She rationalized that “clotheslines are one way to fight climate change, using the sun and wind instead of electricity” in response to Global warming. This sure makes sense to me - but apparently, not to the developer’s lawyer.
The article went on to quote statistics, and other related data, such as:
Clothes dryers account for 6% of total electricity used by U.S. families (at an average cost of $80 a year); third behind refrigerators and lighting!
I grew up in Michigan, and Ohio, with these contraptions! Clotheslines are sturdy-“tee” posts, imbedded in concrete, located in backyards, with rope or wire lines strung between them. (occasionally, we would get “necktied”, when we forgot to duck, when running below the lines!)
The clothes, dried outside in the sun, had a nice smell, and felt softer when I folded them. On rainy days, or in the winter, the clothes were hung on rope lines, fastened beneath floor joists, in the basement. Residents from these “gated communities” must shudder when they travel out of the country. Such clothes drying is standard practice. I remember our Tour Guide in Italy referring to all the wash hanging outside as “Italian flags.”