"Hanging Out" to dry

I have lots of memories...but there's one that I enjoy recalling.   When we were just married we moved down to North Carolina..(husband was in the Air Force).   Our mobile home wasn't  anything fancy just a plain place to call home.  During the day, while he was at work, I was at home trying to figure out how to use a "broken" washing machine..after much frustration of pulling & pushing buttons to see if it would rinse, wash or spin... I decided it would have to run on the manual setting. Me.  I would have to decide after hearing the water run into the tub, if it was in the start mode or finish mode and every cycle in between.   I made check marks as I turned the dial, to see where it would "click"..  now remember a click didn't mean it was the right setting...sometimes the click meant... agitation...(the machine) not me.  Haww!    One time after setting & forgetting about the dumb machine, I sat down to look at a magazine hoping that it would follow through,  water trickles in, agitation, ...you get the idea.    I was having a relaxing moment when I got up from my black, fake leather couch, to see how the machine was working...it certainly was making all the right sounds.   As I got closer in.... I opened the lid to find that all the water had drained out...and as I reached in to check the feel of the clothing...it was all DRY.   What the heck?!!!....  I remember, uttering some not so nice things...I stomped around....now I was agitated!!    I spent a good part of the early morning & afternoon trying to see what would work.  Finally, the machine and I came to an understanding.  I simply gathered up the heavy wet clothing...and thunked it down into the small metal kitchen sink.   I was through with that dumb thing.   So, well, you can imagine how each piece of clothing had to be washed...and it wasn't easy.    You're probably thinking-duh-why not use the bath tub, eh?  Well that's another story...*rolling my eyes*.  Eventually- each piece of clothing got washed...put clothing into the basket..tote it back to toss into the washer tub and gee whiz the washer actually spun out the water.  Yea!  By now, it was well into the early afternoon ...and I was bushed.   Opening the craggy door to let in the fresh sunshine, I stepped out into the lovely Carolina day.  Everything smelled so good, including my freshly hand-washed clothes.   
As I reached up to clip the clothes to the line...I had noticed I wasn't alone.  A young woman on the other side of the chicken wire fence, had glanced up from her basket of clothes...we exchanged a friendly greeting...and went about our task.    After our first greeting, we developed a clothes-line friendship.   Where we gathered together to "hang out" while our clothing dried!