Looking for a Laundromat

Have you ever been looking for a Laundromat? They used to be on every corner but it seems they have gone the way of pay telephones and mail boxes.

So after passing on the fourth washer /dryer I started thinking about how will I wash my few meager clothing and pair of towels and sheets during the time the kitchen is being redone?

It may only be a few days but I’m sure it will be weeks so I figured I would look for the closest Laundromat. I goggled Laundromat and the map showed only a few sites. So I hopped on my bike and went to the ones in my neighborhood that I remember from childhood. One was closed and being refurbished into a corner fern bar and another one was just taking in laundry from another site. Do they still have machines you can fill with change and wait for it to churn through the suds?

I remembered the Laundromat from college where I would spend Sunday afternoons. It was a grimy place on a corner. A few years earlier it was a drug store with a soda counter but someone bought it, moved in some washing machines and a coin dispenser. Some ashtrays were scattered about and some left over magazines scattered the small flat space everyone used. There was no heat except from the dryers and no air-conditioning except leaving the door open.

Then again the Laundromat did have some positive qualities. You could smoke whatever you wanted in there, you could drink beer, you could meet girls and check out their underwear, and some say you could catch up on your homework. There was always someone there when you took your laundry in. The winos would wander in just for the crazy conversation and the homeless would sleep on the benches. The floors were sticky but you didn’t want to know why.

Not too far away I found a neighborhood Laundromat. It looked pretty clean and wasn’t packed with people but it was 3 PM on a weekday. I’ll have to go back because I didn’t even go inside to see how much those machines cost now.

In the meantime of getting the floor replaced and cabinets installed and purchasing a stackable fifth washer/dryer unit, I might just stand in the shower fully dressed. That is true multi-tasking.