Back on May 26, 2024, I walked from downtown Brooklyn to Forest Hills, Queens, and back, all after Spectrum kindly helped me set up my new internet modem. Taken together, I ended up walking just over 22 and one-half miles. Between the walk there and back, I spent a a decent about of time in Ridgewood, Queens, a neighborhood which sits on the Queens-Brooklyn border. While my friend checked out a Ridgewood bookstore, a laundromat window caught my attention.
The laundromat looks like it has seen better days (I recall thinking contemporaneously it was not closed down, but that is not obvious from any of my photos). But the two window-tack-on washing machine figures give the place a little spark, notwithstanding the crack, streak, or tear across the female washing machine. We have the washing machine couple holding hands. The washing machine dude on the left looks nice and awkward as he waves to us. The washing machine dudette on the right is wearing heels and looks a little bit more natural at the waving thing, but if you look closely you can see she only has eyes for her washing machine partner. The aesthetic of the two washing machines reminds me of the classic Pacman and Mrs. Pacman art.
From the second photo, we see that the laundromat is on the ground floor of a residential building. It looks like a typical New York City laundromat in offering dry cleaning, drop off, and self-service options. We can also see that it is open all seven days of the week. (There are more stylish laundrymats out there.)
I took the photos of the washing machine couple with article intent (granting it took me more than a year to write the article). I took this last photo so that I would know where the laundromat was. I submit for the record that this was only the second time I have stepped foot in Ridgewood, Queens, with the first having been many years ago with my esteemed New Leaf Journal colleague, Victor V. Gurbo, when he was doing something music related that I do not recall. According to the street signs, I was standing at the intersection of Putnam and Woodward Avenues. I pin-pointed the location using Open Street Maps. According to Google Maps, the laundromat is part of Anna’s Cleaning Service which is located at located at 8-53 Woodward Avenue. I am not sure if this is correct since the Anna’s Cleaning Service website does not reference laundromats and looks a bit more upscale than a run-down laundromat in Ridgewood, but who am I to doubt Google? For whatever it is worth, from Open Street Map it looks like the laundromat is part of 804 Woodward Avenue, but who knows how street numbers work in Queens?
I encountered the Ridgewood laundromat on my return trip from Forest Hills. I happened across BLOB DYLAN graffiti in Bushwick, Brooklyn later on the same very long walk.
