Wife Lila and Hilary, my former chief lab tech, were talking about clotheslines on Facebook the other day. Lila said, “I couldn’t do without mine. Whatever doesn’t have to be ironed goes on the line. On a breezy day, sheets dry in 10 minutes and look like they have been ironed.”
Hilary, who lives along Taylor Creek at the north end of Lake Okeechobee, said she hasn’t seen a clothesline in years, probably, she thought, because her homeowners association prohibits them.
Florida is a Right-to-Dry state
I pointed out to her that Florida is one of at least 19 states that prohibit restrictions on clotheslines under Florida Statute 163.04 which deals with “energy devices based on renewable resources.” Lila shot this video of Grandson Malcolm running through her laundry way back in 2007. The story with that information was written in 2012, so your state may have been added by now.
Want to buy a cheap clothes dryer?
Thinking about clotheslines made me remember a mailorder scam I read about from the ’50s. A wiseguy posted a bunch of ads offering to sell low-energy clothes dryers for $20. Some of the people who sent in their money only to receive a clothespin in return mail complained to the U.S. Postal Service about being ripped off. The feds said they were sorry, but a clothespin qualified as a low-energy clothes dryer, even if it’s not what they THOUGHT they were buying.
[Editor’s Note: notice how Grandmother Lila starts to call Malcolm by Son Adam’s name at the 50-second mark?]
I remember the close lines. My mother had one and as well as my grandmother. Hers was run across the back yard. They had a cherry tree in the front yard. One night she stepped out on the front porch and thought her white face cow had gotten out. she hollered at it but only to find it was someone in the cherry tree in a white shirt. They jumped down and took off running till they hit the close line. After a few minutes they got up and took off again.