Tales from the Laundromat on Claremont

Monday evening I took me a trip to the laudromat. First time I've been to one of those places in a good 5-6 years. Perhaps more than that, I can't recall. My most vivid laundromat experiences took place in London on Muswell Hill. The lady I lived with didn't let us use her washer because the water supposedly cost a fortune. They live like they're still in the Blitz over there - conserving water like the end of the world is coming and eating too much canned food and Marmite. Anyway...

So I get to the corner laudromat around 730. The occasion was a special visit - I had to wash the futon cover. My roommate's boxer sleeps on it. Needless to say, it was not fit for a human to sleep on it, even with a sheet between person and couch surface.

I enter, see that there are 3 commercial sized washers, and head towards those. I was the only person in the place, aside from the manager who was using a shop vac to clean out the dryers. The dryers looked like they'd survived some hard times. Their motley coloring (a peppy array of spring green, orange, and yellow) was chipped and the metal dented in as though they'd gone through some beatings for swallowed quarters. Heck, these things probably were built in the days of dime-run dryers. I digress.

While new at this, I knew what to do. Get change. Get proper soap (usually require powder, which you buy out of the old school vending machine). Put coins in, select cycle...you know the drill. As for the soap out of the vending machine, I had a wide selection of choices: Cheer, Tide, OxyClean, and something called ShineBrite. I threw some quarters in the Tide slot and attempted to make a transaction. Then I hear some garbled sqwuaking over the high pitched droll of the shop vac behind me and several dryer units:

Manager: "Cheer! You hear me?? Cheer, young lady, is all's we got today!"
Me: "Oh, I didn't know. Thanks."

So I purchase the Cheer and start my cycle. The less than inspiring surroundings of the laudromat and the presence of its curmudgeonly manager led me to the store across the street. They have a psuedo-coffee shop inside the store where I could work on my laptop. More importantly, I was picking up some latent wireless signal and was able to check my e-mail.

After 25 minutes, I return to the laudromat to put the couch cover in the dryer. However, the washer is empty. And one dryer is going. The manager is leaning up against it, sort of glaring at me, and eyeing the television that sits overhead the door entrance on a platform. He was watching some game show called "Deal or No Deal!"

Me: "Hey, so is that my load?"
Manager: "I put it in here because it's gettin' late young lady."
Me: "Ah. Well, thanks, how much do I owe you?"

The manager points over my shoulder. I turn around and see a piece of paper posted on a makeshift bulletin board:

The Management Wishes To Inform You That Although We Are Raising The Washer Costs 50 cents Due To Energy Price Increases, the Dryers Remain FREE!

"Okay, then."

I proceed to watch "Deal or No Deal!" with the manager for about 25 minutes. He really liked that show. He kept muttering things under his breath when the contestents made stupid decisions and chose the wrong briefcases.

I learn a lot about patience and the world when I am not at school.



Portland fixture


Waiting on the bus