The Answer, My Friend

It's that time of year when the wind kicks up and the land begins its transition from frozen to ready for new growth.  We had a "blowin' in the wind" type of day recently when I could hear it moaning around our home, tree branches dancing and the wind chime outside of our kitchen window responding to the gusts.  The sun shone brightly and everything seemed alive and energetic.  It's on days like that one when I recall Mom anticipating that first spring day when she could hang freshly washed clothing and sheets out on the clothesline to dry. There was nothing like having a bed made with fresh linens that had been dried outside on the line.  Our towels and clothes might have been a tad stiff from the experience but they always smelled so good that we didn't care.  Mom would begin by wiping a damp rag along the clothesline to remove any dirt.  Then, she'd hoist the wicker basket of damp clothes outside, along with a heavy vinyl bag of clothespins. As a little girl, my job was to hand Mom the wooden clothespins as she clamped the clothes onto the line.  Sometimes, Mom and I would paint little faces on the ball-like heads of those clothespins and make clothes to put on their straight, wooden little bodies.  The types of clothespins with the spring clips were handy but not nearly as interesting to my little-girl imagination. Our backyard neighbor, an active woman in her 90s, still hangs her clothes and linens out on the line, and I welcome the sight.  While we know that we'll still have some late-winter storms of one kind or another, our recent bright and breezy day was truly a breath of fresh air, heralding the warm, delightful days of spring ahead.