Was doing laundry Sunday. Of course, that meant a trip to the laundromat, which meant … Laundromat People.
Now, I fully realize that I’m now one of the Laundromat People, but that just makes me more qualified than others to comment on them.
Let me set the stage. The TV is on De Pelicula, and it’s showing a movie featuring masked Mexican wrestlers, girls in short shorts, and double-south-of-the-border rejects from The Final Sacrifice
Then, there’s the the kid on a leash running around. Little girl, three years old maybe, that was there with two women (possibly a mother and grandmother, but not sure). This isn’t a debate about putting kids on a leash. I’ll let Erick Erickson deal with that. No, I want to use the kid to make a point.
Now, if you weren’t paying attention, let me say the key part of this again: there’s a kid on a leash running around.
Think about that. If she’s on a leash, how is she running around? No, she’s not dragging the leash behind her. There’s a hand firmly attached to the leash.
No, she’s not leading the mother around. She’s carrying her own leash.
And that’s the problem with the government. We know it needs a leash, but we let it carry its own leash. And, it runs wild.
So, what do we do about it? The government, I mean. Do we grab the leash and hope it doesn’t bite us? (Think: IRS.)
Do we try to cage it?
What do we do about it? ‘Cause I got the feeling it’s sizing us up for something a little more restrictive than a leash.
Nice connection, Basil. And to think, we have this wisdom because you have become one of the Laundromat People. 🙂
Basil, you just dredged up some horrible memories I’ve been trying to repress for the last couple of years. Let me add to that 2 more –
1) the hooker that comes in to wash a dress, then after it’s clean she goes into the bathroom and changes into the clean dress and washes the dress she was wearing…all while sitting in the corner and fighting “the nods”.
2) the pimp in a 25-year-old beat-up Crown Vic with a handicapped placard, complete with cane and old pimp hat – taking his 3 ho’s to the Burger King at the end of the strip mall on his EBT card before work.
…and this was in the “good” part of Hollywood Blvd.
As to your question about what to do….well, I left. I quit my job, packed up, and moved to another state. A state where I can afford a home with a laundry room. A state where my kids have at least a shot at going to an English-speaking school. A state where pretty much every yard has a sign warning passers-by that the owner will literally shoot them in the face and leave them to the dogs if he doesn’t think they should be there…and the law would be on his side.
“‘Cause I got the feeling it’s sizing us up for something a little more restrictive than a leash.”
Government-run, laundromat reeducation camps.
A muzzle, a half gallon of pentobarbital (maybe a gallon just to be on the safe side) and we just get a new puppy.
I suppose it should disturb me that I know this ref, but this is the sort of stuff I used to write.
Maybe we’re hoping the government’s leash will catch on something and strangle it. Probably not what the mom and grandmom are thinking.
And I echo the above comments. It was worth all the misery and expense of buying a house just to get hold of a dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer. I hate doing dishes, and the only way I could stand the Laundromat was if it had a bar nearby.
…I one of my crazy business ideas for a long time was to open a laundromat WITH a bar.
@7 – It’s a workable business model:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/duds-n-suds-reno-4
Google “duds and suds laundry bar” (without quotes) and you’ll see that it’s a real thing in a lot of places.
I seem to also recall an episode from a late 70’s / early 80’s sitcom where one of the characters was thinking of starting a combo laundromat/singles bar. Possibly Herb in WKRP. This crossed my mind last week, when one of my older co-workers was telling the younger guys his technique for picking up girls by frequenting laundromats. We’d never noticed before how clean his clothes were….
“Was dong laundry Sunday.”
You MAY want to edit your first line of the post. Very disturbing images come to mind.
Those Mexican wrestlers on the TV must have distracted me with those outfits.
@10 – I’ve been to that laundromat. It’s run by a nice Chinese fella, Was Dong.
When its the government, you muzzle it.
Somehow, the movie “Them!” always comes to mind when the word “government” is mentioned – and Dr. Harold Melford shouting “Shoot the antennae!” Shoot the antennae!”
Rowsdower 2016!