Stopping by the Laundry Room

On a recent Saturday morning I was passing by the Laundry Room on Drexel Drive and noticed that it looked empty, so I decided to stop in.

The building is L-shaped, and the Laundry Room occupies the wing reaching out to Drexel Drive. The back wing is occupied by Indiana Department of Child Services and the Sister Act Hair Salon. Yes, the sign says Seriously Savvy Saloon, but it had vacated two weeks earlier, and the attendant on duty in the Laundry Room was unsure if it had moved or closed.

 

The Laundry Room has been here for several years, but I had never gone inside. I was impressed with how neat and clean it looked. There was an area for people to sit and wait while their laundry washed and dried. You can see the attendant barely visible at the back. And if you look carefully, you can see an old washing machine and some wash tubs, antiques that give the place a decor that I had never before seen in a self-serve laundry. (There was once an antique store in the back wing. Maybe it inspired the decorating with antique washing equipment.)

  

There was a row of banked driers along one wall. Above them were televisions and also some old washboards.

  

Naturally there were plenty of washing machines. I do not know what the machine above them was--it looked like some kind of old pressing machine.

When I arrived in Rensselaer there were laundromats in what is now Slice of Pie Pizza and in the building just north of Pizza Hut. (There may have been others.) They looked plain and dingy compared to the Laundry Room.

  

I wonder how old this wooden wringer washer was. When I was a kid, my mother had an old wringer washing machine but it was modern compared to this one.

 

There is additional space behind the Laundry Room that will soon be, or maybe already is, used as a tanning room. That seems to make sense--there is an attendant on duty already, so there should be no additional personnel costs.