The Laundry Mat

The Laundry Mat                                    5/4/11

What does that mean? I understand Laundry don’t get me wrong, but Mat, where does Mat come from? So I Google’d it. “Laundromat” was coined in the 1950s by analogy with “automat”—an automated self-service restaurant— to label an automated self-service laundry. People unaware of this history often mistakenly deconstruct the word into “laundro mat” or “laundry mat.” This comes from the book, “Common Errors in the English Language”. I think we need to change this to, “Pay to break your own back, mat”. Or “Man! That was my favorite sweater now in shreds, Mat.” Or “Hey those are my clothes and they are not dry yet so put them back, Mat”. Not to get this confused with my good friend Matt. Has anyone ever washed your whites and they came out a nasty looking yellow? I wash everything in hot, hot water to kill any living organism I may pick up there. I also dump in a lot of fabric softener to kill any new smells that may cling to my newly washed threads. Yep! Been there, done that, at the Mat. I have been privileged through out my life to have access to my own washer and dryer. But there have been times that I have not, and I have had to go to my beloved corner Laundromat. A place where, “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious”. Sorry for the Obi Wan Kenobi Quote. But I really have seen Light Sabers raised over who’s first at the dryers. It’s true, especially at night. “I thought I smelled your foul stench”….So I am sitting there one Saturday afternoon, because really I have nothing better to do than to read a book and watch my underwear spin in circles, when I take notice of a lady with five kids coming in with bags and bags of wet laundry and begin to take over every last dryer. (At least 10 of them.) The looks she got were priceless.  It caused a back up with everyone else in the place, so the ones who were finishing their wash cycles had to wait until hers were done, hours later.

So the other day I was using the Automat, said in an English Accent, to wash my bed comforter because it’s so big and because I need a lot of comfort, and it will not fit into my washer and dryer.  As I was sitting there reading my book and watching it spin I realized I was the only one in there. Like it was the Apocalypse or something. It spooked me. When I got all done and was leaving, I notice a sign on the front door stating. “No hot water today, boiler broke”. OMG! I washed everything in COLD water!