Nana’s Laundromat

We generate a lot of dirty clothes at this house. Most of the time we do laundry for eight to ten people. Most of those people are guys who work outside and get really dirty.  About four or five years ago we bought a Kenmore washer and drier from Sears.  I should have bought them a long time ago. They’ve been great…until last week.

The drier developed a squeak that sounded like a wounded animal and the washer started making a strange rattling noise. I called the local repairman (not the sleeping Sears repairman Dave…he wasn’t available) but a nice guy named Terry. He came and repaired the drier but informed me that the washer was seriously ill and I needed to call Sears.

The Sears guy came on Wednesday and said the parts had to be ordered and it would be next Tuesday before he could repair it. TUESDAY!!!!!

I’m sure my face looked like I had just been told my winning lottery ticket just got flushed down the toilet.

“You gotta be kidding me,” I said. We were standing in my laundry room surrounded by mountains of dirty laundry.

“Nope, that’s the soonest I can come back.”

“But we’ll be naked by then!” I blurted out.

He grinned. “See ya next Tuesday,” and he left.

Good grief.

What’s a small town girl to do when there is no laundromat in town? Who could I call that would let me use their washer? My brother and his wife!

“Sure, come on down,” they said. So I did, but by that time I was so far behind on laundry that doing one load at a time was slow going. So I called my aunt and uncle who lived right down the road and they said “yes” too.

My brother’s house and my aunt’s is less than a half mile apart, so most of yesterday I drove back and forth between houses. I tried to think of someone else I knew on their road who wouldn’t mind loaning me their machine, but decided I had better stick with family. Friends and neighbors might want me running up their water bill.

Late last night I got almost caught up. I have put a notice on the refrigerator door that says no one is to get dirty or change clothes until Tuesday. Think that’ll work?

Back in the day when my grandma was doing laundry families didn’t have so many clothes. People only took baths once or twice a week and they survived. For years she did laundry in wash tubs but later on she had a washer that looked like this one on her back porch.

I would hate to think I had to wash my laundry in a tub or one of those old time washers. Wouldn’t you?