When is the best time to go to the laundromat?
Radical Betty asked me that question once and my answer at the time was “Whenever George is not there.” George was a shirttail non-biological relative of our family and a lot of us did not agree with him about things like politics or religion.
Anyway we were not unfriendly with him or his family. We saw him and his wife at holiday occasions and we tolerated his unannounced Sunday visits to the moominbeach. Our grandfather had told him he could visit the beach any time and we followed his direction. But we didn’t really want to hang out with him at the laundromat. And I don’t think we ever did mainly because I think we got there much earlier than George did.
When my beach urchins wee mini-kids, The Commander and I would take them in to the laundromat and then there would be a grock run and I think we sometimes had lunch somewhere. Once the beach urchins were misbehaving a bit and the laundromat manager (a friend of The Commander’s) took it upon herself to put them in line.
As the years went on, I took over most of the laundry duties, except for The Comm’s lingerie, which she preferred to wash herself and I don’t blame her.
So sometimes I would make laundry runs alone but other times various beach urchins would accompany me. And here we are. Three beach urchins are throwing towels and things at each other. I think the fourth beach urchin was not ready to get up early enough to do laundry when Kayak Woman was ready to schlep into town. That was A-OKAY!
I mostly do moominbeach laundry runs alone these days and it is very much okay (except for the time I put some of my laundry into someone else’s car). I do so miss the old days though.
May 16th, 2024 at 11:05 pm
It’s been a long time since I’ve used a laundromat; I don’t even know where to find one around here. I do have memories of washing sleeping bags at one; they had gotten very smoky during a tent camping trip.