most places where you do your laundry you just get quarters from the guy and you can't wait
to get home. there's a little of that in this place, too. there's also a lot more here, maybe
because it's a corner store, the center of the neighborhood, or maybe because Phil, the
owner, also sells donuts and coffee and calls his place a cafe. whatever it is, something
excellent is always about to happen at The Matt, good or bad, and rarely uninteresting.
the machines at The Matt are broken. in some of them you can hold the lids open and
watch your clothes spin around and soak in soap. with the top-loading machines you usually
don't even need to separate colors and whites because the water never gets hot enough.
when your washis finished, you can choose from among five or ten dryers to dry your clothes.
one takes one quarter to dry your load no matter how big it is (number 7) and another will
never get them dry (number 10). i once saw an episode of All in the Family where Doris was
chosen to do a commercial for Maytag, and the washers she was advertising were exactly
the same models Phil has.
without speaking too much for the photographs here, I want to say that i believe what is
special about The Matt is that it is the only place i have ever been where difference can
actually be encountered in its most original form. at The Matt, chance and time are
allowed to interact without the destructive meddling of human intention. phil keeps his
place alive and "clean," but doesn't watch what it eats, or what it does behind his back. as
far as i'm concerned, these are the only conditions under which excellent things can
happen.
