URBAN WORCESTER 5

Worcester, Massachusetts 30 April 2009

Not sure if in the daily routine of the average Worcesterite there is still a specific day set aside as wash day. I seem to remember that my mother always washed clothes on Wednesdays, as did most of our neighbors, but at the time we lived in East Texas, not in the northeast by a long shot. But as with many of the "3-deckers" around here, there is a wash line stretching from the back stairs porch, or mounted to each porch would be an umbrella clothes dryer pole like on the third floor of this house. As close as these "3-deckers" were built together, it must have been an interesting sight to see everyone's clothes hanging out to dry on the same day. Of course, you don't see that much anymore what with just about everyone owning a clothes dryer. I remember a recent encounter where I slept on air dried sheets that were infused with a bit pollen. It took me several days to figure out why my alergies were acting up. I remember that trying to air dry clothes in the winter was an ify proposition, and I also remember the whole family being scrambled to the backyard to pull drying clothes from the lines as it was beginning to rain. You may think that the above image got me to thinking about all of this, but you'd be wrong -- I've just spent some of my morning washing and folding clothes.