Chinese Laundry

Albin's son Mads is going to China.
Albin told me in an email, and what a wondrous experience it must be to spend four months in place like China.
And speaking of China made me remember the Chinese Laundry we used when we lived in New York.
It was located on 17th street, round the corner from the building on Park Avenue South that First Chamber Dance Company shared with the restaurant Max's Kansas City, a hang-out for Andy Warhol and his crowd.
In those days there were no coin operated laundries in the neighborhood, and we most certainly did not have laundry facilities in the basement.
The basement had an enormous monster of an oil heater providing heat to the whole building, which was shut off when Max's closed down in the early hours of the morning. And then turned on by me when I took the Schnauzers out for their morning pit stop.
But no other laundry opportunity than the Chinese on 17th.
It was run by a family, and only the youngest spoke any English a tall, which became a problem when I forgot to collect my laundry before an extended tour and, when I returned, realized that I did not have the ticket and I most certainly did not have the laundry, sheets and such like.
It was difficult to explain my problem, but with the help of a lot of gestures and an honest face and a copy of whatever mysterious sign they had labeled on my sheets with permanent ink, I got my laundry back.
I am glad I was young when I lived in New York.