Laundry day at the university-hanging out the wash
Ever wonder how much laundry a family of four can go through in a year? To dramatize how many clothes and linens the average family of four must wash and dry, Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. used the University of Detroit Stadium, three miles of clothesline and 7,000 articles of clothing provided by Goodwill Industries. According to the September 9,1960 Free Press article: “…the hard work was done by 10 unhappy husbands. They toiled for nine hours, using 14,000 clothespins, three miles of clothesline and 100 yards of football field to hang out the clothes.”
The idea was conceived by a UD alumnus, Jerry Seitz, superintendent of sales training and promotion for Michigan Consolidated. He wanted to demonstrate how much labor the average housewife saves by buying a gas clothes dryer. The 7,000 articles, weighing 4,000 pounds represent the amount of washing done annually for a family of four.
I don’t know-in the interest of conserving energy, maybe we should think about going back using the sun in its natural form to dry our clothes.
