While walking to the post office today to pick up a gently worded plea for my money from my more well-heeled alma mater, I noticed that the last dry cleaning store in town is going out of business. According to the sign on their window, it’s because the dry cleaning machine broke and they can’t afford to fix it, so, poof, no more dry cleaning.

In a quick Google search, I determined that the closest dry cleaner is now Willits, roughly 45 minutes to an hour away. So, apparently, we are all supposed to drive our dry cleaning to Willits now, or just not dry clean our clothing, or maybe throw our sweaters away when they get gross?

It’s not the fault of the dry cleaning company that they went out of business, obviously, but I think it’s really emblematic of everything that is going wrong in Fort Bragg. Franklin Street is more empty storefronts than actual businesses at this point, and while the over-priced boutiques on Laurel with nothing over a size four are thriving, the people who live here can’t get their dry cleaning done. Or buy a tea kettle, or sheets, to mention two recent examples of things I’ve had to go out of town for, or anything else which might be vaguely useful and necessary.

I mean, this is just insane. A dry cleaners is the kind of thing which should just exist, you know? People make clothing that needs to be dry cleaned, people like me buy it, people like me like to be able to clean our clothing. I love that it’s becoming harder and harder for me to buy locally and to use local services, because everyone is being forced to cater to the tourists (who apparently don’t need dry cleaning during their stays) and the people who just moved here and want it to be just like Healdsburg, only more quaint, like before all those awful people discovered Healdsburg and made it less quaint. And obviously, quaint towns don’t have dry cleaners, and they magically have restaurants that are all open late because nightlife is just part and parcel of a quaint traditional farming town. (Let alone the fact that Fort Bragg isn’t and never was a farming town, it’s an exploit-natural-resources-like-timber-and-fish town.)

Good thing I got all my sweaters dry cleaned in April as part of the annual spring sweater storage program, eh?