History of Dryer Sheets

In the late 1970s manufacturers found a way to deliver fabric softening benefits in a dryer sheet format. Believe it or not, in today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse, we actually see Elly using what would have been a brand-new technology for 1979. This is amazing for a women who, in the later strips, still washed dishes by hand, even though she had a dishwasther.

It is interesting she is using Whiffo Spring instead of Whiffex 3. I guess she was unsatisfied with the Whiffex line of products after that incident with Farley. I guess we can also assume that these were the years before Elly turned into an environmentalist, except that in the linked strip we don’t see Elly putting her laundry on the line.

Not only that, but Anne Nichols takes us back to a young, more innocent, more clean-smelling time; when people living in the suburbs of Toronto believed that the suburban Toronto air had a clean and sweet scent.

I am very fond of putting laundry out to dry on lines in areas where that works. In Tucson, if you try that, you are likely to have dirt blown up on your laundry as very few people have grass in their yard. I have very fond memories of when my grandmother, who lived in Colonial Beach, Virginia, used to put her laundry out; and all the laundry had a certain salt water and beach smell to it (the nice smell, not the dead fish smell). They were great-smelling clothes, even if they were hard as bricks coming in off the line.

In case you were wondering where little Lizzie is during Elly’s visit with Anne, the answer is in Panel 4 where, if you look carefully, you can Lizzie is buried underneath the pile of dirty clothing. She has cleverly disguised herself as a laundry basket.