I Saw The Sign

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I drove by, and the signs were there.

I did not expect that. Not one bit. I pulled onto 20th Avenue at the end of a day of dead ends, peeked through the window of the old laundromat while I was still rolling, and there they were. Holy crap. They’re still there. Every one of them an original from when I was a kid.

I parked about a block away. I’m glad I was recording (you can hear it below), 56 minutes into the voice memo I’d been talking into since the morning.

Be kind, rewind.

An unusual drive

Saturday, 14 November. I dropped off my amazing little girl at my parents’ house, the first time I’d done that since September. The first time since starting this crazy, insane research project I have no explanation for. Two days with her grandparents. My soul felt warm. And at that point I was inspired to go check at least one place where the signs had been spotted. One would turn to three.

First stop: Rob’s Stop N Wash in Park Slope, 54 Fifth Avenue, the one wall my Google Maps survey of every borough but Staten Island ever turned up. Why am I driving to Park Slope? I’m trying to close the loop on this open question. It’s 30 solid minutes out of the way. Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.

The fall is so beautiful in Brooklyn. I’d forgotten how nice it is here, especially by Ocean Parkway, where they really beautified it. The soundtrack of the day was The Kids Aren’t Alright by The Offspring.

In the back of my mind the whole way down: Rob, the owner, is there, and he’s like, yeah, I don’t care about these, I’ll give you the whole batch for a hundred bucks. And I’m like, good deal, let me go to the ATM. That’s the dream.

It’s funny to find this niche where I’m the only person in the world who cares, but it’s a real thing. I have zero explanation for what is going on here, and I don’t think anybody can understand it. I’m not a sign enthusiast. I know they exist, and some of them can be cool because the artwork is cool, and I love hand painted stuff. But that’s it.

Four minutes away. Am I about to see an original Schorr sign for the first time in so many years, other than fleeting memories of seeing them in some laundromats somewhere, for some reason I can’t even remember? Is this about to happen? Is this real?

There are no parking spots anywhere. Not only are there no spots, there’s nowhere to even drive. Every street is so narrow and everybody is double parked. Then, finally, a real deal, true blue New York parking spot, only two blocks away. It’s perfect. I’m so excited.

Rob’s

I asked the woman working inside. ‘Have you ever seen this sign before?’ It used to hang right there, on that wall.

She barely spoke English. I showed her the pictures, and she didn’t understand. The owner (Rob?) wasn’t in. I asked if I could leave him a note, in case they’re still in the back somewhere. She took a picture of the Google Maps photo of the signs, and I left a small note with my number.

Right there, where they used to hang. They’re gone. No signs.

Yellow wood paneling. The same gray electrical boxes from the 2019 photo. Price signs for the 18 and 30 pound washers. And on the wall, a new printed sign: WE’RE NOT RESPONSIBLE.

We can assume no responsibility for damage, loss or theft of property. Same text. No soul.

That is very unfortunate. This was one of my only leads. But it was worth the trip. It confirms these signs are no longer here, so we can take it off the list, or at least note that it’s no longer active. You can see them vanishing in real time.

Well, look, we tried. It was a good faith effort.

My guess is someone bought them locally. One of these random hipster shops that all have cool signs hanging in them. Or they had to get rid of them, and they dumped them. I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw one of them somewhere around here.

I walked around for a while looking into every hipster-looking storefront, and nothing.

Laundromat by laundromat down Fourth Avenue

Then a lead I didn’t expect. There was another laundromat, in a 2008 post on the animator Fran Krause’s blog, “Fine Character Design on 4th Avenue,” saved by the Wayback Machine. It just said 4th Avenue. It’s 10 plus years old, so the odds of the signs still being there are not great.

The photo on the archived site was very low resolution.

I didn’t have an address, so I literally opened Maps sitting on the side of the road and went laundromat by laundromat. Without exaggerating, 15 or 17 laundromats down Fourth Avenue.

And there it was, 20 minutes away.

I was able to identify it by the very unique looking building next door, the one with the pointed gable, so it’s 100 percent the same one. That’s my next task: go back to the sightings with no address and at least try to find their addresses on the maps.

Why am I spending time on this? I don’t know. I don’t know.

An amazing mural on Third Avenue by President Street. Some guy on a piano. Look at these cartoons, like monsters on a piano. I’ve got to look that up. I’m exploring Brooklyn. This was not on my bingo card, but this is the day.

Red Hook, Sunset Park, Bay Ridge. It’s funny, every time I drive by a laundromat now, I’m peeking in to see what the walls look like. You don’t understand how many laundromats are in New York. That’s the thing that really throws me off, realizing just how many there are. Holy moly.

The one I was going to is called, wait for it, The Laundromat. That is the name of the location. 6914 Fourth Avenue, 69th and Fourth, in Bay Ridge. The 2008 post had seven signs on the walls.

I went inside. The walls have nothing. Another dead end.

