Clothesline weather

I wrote this story in 2006 after I hung up a clothesline in my yard.  I submitted it to a site called "Heartwarmers" and they posted it and said it was award winning story. : )   I was hanging my sheets out on the line today, it was so nice and warm and the sheets smell so good after they hang out side, and got to thinking about my story and decided to post it here.  Enjoy.

* An Award Winning Heartwarmer *

CLOTHESLINE MEMORIES 
by Dawn Thompson 

It's July, mid-summer and it's HOT.
      I walk into my garage to do laundry and am bowled over by how 
suffocating the air is in there!  I feel guilty running the dryer in 
such heat.  I think of the  commercials on TV asking me to "give your 
appliances the afternoon off".
      Growing up, we never had a dryer in the house.  My great 
grandmother lived with us, and she wouldn't have one.  She thought 
dryers were for lazy people and a waste of money, and anyway, she 
liked how the laundry smelled so fresh hanging out on the line. 
Besides, it really wasn't necessary to have a dryer in  Southern 
California -- there were always enough sunny days even in the winter 
to get the laundry done.
      Now with 3 boys in my house I am washing at least one load of 
beach towels, swimsuits and pool towels everyday.  So, I decided to 
put up a clothesline in my backyard for the first time ever.
      I went down to the local Kmart and looked for clothesline and 
clothespins.  I wasn't too sure they still made them, but I thought 
if they did they would surely have them at Kmart.  I was pleased to 
find they did.
      I don't have the poles for the line in my yard like I did in my 
childhood home,  so I set my clothesline up in the corner of the yard 
using the 45 degree angle of the fence to hang my line.  When I was 
finished, I stepped back to admire my work and I was pleased with 
myself for thinking of it, conserving energy, and doing my part.
      What I wasn't prepared for were the feelings and the memories 
that came flooding back to me as I hung up that first load of laundry.
      Being out in the yard, smelling freshly washed towels, and with 
the sun on my back, I was suddenly in my yard I grew up in -- helping 
my grandmother hang out the clothes.
     She was always barefoot, dressed in a Hawaiian print mumu with an 
apron tied around her waist, safety pins on her dress front and a 
rubberband or two around her wrist (just in case someone needed one.) 
She would have her wicker basket full of clothes at her feet and a 
few wet items thrown over her shoulder as she hung clothes.  Usually 
she would be singing a song or talking to the cats in the yard.  Or 
sometimes she'd tell me a story about her childhood or her mother.
      If she had a bad day or something was bothering her, I remember 
she would say, "I sure wish I could sit on my mama's lap for a 
minute."
      All of that came rushing back to me crystal clear, like it 
happened yesterday.  I could see her, feel her standing there with me.
      It has been at least 25 years since I have been in that yard 
with my grandma.  I remember my grandmother often, think of her and 
miss her, but that first day in my backyard hanging clothes I felt 
like I had visited with her.
      I've never had that feeling going to her graveside or even 
looking at pictures.  Hanging clothes used to feel like a chore.  But 
now, I look forward to it.
      I enjoy going out in the yard to hang my laundry and use the 
time to just take a moment out of my busy day and think about things, 
or nothing at all -- and, have a little visit with my grandma.

-- Dawn Thompson