Sheets to the wind

"Revisiting Atticus' Laundry'' (oil on canvas), by ASHLEY BULLARD, at the Patricia Ladd Carega Gallery, Center Sandwich, N.H.

When I was a kid we had an area for hanging laundry outdoors that was enclosed by high wooden fences, since public display of laundry was considered in bad taste. Driers weren't very efficient then, so the usual  practice was to hang laundry outdoors on sunny days. This was a long time ago, when refrigerators were still often called ice boxes.

But now,  letting laundry dry in the wind evokes praise for  the energy-consciousness it suggests.

-- Robert Whitcomb