On a sunny warm walk through the streets of Jouarres, a small town on the Canal du Midi, we passed many well kept yards. The return was down an alley behind several homes where we spotted white towels drying on a clothes line. Several colored plastic clothespins had been used to fasten the towels.

A second floor apartment in the Hayes Valley area of San Francisco had a back deck partly fenced with lattice. Many lovely potted plants were arranged on the deck. Strung across the lattice was an old cotton rope with several clothes pins attached. All were new plastic except for two which were wooden.

During the 1970s the fashion was just turning away from drying clothes in the backyard and toward drying clothes in an dryer. As homage to the vanishing clothes line, the shot of a single red clothespin was taken. The use of indoor film in daylight caused the surroundings to take on a bluish tint. Wind on that day moved everything but the red clothespin.