I love this picture. It was taken at my parents house after one of our extended stays and accumulated laundry. I like to try and not leave extra work after we stay, and wash the linens we used before I head back home. This summer day was perfect for hanging clothes out to dry. I love feeling the sun on me as I hang the wet laundry. I love the smell of clean breezing by me in the wind. I love the memories it brings. The old clothesline at our house growing up. My grandmothers clothesline that was used continually-even in the cold Minnesota winters. I remember seeing Grandpa’s jeans and shirts frozen solid hanging there.
Now I have one of my own. Well, sort of… I don’t have a yard, yet the sun shines in my windows. So, a couple of months ago Jonathan purchased me a drying rack to use in the house(my grandmother also had one of these, although it looked a little different). I like using it. I don’t use it every time I wash since it takes most of the day to dry and sometimes I need to do more than one load per day. 
I have been trying to use it more than the dryer for many reasons. Save on cost of the electrical bill. Help clothing last longer. Memories. Despite these great reasons there was still the dryer with it’s ease of use, until yesterday.
Yesterday I washed a load of towels. I like drying the towels in the dryer, so they’re not so crunchy but soft and cozy. So, I placed the wet towels in the dryer and started it. Then an obnoxiously loud noise yells at me from the dryer and I panic. I try to, but can’t quite remember how to turn it off. There’s the start button… Ah, yes open the door… I open the door and it stops. Whew! I then smell a hot smell coming from the dryer. Great! Well, thank God I have a drying rack! I guess the other FOUR loads of laundry will have to wait till tomorrow… and the next day…
Average Housewife 
I have those same memories of clothes hanging on the line. Thanks for the reminder of those memories. I recall one spring following my mother from the basement (we had an old ringer washer with two tubs to rinse the clothes in and did get my fingers caught in the ringer several times) to the back yard clothes line – barefoot. I stepped on a garter snake that was lying in the sun warming up as there were still some patches of snow on the ground – in NE Kansas. My Uncle was at the quonset working on a tractor and came down and killed the snake. It was about 5-6 feet long. Fun memories.
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I love hanging out clothes too. I do it every week here in CA. Marlin fixed me a clothes line that is attached to the house then he put a hook in the garage wall, a hook on the hot water enclosure, another hook on the corner a garage wall and then the final hook on the house near the back door. I ended up with as many as four lines or as few as one. Living in KS, I had four retractable lines that ran from the house to the big tree in the back yard. As a kid in Ohio my mom hung up our clothes in the basement during the winter. Thanks for sharing the wonderful memories with us.
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