Stories - Chapter 24
January 1986 to December 1993 - Palm Valley
Washing Machine
It's 3 o'clock on Sunday morning, in February, I'm at the Sunnyland laundromat on North 3rd Street in Jax Beach. I just got off work at Pete's Bar and was doing my laundry. I did this for some time, as I figured it wouldn't be too crowded then. I think it was 1987 or 1988. As I'm loading the washing machine, a young man asks me for a quarter. I give it to him, he turns on a dryer for a few minutes, crawls in, curls up, and goes to sleep. OK, I go out and sit in the 1964 Ford flatbed with the light on and read. A burly, hippy looking guy comes up to the window and asks me if I have a good battery. Well, yes, my interior light is on without the engine running. I'm tired and not in a very good mood at this point. He asks me for a jump, and I initially turn him down. He starts in on what kind of guy I am not to help somebody out. He's right, and I relent and jump off his 70's Chevy 2X with huge back tires. He turns out to be Al (I'm embarassed I can't remember his last name, he recently passed away), a welder and local character from Atlantic Beach. We had several friends in common.
The next day I called Gene Arnold, who refurbished old washing machines and dryers. Randy and I would pick discarded ones off the side of the road and Gene would give us $10 for them. We also used to trade oak wood for barbecue, but that's another story. I gave Gene $50 or so for a used washer, loaded it on my truck, and hauled it to Palm Valley. I set it on a pallet over by one of the sheds, hooked a garden hose up to it, strung a clothes line, and I was in business. I covered it with a tarp to protect it from the weather. I haven't been to a laundromat since.
August 10, 2010