But now I’m a 15 minute drive from MY old laundromat, which I know is not going to have anything in it. I might as well just do it, right? When in Rome. When’s the next time? I’ve spent weeks chasing this story. One more stop, and then we’re going home.

A cool clock tower on Fourth Avenue and Ovington. I’ve never even heard of Ovington Avenue. IS 30, a very unique looking school, someone actually tried to make it look different. Fallout shelter signs. Those are interesting too. Who made all those signs, over the years?

At what point does history truly deserve to be irrelevant? At what point do you just let go, knowing that even if you try to cling on to the last little bits of it, eventually it’s going to go away, and that’s okay. That’s completely okay.

The adventure of the signs, for me, was just trying to find them and see them again, more than anything. The journey was completed when I was able to find and see basically all the ones I remember, or think I remember, from my childhood. Anything beyond that…

Oh, I almost missed my turn.

My old stomping grounds

Right on 20th Avenue. Back in the old neighborhood. I did this so backwards. I should have started with the place from my childhood. I don’t know why I didn’t.

Another medical center where the deli used to be. The laundromat we went to later, on 76th Street, never had those signs. The grocery store still has the original awning from when I was a kid, really collapsing and falling apart.

Then the house on 20th Avenue, the one I dream about frequently. Our old apartment.

The first time I walked to that laundromat on my own, I was six years old. I was home alone. We couldn’t afford a babysitter and my mom ran out to do laundry. I heard a sound, and I got scared. So I got myself dressed, pulled the door closed, did it all right, and walked all the way to the laundromat, where my mom was doing laundry. I remember walking in, and her eyes were the size of saucers. She was so shocked to see a six year old kid walking through the door by himself.

There’s the old laundromat. The awning is completely gone now, but I knew that from recent pictures. Let me pop in and see what’s going on. I don’t have a lot of hope.

The signs are there. Holy crap, the signs are there.

Up close and personal

Here it is, where it all started. The same shop. The same signs in the old laundromat.

I got to see them up close and personal. The laundromat was full, and all the people in there were looking at me like I’m some crazy person taking pictures of laundry signs. And the poor lady working there, who barely speaks any English, and I’m trying to ask her, “hey, do you know the story of these signs? Have they always been here?”

Turns out she’s new. She’s been on the job however many days. I don’t think she understood what I was saying.

I think she thought I said I owned the laundromat, when I said I used to come to this laundromat when I was a kid, and the signs were there. I also don’t think she really cared to hear my life story. I left a note for the boss.

I don’t know why I got so shy in there. I just stood around and examined them all in detail. Man, if I could take them off the walls just to see the back, that would be unbelievable, to see if there are any additional markings. At the bottom of each one is the tiny Laundesigns maker line.

But instead of a copyright, it has a phone number: 1-718-497-5252. That’s Schorr Sign Service. The shop’s 1971 Queens Yellow Pages ad lists 67-43 Myrtle Avenue at HY 7-5252, which is 497-5252 on a dial. And the 718 area code didn’t exist until 1984.

These signs were printed in 1984 or later.

This is a breakthrough discovery. These are not signs from the 1960’s, they were reprinted in the mid-80’s or later.

They are in rough shape. I will not lie. Rough, rough shape. There’s clearly stuff that’s been spilled. They’ve aged, they’ve decayed. Which, again, makes me think back to my childhood.

I finally have documentation that they are still there, although there’s a gap that tells me one might be missing.

Seven are up: DON’T DYE HERE, HOWDY NEIGHBOR, BE AN ANGEL, CAREFUL NOW!, DID YOU SAY CHANGE?, WE’RE NOT RESPONSIBLE and THIS COULD BE YOU. To the right of HOWDY NEIGHBOR, a plain yellow panel covers one of the openings. The same seven titles hung at Rob’s and on Fourth Avenue in 2008.

It would be crazy not just to buy a set of signs, but to buy these signs, the set from my childhood. That would be absolutely insane. And if the owner doesn’t sell them, I’m kind of at peace, because they are in such horrible shape. At least I have reasonable documentation now, and more images to add to the library of the signs at this specific location.

I should have taken a picture of myself in front of those signs. They already think I’m a crazy person. What do they care if I take one more?

Full circle

The journey comes full circle. Where it started is where it kind of concludes. I mean, I doubt I’m at the end of this.

I’m kind of speechless. It makes sense, right? This was it. First confirmed sighting. A one of one.

It’s funny how many tens of thousands of people have seen those signs in that spot. They continue to see them every day, and look at them, and wonder.

I will now forever be looking inside every laundromat I ever walk by.

What’s next

Go back.

Make a checklist of every single known location, and visit them. All of them. Find addresses for the ones with no address.

It was 3 PM, and it had turned into quite the adventure. Not at all what I expected. Cold, a real fall day, but beautiful. Sunny, gorgeous.

Back on the FDR, with The Midnight playing Sunset.

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