Summer Rituals

"In 1909, clotheslines were as much a part of the defining look of the city as the front stoop. The sails of linens and laundry stretching across historical photographs impart a strange nautical aspect to the buildings, as if they rested not on the street but on the sea."

Then

"As the temperature goes up, so does the quantity and the variety of items fluttering in the air across New York, where clotheslines hung outside apartment buildings, a hallmark of tenement life a century ago, have stubbornly defied the elements, the ages, the landlord and the fluff ‘n’ fold.

This year, it seems, immigration, environmentalism and the penny-pinching of recession have combined to make the lines a more familiar sight in both lower-income and gentrifying neighborhoods, as well as in suburbs, where sheets and towels blowing in a breeze are a sign that summer has arrived."

Read the complete article in The New York Times.

Now