Mood Music

[Ninurta]

Long ago, when I was studying physics at UNCG, I used to do my laundry at a laundromat called "Suds and Duds". It was a place where you could grab a beer, eat some snacks from the bar, and watch TV while your clothes were experiencing the spin cycle.  They did a pretty booming business, as UNCG alone haD 12,000 students at the time, and was only one of 6 colleges and universities in the area.

As it turned out, strippers had laundry to do, too. Apparently they wear clothes on their off time. Who knew? So, scenes like this were not unheard of, if somewhat less dramatic.

Matter of fact, that is how I got started in my exciting career as a DJ/bouncer at local strip clubs - made my contacts at the laundromat, and it went from there. There were, at that time, about 40 strip clubs in that area, so no shortage of strippers needing to do laundry, and no shortage of jobs at strip clubs, so I was set.

Now, most of the clubs I worked at were dives, and folks had to do a lot of double duty. For example, every male in the place was a "bouncer", from the manager through the bartender, down to the DJ (me) and of course the alleged bouncers. I said "exciting career", but the plain truth of it was that if it got exciting, it meant that one of us had handled an adversarial situation poorly.

I recall one night when a gent was getting rowdy, grabbing at one of the girls and getting handsier than was warranted, and the bartender came up to me in the DJ booth and said "we're gonna have to calm that young man down". So of course, I said "well where in the hell is the bouncer to handle it?" and, looking around, I saw him at a corner table chatting up one of the dancers, and ignoring the floor. So I told the bartender to get that bastard's attention by popping him in the back of the head, and I'd go start on the miscreant while he was getting him. That turned out to be one of those "exciting" nights.

Strippers and laundromats - breakfast of champions!





.