Please do not laugh now, dear reader, if I tell you that I miss seeing laundry hanging from the clothes lines in the back yards of Brownstone Brooklyn. When I first moved to Carroll Gardens more than twenty years ago, it was still a usual sight. If the front stoop was reserved for polite chatter with the neighbors, the back yard was for airing one's clean ( and of course, sometimes, dirty) laundry.
But, these days, the poles stand unused, the clothes lines themselves have frayed in the wind long ago. I cannot remember the last time I saw clothes hung out to dry. A pity, really. Air drying is not only economical but better for the environment. It always reminds me of my childhood in Europe. I used to help my mother by handing her the clothes pins as she carefully hung first the sheets, then the shirts and lastly, socks and underwear. Of course, I also remember dashing out to rip everything off the line when an unexpected shower threatened to undo the sun's work.
Now everyone has a dryer or goes to the laundromat. Yes, it is much more convenient, but letting the wind dry the laundry was so much better for the environment...so much greener.
I am not suggesting that we go back to the old ways, but sometimes, when the sun is shining and a breeze is gently flowing through the back yards, I regret that I don't have a cloth line anymore. Maybe, I'll stop at Winn Discount on Court and buy myself a few yards of rope. And some wooden clothes pins, too. Of course, it better not rain. I think we have had quite enough of that after this week-end.
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