Adventure of the Laundry Mat - ACT 1

I had to go to the laundry mat Sunday because my washer and dryer was not installed yet and let me tell you, just spending an hour or so there I have some funny stories. The characters at the local laundry mat are hysterical. Why did I ever think that normal people do their cloths at a laundry mat is beyond me.

First, I am going to start off with the old guy sitting in the chair. So I get there at about 9:00 am in the morning, only because I needed to get come work cloths washed and I know that I would not have a washer and dryer installed yet. So I walk in and there is this guy that is sitting in a chair facing the washers. Obviously he was waiting for his clothes to be completed.

So, I began to put my clothes in the scary looking washers and then proceeded to put my quarter in.(Did you know that it is $1.50 to do one load? I remember when it was .50, yep I’m that old!) Well, as I was chatting on the phone and trying to shove the quarter in the machine and it was obvious that I didn’t know what I was doing. The old guy gets up and asks me if there was a problem. I told him I couldn’t get the quarter to go in…so he starts to count the quarters and informs me that I am missing one. There it was, a single dark slot left empty because I failed count my quarters…all 6 of them.

So I stuck it in the machine and it started. I moved to the next one and couldn’t get that to slide in….what the hell!...so the old guy gets up again and smiles so nicely at my…I’m sure he was wondering if I was truly a blonde. He counts the quarters…which I knew I put in enough…and says huuummm….you have enough quarter. And he tries to push it in and after his second try they slide in. Are you kidding me, why can’t I do this right. So I looked at him and smiled, tell him thank you and told me that it’s been a while since I’ve been at a laundry mat…he just smiled and said your welcome.

So now my clothes are done, which only took 15minutes…it was insanely fast…but I don’t think I got my clothes that clean…oh, well, clean enough not to smell when I go into work.

I move over the dryers and of course the old man is looking at me…you know one of those looks, like, I really just want to talk. So I get off the phone with my BF and start to add the quarters (1 quarter = 7 minutes) in the empty belly of the huge dryer…which didn’t dry worth a darn. He begins to talk to me and asks me some basic questions, where do you work, do you live near here and do you have kids. I answered the questions…some much more vague than other’s but it kept the conversation going. He talked about his kids and things that go on in his live….like gambling, every night, winning a lot some nights and loosing more the next. Then he proceeds to tell me that he has a washer and dryer at his house….puzzled I asked if they worked…he said, yep – they are brand new, but he prefers to come to the laundry mat to do his laundry.

OK, in my mind that is crazy but he seemed happy with his weekly travels to the laundry mat and the gross expense of doing your laundry there as well.

Tomorrow I will tell you about the crazy lady with the loud voice…she was very interesting and kept me entertained for almost 30 minutes.