You've made me nostalgic for my childhood. My mother used to drop me off at the laundromat and we'd sort the clothes into washing machines to her satisfaction. She'd leave (!) to do other tasks and I'd read and keep an eye on the laundry, move it to dryers when it was done, count my quarters and maybe get a candy bar, and just not be with my mother for a couple of hours. I always breathed more easily. Fortunately most of the adults there were more inclined to be kind to a kid doing laundry than to try to bully me out of machines or quarters; I did tell one or two people "You'll have to talk to my mother when she gets back" and they backed off as if they were as afraid of her as I was.

I used to love doing laundry in the laundromat, yeah. I would have adored that beautiful friendly laundromat you showed us.

Nowadays, fortunately, I'm not afraid of the people I live with, and unfortunately, my back hurts and I can't invoke my mother as backup against quarrelsome people, so I'd much rather do my laundry at home.