Laundromat Observances

Someone once told me that the laundromat is one of the best places to meet people. I'm not sure exactly what they meant by being a "best place" or by "meeting people." Like I wouldn't want to make life long friends at the laundromat. Granted, I like clean laundry, I like clean people. But clean people don't seem to frequent laundromats.

And after visiting one of the local laundromats for the first time yesterday, I can't say that I made any new friends. It wasn't very busy, but the only small talk I heard was "Sorry I left my laundry baskets in your way," and "Are you watching CMT? Because my kid wants to watch a cartoon."

From my general observances with my short-lived laundromat-frequenting career, I would say the following qualifications are true of most visitors:

a) Obviously, they don't own a washer and/or dryer, or are too poor to get the broken ones they have fixed.

b) They wait as long as is humanly possible before going to the laundromat again. I would deduce this is because they don't like to hang out there. Or they just don't like doing laundry in general. Maybe this is why they don't own laundry machines of their own.

c) They wear something to the laundromat that either doesn't match in the slightest, or is completely and utterly filthy.

d) If they have children, they are crazy kids who run around as much as they possibly can, no matter how many times their parent tells them not to.

e) They have vehicles in very poor repair. Like when the Lexus drives up and parks out front, you know it's going to another business in the plaza. But when a 1987 Chevy billowing smoke pulls up, you know they're getting out with their ripped garbage bag full of dirty clothes.

f) They tend to like plaid more often than not.

g) They generally do not know the basic rules of laundry sorting. Darks, lights, they all go together right? Horray for the grey category.

h) No matter how often they go to the laundromat, they tend to forget in between times exactly how the machines work. "Yeah, I know I was here last month, but I can never figure out how to get the washer to start".

i) They like CMT.

I love clean laundry. I mean, what is better than a dresser and a closet full of clean clothes? But I totally don't want to have to go back there again and listen to that horrible music and have that kid run by me a million times again.

Which will probably explain why the next time when I go I'll be wearing filthy clothes that don't match and I'll have forgotten how to work the machines. But maybe I'll make some new friends while I'm there and it will have all been worth it after all. ;)