My mom was an early environmentalist, and she didn\u2019t even know it.<\/p>\n
One of my fondest childhood memories involves my mother and the clothesline that stretched across our back yard.<\/p>\n
Twice a week, she\u2019d grab her bucket full of clothespins and lug a wicker basket full of wet clothes up the basement stairs and out into the sunshine. Only on winter\u2019s coldest days would she use the electric dryer.<\/p>\n
Often, I helped, handing her one soggy item after another so she could peg faster. Then she\u2019d hook the line with the wired pole and hoist it high into the air to keep the sheets off the ground.<\/p>\n
Many hours of my youth were spent perched on a branch in the nearby apple tree, reading books high above the sails of those billowing sheets.<\/p>\n
Oh, the fragrance of those sun-dried clothes. Talk about a memory that hinges deep sighs to your smile.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an eco-friendly movement underfoot to get more Americans to hang clothes outside to dry. As with any attempt to save the environment, there are opponents. In this case, they tend to be people who move to exurbia to escape all they claim is wrong with modern America but then oppose this throwback to the good ol\u2019 days.<\/p>\n
The New York Times reported last week that clothesline bans are most prevalent among this country\u2019s 60 million community and homeowner associations, whose collective mission revolves around mandatory blandness.<\/p>\n
Most of them forbid outdoor clotheslines. Many won\u2019t even allow residents to throw a wet beach towel over a railing.<\/p>\n
A clothesline devalues property values, they say. Makes it look like you have neighbors who are too poor to own dryers.<\/p>\n
There also appears to be an obsession with other people\u2019s underwear. One article after another quotes indignant Americans huffing and puffing over the possible horror of seeing grandma\u2019s waist-highs flapping in the breeze.<\/p>\n
The Times reported that Colorado, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont passed laws last year to allow outdoor clotheslines. Florida and Utah already had such laws, and Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia are considering them.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why: Dryers suck up a lot of the country\u2019s electricity.<\/p>\n
The Department of Energy reported in 2001 that electric clothes dryers account for nearly 6 percent of total electricity use in American homes. This does not even count electricity to power gas-heated dryers.<\/p>\n
When you consider that all indoor and outdoor lighting constitutes only 8.8 percent of our collective total usage, you get an idea of just how much energy we\u2019re using to do what the sun does for free.<\/p>\n
Next May, filmmaker Steven Lake will release a pro-clothesline documentary titled, \u201cDrying for Freedom.\u201d In the meantime, Project Laundry List\u2019s Web site (laundrylist.org) offers stats and helpful tips to persuade more Americans to hoist up their own laundry:<\/p>\n
Snap the clothes before hanging to minimize wrinkles. In frigid weather, hang the clothes inside to humidify the heated air. Pop stiff jeans and towels in the dryer for just a few minutes and set to \u201cair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goodness, I\u2019m starting to sound like quite the happy homemaker. Which brings me to one of the questions answered by Project Laundry List:<\/p>\n
\u201cCan feminists hang their clothes?\u201d<\/p>\n
Why, what better way to unwind after a long day of emasculating the menfolk?<\/p>\n
Oh, how I enjoy those stereotypes.<\/p>\n
The Web site quotes author Kathleen Norris:<\/p>\n
\u201cLaundry, liturgy and women\u2019s work all serve to ground us in the world, and they need not grind us down. Our daily tasks, whether we perceive them as drudgery or essential, life-supporting work, do not define who we are as women or as human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, I love Norris\u2019 work, and I really appreciate her mystical take on all of our womanly tending. In this feminist\u2019s home, there\u2019s only one rule for any interloper who thinks he\u2019s going to touch the laundry: Step Away From the Piles.<\/p>\n
Like so many other feminists, I wash, I dry, I fluff and I iron.<\/p>\n
Radical, I know.<\/p>\n
Blame my mother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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