It can get quite hot even by 10am on an August morning and
so what could be nicer than to apply a cool, damp piece of cloth on your face.
Well,
in any other situation that would be most pleasant but in this instance it was because
I had just walked through the line of newly pegged out washing in the back
garden of my first work appointment of the day.
I didn’t dare take a look to
see what item or garment had provided me with an improvised flannel wipe across
my perspiring cheeks just in case it happened to be the worst case scenario of
the lady of the house’s best underwear.
I had strayed into an otherwise very
obvious washing line whilst concentrating on negotiating my way carefully across a plant pot and
furniture strewn patio. I just did not expect to see such a thing and indeed ,
now having had ample time to ponder it, I can honestly say that I cannot
remember the last time I actually saw such a throwback to domestic chores.
I should
not have been surprised as it was, after all, a Monday and that was always the
day of the week that my Mother allocated to laundry with the kitchen being a
hive of activity with twin tub, spin dryer and a cloth basket of wooden clothes
pegs in readiness for the washing to be hung out in the back garden. Go back
another generation and there would be the dolly tub and mangle. A bit further
back and everything would take place around an open hearth hot water copper or
even down on the banks of a river with a couple of flat and smooth stones.
In
fact, out of my five job appointments today three of the households had washing
out to dry.
By a rough statistical rule of thumb that suggests that 60% of the
British public keep the first day of the week reserved for the clothes wash.
This is of course not true. Who, in a modern family of today, would have the
time to dedicate to washing particularly as most have to have two breadwinners
to be able to meet financial commitments and possibly have something left over
for treats and perhaps towards a holiday.
There have been great advances in the
technology of home laundry equipment with
complex electronics in washing machines or combined washer dryers and the
development of condensing tumble dryers so that it is simply not necessary to
take clothes outside other than in the wearing of them.
Set against the tech is
however its costs.
Notwithstanding the actual prices the risk, a very real one, is of fuel poverty for many
households. This would be an incentive to use free sun and wind energy to save
money but as we know, in the UK, the number of reliably dry days is limited.
The weather can change very rapidly and a perfectly dry line of beautifully
washed clothes can be reduced to a soggy, particulant spotted pulp in a matter
of minutes.
If not to be done in the home environment due to lack of space,
resources or appliances then there always used to be the local Launderette.
These are no longer as common a sight as they used to be in every street or on
every street corner although I expect that there is still as much demand for
them as there ever used to be. It is just that a shop floor fringed by
commercial laundry equipment will not give such a good return to the owner or landlord
as, for example, a coffee shop or one selling vaping supplies.
There remains a
certain class based snobbery about hanging out your washing for all to see.
Just take a modern
housing estate. There is usually a Restrictive Covenant in the Deeds for new
build property prohibiting a conventional washing line although allowing a
fancy rotary clothes dryer instead. There is just no comparison in practicality
or versatility.
Rather than risk upsetting the Residents Association many new
home owners will drape their freshly washed laundry over radiators with the heating
on full for a couple of hours. How unhealthy is that for the occupants and their bank balances?
Climate
change could account for my observed upsurge in outdoor drying.
Average
temperatures are rising and this increase in warm air brings with it higher
winds, both being the key components for a good wash day.
Of course, the
downside of a changing climate is the risk of severe storms, torrential
rainfall leading to flash flooding, a rise in sea level and a great deal of
uncertainty about the sustainability of where many of us choose to live.
I
would like to think that there will always be a wash day regardless of what
direction the world takes in the future.
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