Ha, ha, I misread your post, Skyhaven, to say "There are no clothes where I live." Gave me quite a start.
In Ireland in the old days (notsolongago), people swore by drying clothes on bushes. My Auntie Mary said it bleached the linens. I don't know about bleaching clothes, but they smelled divine. Phyllis, you're so right, the way sheets snapped in the wind was just the sweetest thing.
Doesn't anybody remember how much work there was on laundry day? I would be worn out from washing and drying diapers and baby clothes on the line all day. Damp clothes, too many rainy days in a row, so the kitchen was strung with lines everywhere? It made the whole house a mess, and the men were often impatient and hateful because their lives were disturbed. Worse, babies with sore bottoms and new teeth. Lots of babies in diapers that had to be washed.
Hmmm, I'll happily put the Downy Liquid into the washer dispenser to be delivered during the rinse cycle automatically, and after, I'll push the maximum extract button on the washer to wring out all the water possible, after which I'll pop them in the drier, saving my hankies to be brought out into the sunshine and dried on a little bush. Then, after having a cuppa in the warm sun, I'll go back inside, and while unloading the drier, I'll bury my nose in the warm, fragrant clothing, and say a little prayer of thanks...and offer a prayer for all the wonderful women who went before me, hands sore and chapped in service to their family laundry.
I once had a co-worker who used to come into our oppressive, smelly editorial offices complaining about the "stink of dryer sheets" in his neighborhood from the other houses' dryer exhaust. It struck me as incredily "[censored]" of him on one hand and ludicrous on the other, especially considering his fondness for little "Between the Acts" cigars (which he smoked all day at the next desk) and our working conditons. There was no air, it was too hot, the dust motes could knock you out, and a huge printing press ran constantly on the other side of a paper-thin wall.
Just saying. Dry, fragrant clothes are wonderful!