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Y’all wanna see my underpants?
06/29/2009 3:06 PM by John M
The RTD takes a look at the controversy surrounding hanging your clothes out to dry:
“I call my clothesline my solar dryer,” said Lisa Taranto, a green activist and director of the community Tricycle Gardens, who hangs laundry outside her East Broad Street home. […] Opponents, however, see clotheslines as flags of poverty that create eyesores and devalue property. “They’re unsightly by most people’s standards,” said Jeanne Bridgforth, a Realtor with Long & Foster in Richmond. “It gives an atmosphere of decline. You don’t sense you’re in a well-heeled neighborhood when you see people hanging their laundry out to dry.”
That’s one of the most ridiculous and stuck up things i’ve read on this site.
Whether it’s unsightly or not, a realtor does not get the concept of private property?
Clotheslines are charming.
Given the choice between heating up my laundry room (which is next to my bedroom upstairs) in the summer and letting the sun dry my clothes for free, there’s no contest in my mind. I have to hope that a lot of sensible folks looking to reduce their electricity and/or gas bills, and by extension their carbon footprint, AND get that line-dried fresh scent on their clothes, probably feel the same way.
They could at least bleach out the skidmarks
No, Ms, Bridgforth, I get the feeling that the neighborhood is down-to-earth, friendly and either trying to save money or the environment, either one of which is commendable.
“Unsightly”… Wow – it sounds like we live in the west end! Is this the same person who started the bruhaha over the pink flamingos in someone’s yard? And how about them chain link fences?
http://www.laundrylist.org/index.php/advocacy/76-the-right-to-dry-campaign
Unbelievable.
Who gives a monkey’s about being “well-heeled?”
No degree of heeling can compare to the reverie one experiences from drifting off to sleep swaddled in a set of sun-dried linens.
MMmmmmm…
“…flags of poverty…,” “…atmosphere of decline…” Is this kind of thinking cutting edge? Not!
If it means I get to see which women are wearing granny panties and who’s wearing thongs or boyshorts… I’M IN!!!!
Oh… and no fat people’s clothes…
Wow. One of the amazing Markow girls are in the news again. This remark about the seediness of clotheslines is holier than thou personified, and one only needs to look at Ms. Bridgeforth’s stock photo she runs with all her ads to get a reading on her “I smell something not nice” look and attitude with the little people who use clotheslines. Amazing. It is a shame we all can’t live on the same well-heeled planet that Jeanne graces.
gimme my clothesline (and yes, we hang out our teeny weenie thongs,) or gimme death!
ok, now i’m gonna be a real devil here, but does anyone else see the irony behind this RTD story?
Ms. Bridgeforth is the sister of Ms. Dotts, who went to City Council to put a certain kind of fence in her front yard. So I guess from their pov, it’s ok to appeal a CAR ruling (which, btw, was originally granted with exception) to install an elegant antique cast iron fence in your front yard, while it’s unwholesome for the rest of us to hang our clean laundry out in the fresh air (where someone might see it from the public right-o-way, ee gawd!)
Some how i’m just glad that clotheslines and drying laundry are acceptable in a City Old & Historic District (where Ms. Taranto and Ms. Dotts both live). I guess a clothesline is considered a temporary item, kind a like a decorative holiday flag, so thus, CAR doesn’t give fig about it.
We have just recently had an early morning break-in/stabbing and attacks during the day at the Market and you are concerned about clotheslines? Pulllllllleeeease. Reality check.
I don’t care what any of you little enviro-wackos on the hill think, clotheslines strung all over the place reeks of poverty. It makes you look third world. Might not like it, but it’s true!
So now Europe is third world? Laundry hanging to dry has been a sight throughout Europe for a long long time, in cities as well as the countryside.
Church Hill is a unique community. People of all income levels, work stations, social status and tastes live close together here. We are not trying to be Windsor Farms or Branderwill. I am happy to see clotheslines, vegetable gardens, house restoration, fanciful art objects, woodpeckers, geese and new born babies. I was shocked when a blue jay chewed on a clothes line!
It really all depends whether the clothes are being hung off the front porch or in the back yard. Some people like to wear their hairshirt on the outside.
Jeanne Bridgforth’s comments are naive, prejudice and uninformed. Using clothes lines to dry your clothes is a conservationist’s mantra! why waste heating energy, when you can get it free from the sun! i dry my clothes outside whenever the weather is nice, even though i am “rich” enough to own a washer and dryer. all over europe, using a clothes line is standard, and you don’t consider London a poverish state, do you? You all you equate a clothes line with poverty are just plain dumb.
Condeming clothes lines is the same kind of thinking that keeps us from moving to alternative fuels…wind power is unsightly, solar panels devalue property due to aesthetics, etc. Get over it. If I want to save on my electric bill and save a bunny or two, then I should have the right as long as I’m not putting my clothes line over my neighbors window.
Count your blessings.
In Oregon Hill they hang squirrel pelts out to dry.
Anyone know where I can get a retractable clothes line? I’ve been interested for years but can’t seem to find one.
Oh yeah, it’ll look real purdy in my St. Johns O&H district home.
Geez. Whatever. I bet she still throws glass and plastic in the trash.
John, once again, you have made my quote book. “Y’all wanna see my underpants?” is a classic.
#22 VCS, if you’re serious, try Pleasant’s Hardware on Broad Street near DMV. Think I saw them there the other day.
#23 Jim, I agree, great headline!
(This is my all-time favorite headline so far. It has *everything*.)
