TO HANG CLOTHES TO DRY OR NOT is the QUESTION

Where’s AL Gore when I need him –

LET THE POOR LADY DRY HER CLOTHES ON THE CLOTHES LINE

So in Bend Oregon, aka a hip place to live attracting lots of environmentalists, a woman (Susan Taylor) decides to dry her clothes the old fashioned way – on a clothes line in her yard,. Bend Oregon is known for its 300 days of sunshine, so this makes sense. Not to the homeowners association of the Bend upscale neighborhood where this woman lives. They complained about the airing of Susan’s clean laundry. No more, they threathened legal action.
I say, “Get a life.”
My mom hung her laundry to dry out in our yard all year long, well, in the winter she sometimes hung laundry in the basement, but for the most part, she hung our laundry in our backyard, freeze or shine. It did make you plan days in advance, especially in the winter, when you wanted to wear a certain pair of jeans that took like four days to dry. I remember feeling lots of frozen jeans in my backyard. “When will they be dry, Mama?” I’d ask. “In three days, Cornelia,” she’d says.
I always tell people that my mom was waaaay ahead of her time. She recycled before it was popular, she hung her clothes to dry when no one (except her kids, athletic kids) noticed.
In environmentally-friendly Oregon, cutting-edge Oregon, give the poor lady Susan Taylor a break. In fact, declare her a hero for saving the environment by drying her clothes (clothes dryers burn up 6 percent of the electricity used by U.S. households. Okay, I also say, change the neighborhood association rules.
Perhaps Al Gore could come to the rescue? No, he’s probably busy driving his SUV to another screening of his movie on how to save the planet

Cornelia Seigneur aka Nellie aka WriterMom
www.writermom.net

www.myspace.com/corneliaseigneur

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