Too Intimate

Mia’s dad resented the huge glass-plate windows at the front of the Speed Queen Laundromat. Every time we’d walk to and from the restaurant where we worked, he’d avert his eyes.

“Too intimate,” he’d say, and he’d shudder a little and then shake his head like he was trying to wipe away the image from his memory.

I didn’t fully understand that feeling until a few years later when we lived in the tiny apartment in Dallas which was practically on the northern tip of the Addison Airport runway.

I couldn’t bear to look up when those descending planes would roar overhead. Something about those sleek white underbellies made me feel uncomfortable, like I was seeing something private, something unintended for the general audience.

 

I found this image of the Speed Queen using Google Maps. Let's add Google Maps to the "too intimate" list.