BRATTLEBORO — I am writing this for all the frustrated laundry-doers who use the coin-op laundromat on Elliot Street.
Many of you have also experienced the thievery of quarters, floodings, door lockings, stagnant water, and clothes destruction. One day, I lost $8 in quarters in various machines.
Part of me feels bad airing this dirty laundry; it is true that I do not know the owners' situation, and it is a difficult economic time for small businesses.
All the same, a majority of the people who depend on this laundromat do not have the money to lose. Sometimes I feel like I'm putting quarters in someone else's piggy bank.
However, there was that one time that I got 98 minutes of drying time on just one quarter. And all the frustrations often bring people together in the laundromat to laugh and lament. Although our neighbors try to help out one another by leaving warning notes on malfunctioning machines, it does not compensate for the lack of repairs and maintenance.
There is also no number to call when the machines steal all your money and the return knob doesn't work.
Not to sound too overanalytical, but the conditions remind me of all things disproportionately funded in lower-income neighborhoods, like schools and medical services and, I guess, laundromats.
Left high and dry.