U.S. Campus Life Wash, wait, love By Masako Yamada	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
洗濯ものと恋を待つ場所 雅子さんが住んでいる地域では洗濯機のないアパートが多く、アパートの住人の多くはコインランドリーを使っています。最近のコインランドリーはくつろげる待合い室や冷房を備えるなど、待ち時間が快適になるような工夫がされています。一方で、コインランドリーで、すてきな人と出会う…そんな利用者の期待もあるようです。

There are about four or five laundromats (also spelled laundramat) within a three-minute walk from my apartment, including one right across the street and one on the block next to mine. I'm amused that even the tiniest flats in Japan seem to have their own washing machines. This is not the case near where I live, where apartment-dwellers usually have to use public laundry facilities.

Modern apartment buildings often have coin-operated laundry facilities within the building. However, I live in a section of Boston where there are many old apartment buildings that do not have such facilities. Hence, the proliferation of laundromats.

Because apartment-dwellers must lug their dirty clothes to the laundromat in order to wash them, they can't really do their laundry in between watching TV or doing chores around the house. They don't do laundry every day, or even every few days. Doing the laundry tends to be a major weekend chore that takes a couple of hours to complete.

This is especially true considering that many people do not like the idea of putting their clothes in the washer or dryer and then coming back later. They don't want strangers touching — or, worse, stealing — their clothes, so they stay at the laundromat until their laundry is finished.

Some fancier laundromats have expanded this idea and have created comfortable lounges where people can play video games and have a snack while they wait for their laundry. Even the most basic laundromats often have a few tired magazines, however, and some even advertise that they are air-conditioned for the comfort of the customers. This is especially attractive considering that many of the apartments in my neighborhood do not have air-conditioning.

Imagine putting together a bunch of young, single apartment-dwellers in a laundromat for a couple of hours on a weekend. Yes . . . more than a few people have fantasized about meeting "someone special" at the laundromat.

7Recently, I was transferring my clothes from the washer to the dryer at the laundromat when a guy started chatting to me. He seemed nice enough, but I was not interested in him, and I replied to his questions with neutral "Uh huhs." After I put my clothes in the dryer, I told him that I had to go back to my apartment, and I quickly did.

When I came back later to pick up my clothes from the dryer, he was still there, and he asked me whether I wanted to do anything that night. I declined. I was annoyed that he didn't seem to get the hint from the start, but I must admit that he was brave to plow forward in spite of my tepid reaction.

I usually don't go to the laundromat, since my apartment building has a couple of coin-operated washers and dryers in the basement. I've only gone to the laundromat when the machines in my building were broken, or when I've had so much laundry that I needed more than a couple of machines. Considering the little luck I've had meeting eligible men at the laundromat, the potential for romance is not enough of a draw for me to drag my laundry down the street.

One of my friends has had a better experience in this regard. She was taking out her laundry when a guy asked her whether she went to Harvard, too. Apparently, she had been folding a shirt with a Harvard logo on it. She in fact went to Wellesley, but they had a lively discussion, and have seen each other several times since. She even took him to visit the Wellesley campus, since he had never visited before.

All I can say is that laundromat romances happen in movies and in TV commercials, but they seem to be rather rare in real life. For most people, a weekend afternoon at the laundromat entails a lot of waiting. There's waiting for the machines to finish, and perhaps, there's a bit of waiting (and hoping) for a little bit of romance.

Shukan ST: June 8, 2001

(C) All rights reserved