MAKING IT IN MAINE Drying racks are loaded with practicality

Picture your grandmother’s kitchen.

Her freshly washed apron, grandfather’s socks – darned one too many times – fuzzy wool mittens, hats and other items hang on a pine rack next to the hot wood stove. The worn garments dry fast and are swiftly succeeded by a steady succession of wash rags, potholders, and other laundry throughout the day. Hang-drying the wet clothes adds moisture to the dry air intensified by the hot cast-iron Home Comfort range.

The clothes drying rack, a fixture in most American homes until the advent of the electric dryer, is back in favor and being put to use by pennywise and energy-conscious Mainers.

Robbins Lumber Inc. in Searsmont, a 121-year-old family business spanning six generations, produces and sells about 9,000 of the old-fashioned drying racks annually. The company also makes old-time ice cream buckets and equestrian gear as niche products and a means of utilizing low-grade boards.

The drying racks, which are portable and can be folded away, come in several sizes and range in price from $23 to $75.

“The big reason people are still buying the racks is that there are certain items that you just don’t put through the electric dryer. Another is that in the winter the rack can act as a humidifier if you place wet clothes on the top and allow them to dry until the next day,” John Alexander, operations manager of the cut-up shop at the Robbins Lumber, explained.

Drills whine inside the cut-up shop where the pine racks are assembled and stained. The finished pieces are sold to large retailers, hardware stores and mom-and-pop convenience stores. Only 16-17 percent of the racks stay in the Pine Tree State. Out of the Woods store in Belfast, Hussey’s General Store in Windsor and Machias Hardware Co. are among the Maine stores that stock them.

Dave Seward, proprietor of Andersen Marine & Hardware in Gouldsboro, occasionally carries the racks.

“Most of the customers bought them for camps because nowadays they probably have a wood stove [but not a dryer],” he said. “At camps kids come in and out and can throw towels and swim trunks on the racks and then in the wintertime they can put their hats and gloves on it near the wood stove.”

The racks, Seward added, also spark Mainers’ memories of the old ways.

“They sit back and reminisce,” he said. “They’ll always reflect on a grandmother or grandparent that the drying rack will remind them of and the conversation will go on and on.”

– Toni-Lynn Robbins