People in the Laundromat

If your washer and dryer breaks or if you are one of the millions of Americans who don't have one available to them, chances are you have spent your fair share of time at the Laundromat.  The Laundromat is really a place like no other.  A large room, full of machines and people sharing their entire dirty wardrobes with the world. 

You check your shame at the door when you enter the Laundromat.  What do you have in that basket, your dirty sheets, your underwear, your snuggie, a towel that looks like it hasn't been cleaned since the mid 70's?  Bring it on in here!  Everything is socially acceptable at the Laundromat.

I find the psychology of people at the Laundromat interesting.  Everyone seems on edge, as though someone is after them or their dirty clothes.  They tend to stand guard in front of the washers/dryers that they have claimed their own until their quarters run out as though an intruder may attempt to charge the machine and steal one of their wet, soapy pillow cases.  They never venture more then 5 feet from their machines as though they are forging gold bullion inside of it.

It is tough to make eye contact with anyone at the Laundromat.  You came here to do laundry and so did they, so there isn't much to do besides wait for your cycles to finish while staring aimlessly into the middle-distance.  What kind of conversation are you supposed to strike up with anyone? 

"Hey I see you've selected the extended spin cycle."
"Yeah, I think it really brings out the darker colors in my cotton"
"Alright, see you later"

I have seen more then five arguments erupt at the Laundromat.  One of which led to a fight in the parking lot eventually needing police involvement.  And the entire ordeal was over a pile of quarters that got knocked behind a dryer. In a way, I can understand the frustration.  In the real world, a pile or quarters might be worth 4 or 5 dollars but at the Laundromat, it is worth it's weight in gold.  In the wold of the Laundromat the quarter is the 1000 dollar bill.

The service at the laundromat is always sub-par at best.  Sometimes there is an attendant but most of the time they are nowhere to be found which is fine until someones washer begins to spew black smoke out of it that smells like burnt rubber and none of the patrons want to shut it down for fear of wasting quarters.  But these incidents are rare, maybe once a month.  This gives the Laundromat plenty of time to pursue his or her other drug and alcohol related interests.

In many cases, the spirit of the Laundromat will transcend it's walls into the neighborhood that immediately surrounds it.  It is rare to find one in a nice part of town.  Two months ago, a man got hit by a car outside of my laundromat.  It was a serious collision, enough to rip his shirt completely off, somehow. However, instead of alerting the authorities or even confronting the driver for that matter.  The man, scrambled to his feet, collected his items from the ground along with the remains of his shirt and sprinted into an alley and hopped the fence, all with what had to be a severe concussion, never to be seen again. 

I love the Laundromat.  Sure you can get all of your clothes cleaned in an hour.  But the pure comedic entertainment within and outside of it's walls far outweighs that benefit.