Acts of Kindness
At the cleanest laundromat in the World
Perhaps the most taken-for-granted appliances in the home are modern washers and dryers.
We owe the invention of the washing machine to Jacob Christian Schäffer (1767). 30 years later, an American, Nathaniel Briggs, obtained the first patent for a washing machine. It involved pouring hot water into a tank, turning a lever to wash the clothes and then wringing them between two rollers. The tank was then drained using a tap. 210 years further on, the electric washing machine was invented.
I remember Grandma Leonard washing clothes in a galvanized tub with a washboard long ago before Grandpa was able to get her a top-loading Maytag like the one below.
Trying to help Grandma, somehow my cousin Denny got his arm caught in the roller above the tub and broke his arm. If I remember correctly, he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, and a cuff got caught in the roller when he was feeding wet clothes into it.
Image from https://www.hamperapp.com/blog/whats-in-a-name-explore-the-fascinating-history-behind-laundromat
The first laundromat in the United States was a wash-a-teria, which opened in Fort Worth, Texas on April 18, 1934.
C.A. Tannahill opened the store, which had four electric washing machines. He charged customers by the hour to use the machines.
The coin-operated machines were low-cost and gained popularity quickly, allowing many families to afford laundry. Customers loved the self-service format, and laundromats soon became popular across the country.
In 1947, Harry Greenwald invented the coin meter, which was used on many coin laundry machines and dryers. Greenwald combined his coin meter with Westinghouse's Laundromat washing machine to create the modern coin-operated laundromat.
A recent plumbing problem at home couldn’t be solved for a few days so I piled a couple of loads of laundry in the car to take them to a laundromat. Being the adventurous type I am, I decided to try a different laundromat than I had ever used before, and I went to “Clean Laundry” in Oskaloosa.
It was amazing! Beautiful! Immaculate! Certainly the cleanest laundromat in the world. So clean Martha Stewart would gasp at the wonder of “Clean Laundry.” It’s the Taj Mahal of laundromats!
It has free wifi, an app that pays you back, and prize machines!
Change machines in two languages!
And a community “washboard” and lost and found!
I was working on my computer while our clothes were washing when a woman walked in with a rose, a gift to the laundry attendant. I managed to snap this photo during the exchange.
The woman handing the rose to the attendant is Mindi, the Assistant Manager. She told me she was coming home from church, and decided to come and tell the the attendant how much she valued her. How much she cared for her. She told me there isn’t enough kindness in the world, and that she does everything she can to spread it.
I love the customers that come in. I'm trying to make them happy because some people who come in, they're unhappy and the people that I work for are great and like family to me.
A man I hadn’t seen before walked into the laundromat and looked around at all of the people there. His eyes settled on me. He walked over, told me his truck wouldn’t start, and asked me if I had any jumper cables. I was driving Annie’s car, figured I had put some in there, but I couldn’t remember. I told him I would check.
I found a bundle of cords of jumper cables in the back, handed them to the man, pulled her car around, and popped the hood. I barely had time to get out of the car before the man had jump-started his truck and was walking toward me with the jumper cables in his hands. I saw there were two pairs of jumper cables in his hand.
“I gave you two pair?” I asked. I had no idea.
“Yes, he replied.”
I looked from the jumper cables in my hand back to him.
“You from Osky? I asked.
“No,” he said. Just passing through.
“Where to?”
“Texas.”
I looked back down at the pair of cables and handed one back to him.
“Here,” I said. “Take this.”
He looked surprised.
“You sure?” he said.
“Of course. I don’t need two pairs for this car, and you don’t have one. And you might need a pair before you get to Texas. It wouldn’t be right for me to have two and you have none when you might need one.”
“Thank you,” he said.
Following Mindi’s example, I had handed him a rose.
Please check out the work of my fellow members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. They are doing amazing work. I believe we are the largest source of feature writing and commentary in the Midwest, and I am proud to be a part of it. I don’t have room to list everyone here, but you can check us out here.
The Iowa Writers Collaborative is also proud to ally with the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
Always suspected I was noticeably older than the average Leonard groupie and this thread proves it, to wit: a) the dorms and Greek houses in Iowa City in 1964 had their own laundries so the girls in the laundromat's were upper class-women/independents, I also had aged out of the dorm, every laundromat was within a couple doors of a bar, and b) am I the only one to remember the '64 classic "Leader of the Laundromat" by the Detergents? Google it, and Richard and I will sing it for you Thursday evening.
A little kindness can help each of us. You gave a gift to the man and in return you also felt good to be able to share. ( Side note- my parents owned and operated a Westinghouse Laundromat for about 15 years. I worked in it every morning at 5:30am until I graduated from high school. Also had to do spot checks and clean ups as often as could. Got paid $20 a month my senior year but only if bought a savings bond with it)