Clotheslines

I never see clotheslines in New York City. Maybe some buildings or houses have them tucked away in the back, away from the street. But I vividly remember the clothesline in our backyard when I was growing up in North Carolina. Everyone in our neighborhood had one. We didn’t get a dryer until I was at least in junior high. One of the chores my sister and I shared was taking the clothes off the line when we got home from school. We had a good, sturdy clothesline — ropes stretched between two steel poles, with four lines in total. It sat at the edge of our yard, just above where the vegetable garden began. I was thrilled when we finally got a dryer, but today, I find myself missing that old clothesline.