Sunshine Coin Laundry

Is it just me but does it seem that time stands still inside laundry mats? Specifically, coin operated laundry mats? Before I even walk in, the groovy flashy backs are about to hit me full force as I walk by and notice the way the store lettering is written eerily similar to the way KC and The Sunshine Band’s record logo wrote theirs? Perhaps I am wrong but I found this detail cute. Is this a telltale sign of what’s to come? Who knows? I got a blanket to wash so make a hole, people!
As I walk in, I’m immediately smacked in the face visually with the 70’s. Maybe early 80’s, too. It’s all a blur now. Everything was mellow yellow, pea green, burnt orange, wood paneled, egg shelled and you guessed it… tiled with linoleum. I got the strange feeling the Iron Sheik was watching me from a corner somewhere. They also have an original pac man and galaga arcade game in which a fat kid came around and asked for spare change to play but he quickly learned the cold hard facts of life through the world of the laundry mat is that a child’s happiness does not come before clean laundry. Ever.
There was also a vending machine but there was no Tab, Sunkist, RC, Shasta, Upper10… y’all know what I’m saying. The good stuff is all gone thanks to the meddling government, so they’ve updated their goods.
All in all, I’m sitting here in this laundry mat watching my laundry spin round and round in circles and am thinking… how much I miss my banana seat bike, my Mr T kite, rolos (who am I kidding, I still eat these) or how my dad would freak out and fall off his stool every time Walter Payton would score a touch down and how my mom would yell at him every time cause he would spill his beer all over the floor, and you know what… I’m not so mad anymore at my cat for pissing on my blanket.
Most people may not notice laundry mats. They are usually not in the greatest section of town, in strip malls, considered to be «low rent», severely outdated, but so what. Whenever I need them, I’m glad they are there.