Flashback Friday -- Dirty clothes, clean car

Time: Winter 2001

Place: The Quah

Chris and I got married during fall break of our junior year in college. We were both full-time students, broke, and so in love. We were also both employed as student workers at our University, making little more than minimum wage. We both had school paid for through scholarships and grants, so that was not a problem. However, sometimes finding money for our living expenses was a bit challenging.

We lived in this tiny apartment next to a gas station and a big car wash, directly across the street from the University's football stadium. It was the kind of apartment where one person had to move out of the way for another person to walk through the room. It certainly didn't have space or hook-ups for a washer and dryer, and even if it had, we couldn't have afforded those anyway.

One week, after about 4 or 5 months of marriage, we were really broke as usual, but still had about 5 days until payday. We were in desperate need of clean clothing, and it had gotten so bad that we considered just turning our unmentionables inside out and wearing them again *grin*. Okay, so not really, but we were completely out of clean clothes and laundry HAD to be done. I gave Chris the only money we had -- one 10 dollar bill -- and sent him next door to get quarters for the laundromat.

A few minutes later, he comes back and hands me a handful of coins. Upon closer examination, I realize that the coins were not quarters, but car wash tokens.

Oooh, I was hot! How could this happen? Did he not pay attention to the change machine? How are we supposed to do laundry with car wash tokens???

After dismissing Chris's suggestion to put our clothing through the car wash (although we seriously considered it, the logistics were too complicated), we scrounged around in our car, couch, recliner, and anywhere else we could think to find enough quarters for two washer loads of laundry. We hung everything to dry, and that was enough to get us by until payday.

While we didn't have many clean clothes, we sure had a clean car for the next couple of months!