I Wonder If He Will Notice

You may laugh if you were peering out my sunroom window this morning. Well, I wouldn't be offended because I am laughing, too.

When we returned to my brother's home in Wisconsin last week, his wife graciously suggested I do some of our laundry so that I wouldn't have to do that when I got home. When I am at home I hang all my pants and shirts once they have the wrinkles out of them in the the few minutes they tumble in the dryer. I find the clothes have more body that way and THEY DO NOT SHRINK. Sue's laundry area is in her back entry way and there wasn't any place to hang my clothes. I had seen she had a line up in her yard so I hung them there. When I got them off the line, I was reminded of what clothes used to smell like. I remember hearing a young child many years ago call that aroma, God's perfume.

Now I haven't had a clothes line in my yard for probably thirty years. What 21st century woman on the go would have a clothes line? When I suggested to my husband that I may want to put up a clothes line, he scoffed at me. "They're ugly" was his reply. I told him that I had scanned the yard for a good place and thought I had found one. He wasn't interested. I wasn't deterred. I found the line at the Ace Hardware and an eye screw to put into the electric pole I was going to use as one of my anchors. Ken did humor me enough to turn the screw into the pole, but that was it for one day. On another day, when I dared bring it up again, I asked if he would help me put up the line. He warned me that the line would be too short to be any good. I told him I was aware the line would be short but that there just wasn't a better place in the yard to put it without spending mega bucks on some kind of post, concrete, etc. So he reluctantly put up the line. One can tell reluctance when one knows another well even though words are not exchanged.

When Ken's mother broke up housekeeping several years ago, we for some strange reason saved her half bushel of clothes pins. They have been in the garage on a shelf for all of the winters and summers since. Today, I washed the sheets from our bed and then went digging in the garage. I found the basket quite easily. I chuckled that something that has been of no use for so long was so acccessible. I thought perhaps I would need to soak those pins in Clorox before I could use them. I was pleased to see they were as clean as when Mom used them. Mom was no slouch when it came to clean. Everything was orderly and Dutch clean including her clothes pins. I took our sheets out to our "too short" clothes line and double pinned them on the line.

When I walked into the house, I laughed at myself. There was a time in my life that hanging my clothes outside was beneath me. I remembered from childhood the Monday morning races in the neighborhood to see who was the fastest and hardest worker. Because for sure, the one that hung her clothes out earliest won that title. There was also the challenge to have the "whitest" whites on your line. I was a modern girl with a clothes dryer and had no need for such out moded things as a clothes line and clothes pins and no desire at all for clothes washing contests.

To be honest, I love the smell of clothes dried in the great out of doors. It truly was God's perfume emanating from those shirts I wore after they had dried outside at Sue's and Jim's house. I can just dream of the aroma we will enjoy as we crawl into that clean bed tonight. I wonder if he'll notice.