Cartoonist Hopes to Clean Up on Funny Stuff at the Laundromat

Brooklyn-born George Schechter, 71, spent 35 years as a Valley sign painter, doing lettering for companies on the sides of trucks and the windows of local businesses like banks and beauty parlors.

But his creative skills were never tested during his long brush with this quasi-artistic endeavor.

Not like they have been since he decided to give coin-operated laundry ownership a tumble three years ago.

Since buying the Woodman Coin Laundry at 6016 Woodman Ave. in Van Nuys, his creative juices have flowed like liquid detergent into the wash cycle.

Once he started hanging out with the customers at the laundry, his sketches of the people he met there soon started to paper the walls of his establishment. Then, in short order, Schechter started doing slice-of-life cartoons about what was going on around him.

“Funny things happen at the Laundromat, things that make up good cartoons,” Schechter says.

As an example, he says, people are always putting too much soap in the washing machines, causing a tsunami of Tide-y bubbles that can threaten to engulf the place.

“I drew a cartoon showing customers drowning in soap bubbles, with a sign above it saying, ‘Use half a CUP, not half a BOX,’ ” he says.

Other cartoons also offer instructions of what not to do when you come to the washateria. Like the one advising adults not to put small animals or children in the washing machines.

Another cautions against stripping off all your clothes when doing the weekly washing.

Yes, it happened, according to Schechter.

“I didn’t see it, but my stepson who manages the place did,” says the cartoonist.

“Some guy came in, put his laundry in the machine, then took off all his clothes and put them in too.”

Those are the bare facts.

Some cartoons you had to be there to understand, says Schechter, adding that the drawings are very popular with his patrons.

In fact, Schechter is thinking of bundling his cartoons into a book and seeing if someone would publish it. It will be called “At the Laundromat,” by George.

Several other names come to mind for the proposed publication.

Maybe something like, “Someday My Rinse Will Come.”

Or, “Clotheshanger,” (with a movie following, starring Sylvester Stallone).

Or, “How Clean Was My Valley.”

OK.

Maybe not.

If You Are Into Miniatures, Can It

Many of us find artistic expression in ways that might not attract others.

Nose flute playing and painting other people’s toenails quickly come to mind.

Often, however, someone comes up with a creative concept that could rip through the nation like a rampaging dinosaur escaped from the big screen of some local movie house.

Floyd Bray of Sunland may have the next sweep-the-nation collectible.

Does Pet Rock mean anything to you?

Smurfs?

Oil paintings of Elvis on black velvet?

Thought so.

Bray, who has been an International House of Pancakes waiter for 18 years, makes miniature furniture out of soft drink and beer cans.

He says you can put his items on your coffee table or in your etagere with your other prize pieces if you wish.

He thinks they go nicely with things like China tea sets and antique figurines.

He says he learned the art form from his grandmother when he was growing up in North Carolina and that it took him six or seven years to learn to do it right.

“For $10, I can make a set that includes a rocking chair, a stool and a straight-backed chair,” says Bray, who adds that his only tools are scissors to cut the pieces and a nail to make the curly fringe on the bottom of the chairs.

He says people can see his work at the Pasadena IHOP where he usually works, or at Sterling’s Restaurant near his Sunland home, where a waitress friend put some sets on display.

“Right now I have some time on my hands because I fell down the stairs and I am recovering from a back injury. I’m real proud of what I do. I think it’s original and shows skill,” the artist says.

He adds that when the furniture miniatures are completed you can still see the beer or soda pop label, so if people have a special brand preference, he makes it from that brand for them.

Flooky’s Hot Dogs Bark to Salsa Beat

It’s a little disconcerting when your neighborhood hot dog stand goes south of the border.

That’s what happened when the Northridge Flooky’s became Senor Flook.

Flooky’s hot dogs, which have been pleasing patrons for three years at the location on Corbin Avenue near Parthenia Street, are now barking to a salsa beat.

“The hot dogs may have pleased patrons,” says owner Stan Houston, ruefully, “but not enough patrons and not often enough.”

“We changed to Senior Flook to service the neighborhood tastes,” says the owner. “We got a great Mexican chef and are serving low cost, high quality, Mexican fast food.”

Houston says he once franchised a string of 20 Flooky’s, many of them in the Valley, but that the economy has taken a huge bite out of the income and there are now only four left.

Overheard

“I know 45 is a tough birthday, but look at it this way. You’ll never be this young again.”

Man to friend at the Calabasas Sagebrush Cantina.