Life is like a load of laundry...
A pretty common sight in France, and most of continental Europe for that matter, found in the biggest of cities and the smallest of villages, is the site of laundry that's been hung out to dry. You can't go far in my village without seeing someone's scivies blowing in the breeze, and for most of my village's population, the notion of owning a tumble dryer simply hasn't occurred to them.
So it amused me to read an article in the New York Times that talked about how bans exist in parts of the States against hanging out the laundry, for the simple reason that many find it akin to having an old jalopy parked on their neighbor's driveway- an eyesore and bad for the neighborhood's property prices.
I'd like to think that hanging the laundry out to dry is an example of a collective French environmental consciousness, but I somehow I think this simple act pre-dates any Al Gore rhetoric...
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4 comments:
i have even signed leases that ban hanging laundry outside (or in windows of) rental units! i think it's a victorian thing. too bad. laundry hung out smells so good.
We have relatives in MD who own a property where laundry can only be hung out to dry between 9 am and noon on weekdays! I was appalled when I heard that! So one of the things I was conscious of as we house-shopped 5 years ago was that there must not be any restrictions on hanging laundry out. And the irony is that I am still waiting for my Dear Husband to install the washing line we brought with us from the old house :-(
Year ago my wife and I moved into an older neighborhood in North Oakland (now called Rockridge). This particular area was an enclave of Italian families who had moved to this spot directly from Italy decades before. They are all very nice to us but a bit stand-offish which we attributed to a language barrier 9they all mostly spoke Italian).
The old house we were living in was not wired for an electric dryer so, seeing the old washing line post pulleys, I visited the local hardware store for a new line and restrung it.
The next week, my wife was hanging out our wash and heard someone apparently calling to get her attention. it was one of the local Italian matrons leaning out her back window (all the homes were raised so you could look down through each yard in the center of the block). She waived at my wife as she hung out her own laundry.
After that, each of the other local ladies did the same to my wife and suddenly they were far more friendly to us!
We never really understood why the change until we visited Italy years later, and saw all the laundry hanging everywhere!!
So people who hang their washing out are in the minority in the US, now? It seems so crazy, but I guess inevitable...
Thanks Mlle Paradis, Almost American and Hortulus for your comments!
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