I Wish My Grandmother Could Have Seen This - It Would Have Made Her So Happy!

At my grandmother's surprise 90th birthday party with her "girls". (Three daughters and she also raised my aunt. My Grandmother is in the blue, my Mom is on the far right.)

Paul and I moved to Maryland in 1983. Well, I was born here, but grew up mostly in Pennsylvania, where most of my relatives live too.

Everytime my mom and grandmother came to visit us here in MD from PA, my grandmother would lament on how crazy it is that we were never allowed to have clotheslines in any of the homes and neighborhoods that we lived in. (We have lived in 5 homes since moving to MD.)

"How can you have fresh smelling sheets?" "The sun and fresh air makes your laundry smell good and stay bright." These were some of her reasonings.

Keep in mind, probably from the time she was a girl, till when she passed away around 10 years ago at the age of 98, even in the dead of winter, she hung sheets and other laundry out to dry. She even sewed these really cute little bags that hung on hangers to keep the clothespins clean and handy on the line.

She would shake her head and say that our neighborhoods are certainly crazy.

Today I was attending a Continueing Education course at Village Settlements in Kentlands (Gaithersburg) for the two year renewal of my Realtors License, and this course was Maryland Legislative Updates.

I was surprised to learn in class that on May 4, 2010, Governor O'Malley signed into law Maryland SB 224, the so-called "Right-to-Dry" legislation, which requires condominium associations, homeowner associations, and cooperatives to allow homeowners to install clotheslines on their property. The new law, effective on October 1, 2010, adds section 14-130 to the Real Property Code, "Installation and Use of Clotheslines on Residential Property."

This would have made my Grandmother so happy! To be fair, my Mom also hung her clothes out back on the line, but she never bugged me about not having a clothesline at my home.

To read more about the law, click on this link. I believe historical properties are exempt from this ruling.

http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=d9c4d018-b9aa-4d5f-a90b-2a4add4d02db

The actual law follows: http://law.justia.com/maryland/codes/2010/real-property/title-14/subtitle-1/14-130/

I guess Maryland is "Going Green"!