24 quarters.
A quarter of a pound of quarters.
That’s the only chow this washer will eat.
It’s quite particular.
Soap is another 6 quarters, but you can buy that with other fractions.
Clink, clink, clink.
“Get a wife, then you don’t have to worry about it,” says Chico the attendant.
Clink.
“That’s what I did.”
Clink, clink.
Who’d have thought you could work up a sweat dropping coins.
Clink.
It’s a furnace down here in the basement. Past the fire hose. Past 3 vacuums, standing to attention. Past the dusty shelves of dated travel brochures.
I wonder if Chico’s laundry is in a hotel basement.
Clink, clink, clink (half way)
Probably not.
sjem ©
Enjoying San Fran Xav ? This has a good rythmn to it.
Xavier Shay
replied
yeah SF is awesome. I’m trying to capture some of it in writing – more interesting than a diary but it means a lot of it doesn’t get published coz it’s rubbish
Ben Ryan
When I was a student, we used packing tape to hold the required coins in place on the slider, then get a refund right away. Took nearly a year before they replaced the sliders with ones that were ‘tape-proof’.
When I was in Zaragosa in Spain, the only publicly available laundry service was the showroom for an industrial washer manufacturer. They took more than a single denomination, but it cost 15 euros per load.
In Peru it cost about 5 soles (t dry because of the humidity.
kathleen
wow… this move seems to be bringing out some of your more outlying creative skills xavier… this is a great piece of written liffe… I think I can almost see what chico looks like!
Cat Bishop
Chico is a real ladies man spewing those kind of comments.
Luckyvegetable
This is aceness. Miss your crazy dancing, mister =)