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A Convenient Dry Cleaner with a Catch

December 14, 2006 By Dana 3 Comments

There was a dry cleaning place down the street from us, just a block from where we live. It was not one of those 24-hour services. It could take up to a week to get your stuff back, but the convenient location of the place couldn’t be beat. It was tiny in there, just one room really, and it was run by a nice woman who also did alterations. All in all, a great place to have in your neighborhood.

Except that the woman smoked like a chimney. So you brought a brand new, washed shirt in to have the sleeves shortened. You handed it over, got your slip and watched the shirt being hung on the to-be-worked-on rack. Five days and some hundred cigarettes later you’d get your shirt back with the sleeves just the right length, but smelling of cigarette smoke so bad that you might just as well have been sitting in a smoky pub for six hours straight.

The same would happen to your dry cleaning in case you didn’t pick it up on the day it was ready. Because if you didn’t, your cashmere sweater would also end up hanging in the room where the nice woman sewed away on her little sewing machine, smoking cigarette after cigarette. And when you brought your cashmere sweater home, you’d have to hang it on a door handle, open the windows and let it air out for several days until the smell was gone and the sweater could be worn again.

I was always baffled by this and thought, don’t some people have their clothes dry cleaned BECAUSE they smell of cigarette smoke after a night out on the town? Anyway, it no longer matters because the place closed a few days ago. I guess there weren’t enough people who were willing to keep a local smoky dry cleaner in business.

Filed Under: Czech Republic, Observations

Comments

  1. Lucia says

    December 15, 2006 at 11:59 pm

    Hi Dana,
    I like your sense of humor in your blogs. Please keep them comming!
    Lucia

Trackbacks

  1. Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Czech Rebublic: Smoking Dry Cleaner says:
    December 15, 2006 at 9:46 pm

    […] My Czech Republic Blog writes about “a convenient dry cleaner” who’s no longer there – and here’s one possible reason why: “…the woman smoked like a chimney. So you brought a brand new, washed shirt in to have the sleeves shortened. You handed it over, got your slip and watched the shirt being hung on the to-be-worked-on rack. Five days and some hundred cigarettes later you’d get your shirt back with the sleeves just the right length, but smelling of cigarette smoke so bad that you might just as well have been sitting in a smoky pub for six hours straight.” Veronica Khokhlova […]

  2. My Czech Republic Blog » Back from the U.S.: My Observations (III) says:
    March 8, 2007 at 4:43 pm

    […] California restaurants are blessed with clean air. There is a state-wide ban on smoking in public places, so you never, ever have to have that little “Smoking or non-smoking?” conversation with the waiter as you enter a restaurant. You never have to scan the room to find a table that’s as far as possible from any customers who are smoking or may start at any minute (see the pack of cigarettes sitting on their table?). You don’t have to assess every newcomer and guess whether or not he looks like a smoker and if he does, whether or not he is heading for a table near yours. You can freely go to a restaurant you’ve never been to before without wondering if they’ll have a non-smoking section and without needing Plan B in case they don’t. You can come home from dinner with your clothes smelling the way they did when you left. Which means that you don’t have to take your smelly clothes to the dry cleaner… […]

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