Laugh if you will . . .

They, whoever they are, say that smell is the sense most strongly connected to memory.  There is a smell that cannot be replicated, it can’t be synthesized, and it can’t be covered up.  Laundry dried on a line.  Whatever fabric softener you use, it just blends in with the fresh air smell.  It never replaces it.

I do have fond memories of the days when we had no air condition.  Not fond of being hot, having to go to bed right after a shower with a fan in the window to keep cool in August – but fond memories of hanging little shirts and shorts out on the clothes line.  Why heat up the house on a hot day and use energy when that hot sun will dry your clothes for free?  Thank goodness for a good friend who showed me how to hang laundry effectively – Vicki!

I know, I know – it is so much faster to use a dryer.  I know, I know – sometimes it makes the towels kind of stiff.  But, there is just something about laundry on the line.  I love the smell, I love hanging each piece.  It doesn’t get wrinkled when I get distracted and forget to get it as soon as it’s dry. (I think this is the best part about it!)  Hang it out in the morning when it’s cool, let it dry through the day while I am busy with other things.  Grab it in the evening the dampness of evening begins.

There is no smell like it in the world!

So, laugh if you must that I prefer to hang clothes on a line, one at a time and am so far refusing to add a dryer to the farm.  AND laugh because I am currently using an old trampoline frame as a clothes line pole.  But, just know that I don’t mind.  I am happy going to bed in my fresh off the line PJs, with my bedroom window open, listening to the sounds of the crickets and enjoying the coolness of the night.

And . . . I’ll laugh right with you about that trampoline clothes line!