This is so pathetic. The plastic thinking of people who constantly worry about appearance is what has messed things up by and in the western world.
Clotheslines are great… and it’s not just an environmental thing… it saves money for those who may not have the resources to pay increasingly high utility bills. Americans are so incredibly insecure about themselves, they want to appear “rich” and flaunt their McMansions to their neighbors and the world. God help having a weed in your yard (which is another thing that’s destroying plants and crops because of all the lawn chemicals). People need to stop thinking like Bernie Madoff, think beyond themselves, and get a life!
PS – When I get back to the U.S., I think I’ll hang my laundry from the ironwork on my front porch… and put my pink flamingo back in the front yard.
CRD, I was darn serious! Thanks so much. I will check out Pleasants!!
I would think that the O&H Crew would relish the return of their neighbors to that old and historic practice of drying your laundry outdoors. After all, it’s much more authentic then all those mixed use, higher density projects others are suggesting.
>
This woman makes you want to go out and buy a clothline and hang out your dirty drawers even if you have a first class dryer.
Just wait until the electic bills go sky high because that recent Congressional action.. you’re going
to find even the “well-heeled” like this woman hanging airing their dirty knickers in public.
John, I dunno – you’re right, Prossy Discoveres Body is pretty good, but the current one is, too!
Melinda – where are you? Europe? It would appear that you are reading this blog from outside the U.S., and that’s so cool – chpn.net has gone international!
VCS, good luck, check the area of Pleasants near the clothespins. They have all sorts of cool stuff there!
John, you may think the HEADLINE has everything, but I would argue that the excerpt you posted has MORE. I will be making my “horrified face” for the rest of the day, thanks.
And, while I’m here, let me just go on record as being a clothesline-loving Realtor. Let’s hear it for the original solar powered dryer…
VCS,
Here’s a retractable one at Lowes:
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=305181-93131-VT20590101&lpage=none
Jeanne is a good friend of mine & has been to my place when my laundry is hanging out to dry (I refuse to buy a dryer) -so I don’t think this article is a good representation of Jeanne’s opinion people who use clotheslines. I do think there is something to be said against hanging your undies on public display. I doubt my neighbors want to see my underwear. This is just my personal opinion but I think it is an even better idea to dry your undies inside in case someone displays prurient interest in what you wear underneath your clothes.
Another option for VCS. I use a pair of hanging racks. One or two,depending on how many clothes, easy to bring in if a late afternoon shower pops up, and for Mary Anne’s concern I try to put the underwear low and inside on the rack, to keep our business to ourselves so to speak.
#21, B Wooten, Oregon Hill folks are used to snobbish Richmonders making crass comments. You will have to do more than that to get under our skin.
Btw, as usual, we were ahead of the “progressive” Church Hillians…
http://www.oregonhill.net/2008/04/18/edict-national-hanging-out-day/
I just got back from Pleasants with my new retractable clothes line! John, prepare to install this evening. 🙂
jeanne is hot
#37 My husband is going to install a line for our family too.
Thank you Lisa T for bringing this to light!
#37, YAY!!
wow y’all. I certainly didn’t expect my 15 minutes of fame to be centered around old fashioned hanging up laundry action! Glad to be bringing down property values while raising up new clothes lines! But seriously, every small step to save energy is great, while the act of hanging up laundry, one piece at a time, is a great way to slow down for a few minutes–we all lead lives which can seem hard to slow down at times.
And this morning’s Times Dispatch has a short article to the effect that electric bills will go up beginning September 1…….
“This is just my personal opinion but I think it is an even better idea to dry your undies inside in case someone displays prurient interest in what you wear underneath your clothes”
I would hate to think as a society we’ve reached that point of paranoia.
I’m sure Bridgforth’s clients will be too busy scraping the tar and gravel off of their shoes and out of their cars to notice the clotheslines anyway.
Hanging one’s laundry out to dry is cool with me–just don’t let the laundry stay out past curfew. 🙂
#43 – I was kidding. I’d be the last person to be paranoid about people peeping at my underpants on the clothesline. However, when I lived in the Fan my neighbor Bobby who was rumored to be a panty-thief. I would doubt that my drawers became part of Bobby’s collection but lots of ladies on my street complained when things on their clotheslines went missing. Poor Bobby for taking all of the blame whenever my neighbors lost a pair of undies. (FYI – 25 years before Bobby was hit by a car that may have scrambled his brain a bit)
It wasn’t Bobby. It was me.
The Times Dispatch online has picked up on this thread. Apparently they liked the headline, too.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/lifestyles/home_garden/article/H-CLOT03_20090702-192607/277703/
I got the retractable the other day. I put my clothes on it to dry in the morning sun and my I ended up drying 4 loads.
We dried our laundry on clothes lines in Kentucky when I was a kid. The house is on a mountain and in the back woods.
I don’t recall ever getting a spider or other creepy crawly in my “under things” but I always made sure I shook everything out when I folded them JUST in case.
Stretch… can you provide photographic evidence of your years of underwear thievery to back up that confession? 😉
If the neighbors are a little freaked out by a clothesline (a permanent addition to the yard) perhaps they could be gently conditioned to the idea by seeing a nice clothes drying rack being used on the patio or deck during the warm months?
Then after awhile of getting used to the concept they would be OK with the clothesline and neighborhood peace would be maintained…
Deanna,
You told me you had only one set of clothes growing up in Kentucky, and had to share the underwear on odd and even days. No need for clotheslines.