According to a story in a recent Christian Science Monitor edition, it's call a "Right to Dry" movement to override clothesline bans in some neighborhoods and states.

Although we have a clothesline, I rarely use it, even though I'm sure it would save electricity. I prefer to save my energy. What does that make me?

When it comes to laundry, I have done my share over the years, including hanging clothes on the line to dry. When I received an e-mail about "The Clothes Line" I wanted to share it. Whether you have hung your clothes on the line or not, it's fun to read about it.

The clothes line

The clothes line ... a dead giveaway. Do the kids today even know what a clothes line is? I am sure a lot of you are too young to remember the clothes line, but for all of us who are older, this will bring back the memories ... at least it did for me.

The basic rules

1. You had to wash the clothes line before hanging any clothes. Walk the length of each line with a damp cloth around the line.

2. You had to hang the clothes in a certain order and always hang whites with whites and hang them first.

3. You never hung a shirt by the shoulders, always by the tail. What would the neighbors think?

4. Wash day on a Monday ... never hang clothes on the weekend or Sunday for heaven's sake!

5. Hang the sheets and towels on the outside lines so you could hide your 'unmentionables' in the middle.

6. It didn't matter if it was sub zero weather ... clothes would 'freeze dry.'

7. Always gather the clothes pins when taking down dry clothes. Pins left on the line was 'tacky.'

8. If you were efficient, you would line the clothes up so that each item did not need two clothes pins, but shared one of the clothes pins with the next washed item.

9. Clothes off of the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket and ready to be ironed.

10. IRONED? Well, that's a whole other subject.

A poem

A clothes line was a news forecast

To neighbors passing by.

There were no secrets you could keep

When clothes were hung to dry.

It also was a friendly link

For neighbors always knew

If company had stopped on by

To spend a night or two.

For then you'd see the 'fancy sheets'

And towels upon the line;

You'd see the 'company table cloths'

With intricate design.

The line announced a baby's birth

To folks who lived inside

As brand new infant clothes were hung

So carefully with pride.

The ages of the children could

So readily be known

By watching how the sizes changed

You'd know how much they'd grown.

It also told when illness struck,

As extra sheets were hung;

Then nightclothes, and a bathrobe, too,

Haphazardly were strung.

It said, 'Gone on vacation now'

When lines hung limp and bare.

It told, 'We're back!' when full lines sagged

With not an inch to spare.

New folks in town were scorned upon

If wash was dingy gray,

As neighbors carefully raised their brows,

And looked the other way.

But clotheslines now are of the past

For dryers make work less.

Now what goes on inside a home

Is anybody's guess.

I really miss that way of life.

It was a friendly sign

When neighbors knew each other best

By what hung on the line!

Me again: When my sister-in-law came to visit and we did our laundry together it was embarrassing that her baby's diapers, hanging on the line, where always whiter than mine, even though I bleached them. Years later, I realized that part of the reason was that where she lived they had soft water while our water was hard.

We had fun doing the laundry together, however, including hanging clothes on the line.

When the weather was rainy like we have had this spring, laundry was hung on a folding clothes dryer make of wooden dowels.

Just for fun, I decided to check online to see if there was any information about indoor clothes dryers, not expecting much. There is more information than I wanted, almost 70,000 stories and ads, including how to make our own.

Billy Wetterer of Wood River writes a weekly column for The Independent. Her online address is billybillw@aol.com.