Once when I was in high school, I wrote a creative piece on laundromats.

At the time, I loved them.

At the time, they represented my mom.

Let me explain.

My parents finalized their divorce about May of 2014. This was shortly after my grandmother died, and shortly before I was to graduate high school.

For anyone thinking of getting divorced; don’t wait until your kids are older.

It really fucked me up.

But I digress.

Laundromats remind me of my mom, because her first apartment after we moved away from my dad didn’t have a washer or dryer.

For the first time in my life,

I had to use a laundromat.

To elaborate;

My dad is an electrician, so while we weren’t rich, we always had what we needed.

Plus a little extra.

At least, we should have.

My dad had quite laundry list of bad habits when it came to money. While my mom fought to budget out the bills, my dad bought all sorts of gadgets and toys. He was horrible about money, which is why I always see loads of debt and money mismanagement as a big red flag. It’s caused a few breakups for me.

But that’s for another time.

Quarters have always been my favorite coin, at least in American money. I haven’t seen another country’s money, or held it in my hands. Sometimes I wonder if I ever will. I’d love to see a euro, and spend it, of course. For now though, quarters are great.

Because, you see,

Quarters remind me of pill bottles. My mom always kept her quarters in pill bottles. That way, we always knew exactly how much we had when we went to the laundromat. I got a roll, my mom had a roll, and my sister had a roll. With 10 dollars worth of quarters each, we could do about 2 weeks worth of laundry.

Or, if you’re my sister,

Save them up to buy a sandwich or two, and just do laundry at dads house. She wanted to stay with him most of the time, but I didn’t really understand why.

I never did laundry at my dads house again.