(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
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Acts of kindness are contagious at Iowa laundromat [1]
['More From Author', 'January', 'Robert Leonard']
Date: 2024-01-01
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),” according to Speed Queen Investor. “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.
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.
“Although many people use the word ‘Laundromat’ to generically refer to coin-operated laundries, the first washing machine for public use was actually called a ‘Washateria,’ which opened in Fort Worth Texas in 1934, according to the Los Angeles Times. “The facility had four electric washing machines that customers could rent by the hour. Hot water and electricity were supplied, but users were obliged to bring their own soap.”
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!
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 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,” Mindi said.
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.
[END]
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[1] Url:
https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/01/01/acts-of-kindness-are-contagious-at-iowa-laundromat/
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