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By Scott Nicholson
The Boone area is losing a couple of centuries’ worth
of dry cleaning experience.
Trailway Laundry & Cleaners, which has operated on King
Street since the early 1960s, will be pulling the plug on its
presses and folding for the last time in June.
Jeff Younce, right, of High
Country Cleaners, smiles as he brings his dry cleaning
to Ray Gragg of Trailway Laundry & Cleaners on Tuesday.
High Country Cleaners closed on April 30 and Trailway
Laundry & Cleaners is scheduled to close in June.
Photo by Mark
Mitchell |
The family-owned business is a casualty of the King Street
widening, scheduled to begin this summer, and the owners say
they won’t be able to afford space for a new operation.
The business is owned by Johnny Gragg and Ray Gragg, brothers
who started working for Trailway in 1962 when it was owned by
the Hagaman and Mast families.
“They called us and wanted us to start as route men,”
Johnny said. “We liked it and we stayed with them.”
In the late 1970s, the brothers decided to buy the business,
though little else changed. Johnny still covered routes, making
personal deliveries of dry-cleaning items, and both knew how
to work in every area of operations.
While Ray and Johnny have logged about 94 years of dry-cleaning
service themselves, they’ve also kept loyal employees — including
their wives. Johnny’s wife Brenda has worked alongside
them for 44 years, while Ray’s wife Debbie has put in 25
years. The press operator, Wiley Brown, has worked there 35
years.
“We’re going to keep the doors open through June,”
Ray said, noting that the array of clothes that haven’t
been picked up through the years will be donated to local thrift
shops.
The array of items waiting for owners depict the fashions of
the era, from a dress dating back to 1974 that looks like it
might have been pressed for a dance or party. Some of the items
have hung for so long that the print on the claim tags has faded
and become illegible.
Some have been on the rack for 20 years before they have been
claimed. Other customers have probably died or moved away.
The pair knows most of their customers by name, and usually
know how fast someone needs a particular item. Turnaround time
ranges from a few hours to a few days, depending on the customers’
need.
“Some of them have been lifetime customers,” Ray said.
Trailway handles about 300 pounds of material a day, which amounts
to nearly 200 shirts, in addition to suits, dresses, wall ornaments,
blankets, uniforms, and other fabrics.
“Last week a woman brought in an antique (wall hanging)
that had a picture of a bull-fighting scene,” Ray said.
“It was more than 50 years old.”
The pockets have also yielded strange contents. Ray said the
staff has found “everything from love letters to $1,100.”
Counting the Gragg brothers, the business has seven employees
who will soon be entering an uncertain job market. The brothers
say they plan to look for other careers, or as Ray puts it,
“We’ll try to find something to do, if anybody’s
hiring.”
Johnny is the last dry cleaner making personal stops in the
area, and he has been a regular in many High Country homes and
businesses. He, like Ray, has had to run all the different pieces
of equipment at different times.
Neither brother has really followed the changing fashions over
the years, though they’ve handled them all. They usually
wear blue jeans or slacks and simple, button-up cotton shirts.
The Graggs knew the end was approaching but never found the
right place for relocation, and the cost would be substantial
to move. Fuel prices also pinched the profit margin in recent
years.
“The state talked about it for two or three years,”
Ray said. “We have to be out by July 19th. We’ll probably
just close up. It’s hard to find another location.”
Trailways Cleaners will continue to take items for cleaning
until May 30, then spend the remaining weeks cleaning out inventory.
The state paid for the depreciated value of the equipment, which
includes washers, dryers, presses, and equipment that filters
and reclaims cleaning fluid.
Ray said the family had mixed feelings about the business’s
closing. “I guess we just have to accept it,” he said.
“The state doesn’t give you a whole lot of choice.”
He also will have to reset his alarm clock after a few decades
of waking up at 4:30 a.m., coming to the shop and firing up
the boilers for the day’s business. He also starts loads
of clothing in the washers and dryers to get them ready.
“It’s hard to give up something you’ve been doing
for 45 years,” Ray added. “I’ll have to change
my sleep patterns.”
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