Individual Attention Needed

When I left for college, my mother — who had always done my laundry — made a canvas duffel bag for me. “Put your dirty clothes in this every night,” she said. “At the end of the week, wash them at the Laundromat.”

Seven days later, I took my dirty clothes to the Laundromat. To save time, I threw the duffel bag in the washer, put in some laundry powder, inserted the proper change, and turned on the machine.  Moments later, a loud thump, thump, thump, thump echoed through the Laundromat. A pretty coed approached me with a grin. “I watched you load your washer. I think the clothes would get cleaner if you took them out of the bag.”

 — Roger Barrier, Listening to the 
Voice of God (Bethany, 1998)