Issue #25: Fall 2009

Nicely Folded Laundry, High Achievement and the Nature of Greatness

by Chris Petty, MFA'86

A few weeks ago, I had occasion to use a laundromat. I don’t know
what the situation is in your part of the world, but here in Vancouver laundromats are quickly becoming anachronisms. But my washer was dead, so I went looking.

The only laundromat within a mile of my house was a broken down old place on the Burnaby-New Westminster border. I dragged my three bags inside, expecting the worst. But it was clean, smelled like soap and had a few open machines. I began loading a machine, then noticed the sign above the little desk where the manager sat: "Wash and Fold: $6.50 per load."

A quick visit to my arithmetic skills told me that soap, coin slots and time dictated spending a couple of dollars on the luxury. Wash and fold it was.

The manager was a friendly, middle-aged Asian man. He checked my bags of laundry, then said, "Three loads. Ready by two-thirty." The clock above his desk, beside the sign, said "11:45." I headed out for my favourite greasy spoon breakfast at Mom’s Café, down the street.

Later that afternoon I hauled the washed and folded laundry onto my bed to sort it out. The laundry guy had put each of the three loads in its own yellow plastic bag and tied it shut with a strip of fabric-softener sheet. The knot tying the sheet was a half-bow with a piece sticking out for me to pull the knot apart. Classy, I thought. But that was just the beginning.

Inside the bags, each piece of laundry was perfectly folded and arranged so that each stack of clean clothes formed a solid square. Underwear, socks, facecloths, towels, shirts, pants, all geometrically folded to oblong perfection. No wrinkles, no mismatched socks. Even my wife, who is a very picky laundress, was impressed. This guy not only took pride in his work, he was exceptional at it. At $6.50 a load.

Oddly enough, I happened at that time to be writing speeches for the MCs of the Alumni Association’s gala Achievement Awards celebration.
I was trying to express our theme of "greatness," and what special combination of character, intellect and personality caused a person to reach a little higher and try a little harder, like the recipients of our Achievement Awards (see page 24 for bios of these remarkable people).

I’m sure the guy at the laundromat doesn’t consider his work great in any way. It’s his way of making a living, providing for his family, building his business. He doesn’t have to put the extra care (or flair) into his work to keep his customers: wash and fold doesn’t require artistry, but that’s what he puts into it.

So, I’m no closer to figuring out what constitutes "greatness," or why some people, in the course of their day, choose to push towards excellence instead of settling for OK, especially if they don’t have to. But I look at our remarkable Achievement Award recipients, and at the guy in the laundromat, and see the similarity. Some people just won’t accept second best.

Lucky for the rest of us.

Chris Petty, MFA’86, Editor in Chief