Characters on a Clothesline

In some ways, I am very much like my mother. I've learned a lot about being a good steward from her. In preschool I won second place in a recycling contest, and that was way before communities were passing out recycling bins to every household.  She helped teach me to turn off lights that weren't being used, to put on a sweater when I was cold instead of messing with the thermostat, and to draw all over the backs of papers as well instead of throwing it out and getting a new one. 

I also inherited her love of line-dried clothes.

It drives my husband bananas.

But they smell SO good, and sunshine and wind are free, so why not!?

Fortunately, our Home Owners Association hasn't noticed or found anything in our bylaws saying that I can't. They have plenty to say on other issues, but that's another rant entirely.

Unfortunately, our young trees are too far apart to support practical, high clotheslines. I have lines strung from the top rails of our chest-high fence in the corner of our yard, and I confess, one is tied to the outside hardware of our fireplace. It looks pretty hillbilly, but I get to have wonderful smelling clothes and the neighbors get to snicker at our skivvies.

Which is exactly why my husband is mortified.

I do actually try to be discreet and hide them between rows of much longer and better covering clothes. But I had to laugh today as I hung Angry Birds underwear belonging to the boys. They were right next to skivvies displaying the LEGO movie characters, and Thomas the Train, and Cars, and Buzz Lightyear.

I thought about birds sitting on wires and how appropriate it is to have Angry Birds on my clotheslines. My clothesline is too low to the ground. I'd be angry, too. Especially when the Resident Newfie strolls through and gets hairs on everything. I hike them up as high as I can, but you can only do so much without a 6 foot fence.

So guess what my sweet husband found at an auction? One of those holder-upper-forked-clothesline-raising-things. I'm sure they have an official name, like "prop", but that's not nearly as fun to type. I was ecstatic as I'd told him excitedly about how my Grammy used several of those on HER wonderfully high clothesline.

It's a standard size, so he said it's going to need to be shortened a bit for my short clothesline, but I'm delighted nevertheless. And that's another fun word that we don't use enough. Nevertheless. I'm going to try to work that into more conversations...

Anyway, I'd told my hubby that the neighbors may laugh at our unmentionables if they must, and that's okay because everyone has unmentionables. I tried to reassure him that they'd be worried if I hung out everything BUT unmentionables. "Heavens, don't they wear them over there? Steer clear of THAT house. We're not going to associate with their kind."

He wasn't buying it. But he loves me enough to buy a clothesline-raiser-upper-thingie for my Angry Birds and all.

So. What goes on YOUR clothesline?

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By the way, there's a new post up on the Telling It Like It Is blog. It's watermelony.