Laundry Day - No Longer for Socializing

Remember those documentaries we watched in culture class about primitive tribes. A snippet would focus on laundry day. Women from the village spent the time by the river talking and laughing with one another as they washed clothes. For years that same sense of a get-together also prevailed at the laundromat. Part of the ethos were those bulletin boards on which we hunted for love, roommates and information about what to do after-work. This Friday, having just blew into this midwest large city from a border town in Arizona I went to the laundromat a few miles from my residential complex. I bypassed the machines on my floor. See, I was hoping to effortlessly meet folks I could talk with. Anyone on anything, after 1,200 miles of isolation on the road. Who doesn't want to complain about laundry day. No one looked up when I came in. All eyes were on their screens. For the total 90-minute process, no one talked with each other. Incidentally, that laundromat, totally high tech, has the l...