{"id":3166,"date":"2011-01-28T02:21:52","date_gmt":"2011-01-28T07:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=3166"},"modified":"2012-02-07T11:15:52","modified_gmt":"2012-02-07T16:15:52","slug":"ed-robinson-laundry-dry-cleaning-trenholm-plaza-1970s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=3166","title":{"rendered":"Ed Robinson Laundry & Dry Cleaning, Trenholm Plaza: 1970s"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This corner space at Trenholm Plaza<\/i> was most recently occupied by The UPS Store<\/a>, but when I was growing up, it was Ed Robinson's<\/i>, though I probably never knew it by name.<\/p>\n

My mother did not believe in clothes dryers, opting for a clothes-line in the back yard. This was fine most of the time, but since rain is not unknown in the Columbia area, every now and then we would be faced with a need for clothes that were not yet dry. In addition to that, in the 1960s I had the impression that our washer was something of a lemon. There were fairly frequent calls to the service man, and more than once I recall the floor covered in sudsy water.<\/p>\n

When we needed clothes washed or dryed, there were two choices: either the laundomat by what is now city hall on Trenholm Road, or the one in Trenholm Plaza. I think that when my mother had to deal with us children, we tended to end up at Ed Robinson since she could let us \"free-range\" around the plaza while the clothes were cycling.<\/p>\n

As I recall, the staffed laundry was in the east end of the building with the laundromat area being in the west end. The laundromat area was filled with tables and wheeled hampers, and smelled of soap and hot lint. As I recall, the tables were some sort of plastic, or covered with plastic and hued aqua-marine. I would sit on them, and swing my legs back and forth (this must have been before I could read, or I would have had a book). As a boy I was fascinated by mechanical devices of all sorts, and I was particularly fixated on the gas dryers which lined the west wall. Not only did they have sort of retro-spaceship-control sliders for varying the temp from \"warm\" to \"way too hot\", but they were large enough (floor to ceiling) that I could imagine actually riding in one (this was during Gemini & Apollo) with more room to spare than the astronauts had. The start (or \"blast off\") process was particularly satisfying as you put your quarter in a slot way at the top of the machine (I had to use a chair), turned a knob which had a very satisfying action, heard your coin drop with a cheery plink, and then<\/i> got to push the starter button which wound the whole thing up.<\/p>\n

The washers were not quite as interesting, but did have a variety of little plastic tops you could put on the agitator for reasons which escape me now, and of course you could always play \"open the lid -- washer stops\" \/ \"close the lid -- washer starts\" until my mother would make me stop so she would get a full wash from her quarter.<\/p>\n

I'm not sure when the cleaner closed. I know it was still there in 1970<\/a>, but think it was gone by the time I left town in 1985. As for myself, while I agree with my mother that line dried clothes are nicer than tumble-dried ones, I don't have her patience. The line is still in the back yard, but the clothes go in the Kenmore. (And for all that I tend to be a \"they don't make them like that anymore\" guy, I don't think I've ever had to call service on a modern washer or drier..)<\/p>\n

The original plan for Trenholm Plaza was to tear down the whole wing, and The UPS Store<\/i> moved across the way in anticipation of that, but in the event the economy collapsed and management scaled their plans back to doing a remodel instead. Most of the spaces have been re-filled, but the old Ed Robinson<\/i> space is currently still empty.<\/p>\n

UPDATE 29 November 2011<\/b> -- It's to be a Cafe Caturra<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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UPDATE 7 February 2012<\/b> -- The Cafe Caturra<\/a> looks about ready to open:<\/p>\n

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This corner space at Trenholm Plaza was most recently occupied by The UPS Store, but when I was growing up, it was Ed Robinson's, though I probably never knew it by name. My mother did not believe in clothes dryers, opting for a clothes-line in the back yard. This was fine most of the time, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,478,269,96,5,31,98],"class_list":["post-3166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-business","tag-cleaner","tag-forest-acres","tag-forest-drive","tag-historic","tag-trenholm-plaza","tag-trenholm-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}