I have noticed a counter-intuitively inverse relationship between air quality and the distribution of clotheslines. Places that don't care, or fail, to regulate their air quality tend to be filled with people who do not afford dryers. My clothes here tend to take on a faint industrial mystery odor while drying on the line. They also accumulate a thin film of dirt.
This principle seems to hold true even within cities. I remember the in wealthy neighborhoods of Cabo, there were parks and gardens filling the air with jasmine and honeysuckle and all kinds of sweet smells I couldn't name. The laundromats in those neighborhoods used dryers with flower scented dryer sheets. The poorest neighborhoods were downwind of an open air sewage treatment facility. Their laundromats used clotheslines. Their clothes never smelled nice.
My sample pool, however, is limited to a small handful of locations. Feel free to contribute your own observations on the issue in the comments section below.
Karaganda, Kazakhstan abides by this rule.
ReplyDeleteThe last clothes line I remember seeing was in my granddad's back yard in Wichita, Kansas, in about 1963. Come to think of it, the air HAS gotten cleaner there, since then.
ReplyDeleteThe death of industry does wonders for air quality. On a side note, I recently refurbished some of his old hand tools and they out preform most every other tool I have.
Delete