Eddie Leonard Carry Out

Good food I had the steak and cheese and hunan shrimp and veggies very good.

Sometimes, the stars line up just right and everything works out for the best. That’s what happened to me as I returned from BWI Airport one dreary day. I had gone to the airport to pick up a friend who had come back from a weekend trip; and, on our way to his house, I was getting hungry because I hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch.
I glanced at my dashboard clock and saw that it was nearing 3:00 p.m. It was at that moment that I pulled off the Beltway to look for food and spotted Eddie’s out of the corner of my eye along Marlboro PIke. While the prospect of eating Chinese take-​out didn’t exactly thrill me, it seemed like a more than acceptable option given the time and place. However, once I pointed to the storefront and prepared to steer the car toward it, my friend loudly exclaimed, «Yes, yes!»
To me, the reaction was totally out of proportion to the circumstance. I mean, his enthusiasm resembled my outburst when I received a new set of Correlle glass storage bowls for my birthday. Wow… what a day that was! But, a lousy Chinese carryout?

«Look, look,» he continued excitedly. «It’s a Chinese carryout AND a laundromat!» I nodded incredulously to acknowledge the fact (just as I peered up simultaneously at the storefront and turned the car into Eddie’s lot). «Yeah, it really is.»
My friend explained that he had a suitcase full of dirty laundry that urgently needed to be washed and that the washing machine at his house had been broken for weeks. Apparently, he really needed to wear one uniform most specifically for work the next day.
So, as I ventured inside to one side of the store to order some food and tried my best to navigate the landmines of cloyingly sweet sauces and fried mystery meats (and any dish with broccoli or an accompanying «brown sauce»), my friend ventured into the other half of the store to wash a load of clothes.
In the end, it seemed fitting that a Chinese carryout shop would also branch out and offer laundry service as well. Chinese laundries were a staple business for immigrant Chinese for a long, long time (well before restaurants and carryout shops became the norm after washing machines and dryers had become fixtures in most American households). So, what we stumbled upon was so ironic, really. It was like a mother and child reunion of sorts.
Anyway, I ordered my food, took it through the hole in the plexiglass partition after a brief wait, and went outside to chow down in the car. Somehow, as I ate the mostly nondescript food and as the radio stations played unexceptional offerings (Willie Nelson anyone?), an involuntary entrepreneurial feeling (kind of like a half drowsy feeling of arousal) tickled my spine. Strangely, dollar signs began dancing in my eyes, and I began to entertain all sorts of possibilities…

Corbo’s Carry Out & Auto Supplies; Corbo’s Carry Out & Hallmark Store; Corbo’s Carry Out & Gourmet Croissants; Corbo’s Carry Out & Ice Skating Rink. Then, it hit me. Corbo’s Carry Out & Locksmith Services. Yeh!
Anybody know where I can get a small business loan?