I have oddly fond childhood memories of washing the clothes at the local laundromat. Usually on a Saturday, Ma would load me up with quarters and dollars bills, and I’d pull a wagon with baskets of clothes 4 blocks down to the Kwik-Kleen laundromat.
Times were a little simpler then of course. The only thing I had to worry about was not overloading the washer and hoping the change machine wasn’t “OUT OF SERVICE”. That would mean I’d have to walk another three blocks to the car wash and use the change machine there. Needless to say, I’d done a lot of walking as a kid.
Sometimes I’d catch the patrons of Kwik Kleen staring at the ten year old sitting on top the washer reading a comic book. Sure, I could read the notebook paper signs taped all over the walls screaming “NO SITTING ON MACHINES OR IN CARTS!” but I was ten. Even though I was responsible enough to carry around laundry money, I was still a bad ass little kid.
Now laundromat washing is a mix of timing and simple mathematics. Tip 1) Always make sure you have enough quarters to do all the laundry AND play the outdated arcade machines while you wait. Tip 2) Keep an eye on the patrons pulling their clothes out of the dryer before it buzzes. Throw your clothes in that particular machine immediately after. An extra 2 minutes of drying time obviously equals 2 extra quarters in your pocket. While the clothes might not have been “officially” dried, I kicked ass in Samurai Showdown. I was never that good at math anyway.
These days I’m still doing laundry. The only difference is now I’m doing it at home, the arcade is now an X-Box, and there is no wagon.
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About a week ago I needed to get change for tolls for and early morning road trip I was taking the next day, but the banks were closed, so I went in a nearby laundromat to get a roll of quarters. Man that smell of cloths drying and the atmosphere brought back so many memories, I totally feel this piece, dude. Only my game was Joust instead of Samurai Showdown, haha. Nice work my man!
@joel totally can relate to this. Cept…me n my bro never lingered there. We did the dump and go routine. Ok- living across the street helped. Besides We never had the luxury of games in our laundromat.
Mind ya- lost all my clothing because we often left the clothing a wee bit too long.
It was a terrible thing seeing my bleach spotted Dylan tshirt on the schools bully the next day.
Bet ya never folded them clothing?
I loved this, Joel! Thanks for sharing it.
We offer a full Service Laundromat, You can come in and use our self service machine or you can drop off your cloth and we will wash and fold it for you. We also offer commercial laundry service for any small business
Laundromat