Doing Laundry

Charlottesville, Virginia

May 11, 2020

In Blue Highways and Travels with Charley, the adventurers wrote about meeting people in taverns and tourist houses. I have found I have met some of the most interesting people I have met while doing my laundry. In Natchez I met a fellow who is a wholesale buyer of pecans during pecan season and crayfish during crawfish season. (The spelling is different, but they are the same thing.). In Texas I did my laundry on Nee Years Day watching a Spanish speaking tv station; the laudromat was located less than a mile from the Mexican border. No one in the place (there were three of us) spoke English but me. I’ve seen whole families - grandparents to grandchildren - crowd into a laundromat on a Friday night; the kids had a blast. In Arkansas someone said to me I didn’t look like the kind of person who used a laundromat; I’m still not sure if that was meant as a compliment or a putdown. somewhere in Arizona, or was it New Mexico, A fellow gave me the history of the area as my clothes dried. All I remember him saying is “then Walmart opened up.” The story of so many small towns.

I am looking forward to getting back on the road and doing more laundry.