These are just like the towels my grandparents used when I was a kid ( I lived with them) in the 1950’s. My Grandma had an open washing machine with a roller on top.. (the roller wrung the water out) ; drying was done on a clothes line that connected to other buildings across the yard with pulleys (theres lots of pictures of this setup online)..My grandma loved that her towels dried so fast nobody had time to steal them off the clothesline…….These towels are great, buy them and thank god we have modern washing machines and dryers …. BTW, I did receive 2 that had a funny smell but it washed right out.