Old Lessons Re-learned

Rough-dried Laundry

My mother called clothes hung outside to dry on the line "rough-dried". Now I remember why. They are stiff and a bit rough when compared to laundry dried in a dryer. That is where the advantage of a dryer ends...OK, I'll agree that a dryer has an advantage on a rainy day but laundry dried in the sun, naturally, smells so fresh and clean and is almost wrinkle free. The truly fresh, clean smell will never be duplicated in a laboratory and saturated onto a man-made "sheet" of loose, see through fabric. Neither will it be duplicated in a laboratory and added to a liquid that one adds to the washer as fabric "softener".

I knew not long after I learned to walk that going out in the yard with my mother, watching my pet duck sit on her feet each time she stopped to hang a sheet, towel, shirt or sock, that it was an enjoyable experience never to be matched by watching the dryer go round and round while it sucks electricity out of the wall.

Did I mention sleeping on freshly dried sheets and pillow cases?

"Sweet dreams are made of this"...to quote the 1983 song by the Eurythmics.

The washer is probably classed as apartment size and barely holds two double bed sheets and pillow cases. If we wait a week to do laundry we have six or seven loads, the equivalent of about two loads at home, one dark, one light.

It has taken being here in Sevilla where we have a small washer but no dryer for me to re-learn the advantages of sun-dried laundry. I am really tempted to put up a clothesline when I get home though I am fairly certain that the Homeowners' Association has a rule against that.