Making it flat

 
(a note left in the notebook at Soapbox)

Since last writing, I’ve spent a few mornings in Soapbox chatting with Wendy while she’s folding and ironing and moving things from washer to dryer. She was rushed off her feet with the build-up to and aftermath of the bank holiday weekend, mainly with Airbnb owners who bring huuuge bags of bedding and towels that usually need a quick turnaround. 

One such customer was looking after her son’s property while he was away and hadn’t realised quite how much work was involved. 

“I’ve got a new found respect for hotel staff,” she said, at which me and Wendy exchanged a look.

Just that morning, Wendy had had another customer who’d been quite rude and we’d been chatting about how some jobs come with more status and automatic respect than others. 

Today, this picture popped up on my socials and reminded me of that conversation...

I was inspired by another chat with Wendy about how young children in 2020 have no idea what an iron is. I started writing a piece from this point of view and then realised it might be helpful to chat with a child about irons… so I had a pretty entertaining zoom call with my friend’s three year old son. I showed him photos of irons and laundrettes and videos of people ironing (there’s a surprising amount of these on YouTube).

The photos of irons meant nothing to him, but when I showed him the video he said “they’re making it flat” and then, as the video went on…

“Not another one!

All your clothes in one day...

Do it one day and the next day you’ll still be doing it.

I can’t believe they’re still doing it.

Quite boring.”

He was intrigued by the photos inside laundrettes but was a little confused by the purpose…

“They take one of the washing machines back home?!”

***

Yesterday, I popped into Highdown’s Laundrette in Hove, where I’d left the second notebook, and was happy to find a few notes - including this beautiful little poem…

Later today I’m going to be having a chat with Hygiene For All - an organisation I spoke about a couple of blogs ago - so I’ll check back in a few days with how it went :)