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Tom Ross

Tom Ross' column appears Tuesdays and Sundays in Steamboat Today. Contact him at 970-871-4205 or tross@SteamboatToday.com.

Steamboat Springs — The sun finally made an appearance in the skies above the Yampa Valley on Friday, reminding Steamboaters that under Colorado law, they have the inalienable right to dry.

No, I'm not talking about that damp space between your toes. I'm talking about your laundry. Ever since House Bill 1270 went into effect Aug. 6, 2008, Coloradans have had the right to throw up a clothesline and conserve energy by hanging their tighty whities in the breeze. And as long as that clothesline is retractable and affixed to one's own property, there's nobody, including the president of your homeowners association, who can make you take it down.

If you suspect I'm kidding about this, think again.

It's widely known that clothes dryers account for 15 percent of a household's energy bill. If you make any pretense of being green, the first thing you'll do is begin to dry a portion of your laundry in God's fresh air. Hey, it was good enough for your grandparents, wasn't it?

I haven't put my clothesline up yet, but I raised the possibility over cheese and crackers at my HOA meeting just this week. In the meantime, I'm pre-drying my jeans and sweatshirts out on the deck.

My meager efforts are a peck of dryer lint when compared to those of Steamboat resident Lyman Orton, who has dual citizenship in the commonwealth of Vermont.

There is a photograph of Orton standing in front of the Statehouse in Montpelier, Vt., published on the cover of the Times Argus newspaper June 8. Standing at a lectern surrounded by clotheslines, Orton spoke out in favor of a "right to dry" provision in the state's new energy bill. He was supporting the 20-year effort made by Sen. Richard McCormack, D-Windsor, to make it easy for Vermonters to dry their union suits in the breeze. The bill finally passed this spring.

The sight of colorful laundry air-drying from a line has become increasingly rare within the city limits of Steamboat, where everyone talks green. Clotheslines are more common in the rural areas.

John Randolph, who lives off the grid in North Routt with his wife Donna, can't understand why everyone doesn't make use of a clothesline.

"The sun is shining outside, and you're running a dryer? What the hell?" Randolph asked.

His family - he participates in the laundry chores - hangs damp clothes in the laundry room in winter, where they dry with the assistance of a wood stove. He acknowledges that some garments don't dry to the same degree of softness they would in a mechanical dryer, but he adds that's something one quickly gets accustomed to.

When you think of the rate of return on an investment in solar panels or wind generators - Colorado law protects your right to install both - a $20 to $40 investment in a clothesline looks pretty good.

Orton believes that the right to dry is about a great deal more than just energy conservation. He is passionate in his belief that clotheslines are an institution supporting a way of life in Vermont. It's a lifestyle he sums up with the word "inclusionary." In small-town Vermont, thriftiness is a virtue, not a social stigma, and neighbors are indifferent to the relative wealth of one another.

When you think about it, there was a time not too long ago when every household relied exclusively on clotheslines. Then, hard working people with discretionary income acquired the first dryers. And almost overnight, the lowly clothesline became a reverse status symbol - if you still had one in your yard, perhaps it was because you couldn't afford a dryer.

Could it be that the humble clothesline is the next status symbol in the green revolution?

I dream of a day when my neighbors and I gather beneath our green laundry in our commons area and share the news of the day over organic microbrews. Based on the laughter my proposal inspired at our HOA meeting, that day may be some distance in the future.

The hardware store in Steamboat continues to sell several styles of clotheslines, and plastic and wooden clothespins. The Vermont Country Store also offers everything you need at its Web page. There, you also will find an Orton family editorial on the subject.

Even better, you can find a video of Lyman's statehouse address at www.righttodry.blip.tv/#1735675.