It wasn’t so much the sign reading “FREE CLEANING One Time Job Interview: 2Pc suit, shirt, and tie,” that caught my eye so much as what was written below it: “Good luck!” heavily underlined in black marker. It seemed a silent beacon of hope tucked between the 99 Cent Store and a nail salon in this ubiquitous Southern California strip mall.
The owner of New Life Cleaners is a soft-spoken, professional older man with a rim of close-cropped white hair and a distinct accent who always says, “Thank you and have a good day,” in a way that makes you believe he really means it. So I lingered awhile today after dropping off my order to get to know my neighbor in the cleaning business a little better and to ask him about that sign.
I learned that his name is Joe, that he has run this Encinitas store with his wife Mary since 1994, but has been in the dry cleaning business for over 27 years, previously running stores in San Diego and La Mesa. And I was surprised to learn that he has an MBA and a Ph.D.
Turns out Joe is from Iran. He was 35 when he came to the US for graduate school, but just after finishing his Ph.D. the Iranian revolution happened and there was a little situation with some American hostages. “After the revolution, it was really hard for Iranians to find suitable jobs,” he said. “A lot of us started our own business.”
Despite that setback, Joe and his family have done well. He and Mary have two grown children: a son who is a CPA and a daughter with a nursing degree, and four grandchildren. I asked him how business is going this year. “It’s doing all right,” he said. “Not like last year or the year before, but I have a lot of repeat customers since 1994. Most people, when they come here, they don’t go anywhere. People move to San Diego and still they come here. I also have customers from Carlsbad and Del Mar.”
So I asked him about the sign. “It was not my idea,” he said. “My wife Mary was watching TV and saw some cleaners in New York were doing it, so we asked, ‘Why not we?’” He put the sign up about five weeks ago and has since gotten a few takers.
“We believe in new life,” said Joe, in reference to his business name. “And also we give your clothes new life.”
This is the first in an occasional series of posts called Our Neighbors. We interact with so many people in our day-to-day lives; Our Neighbors is for getting to know them a little bit better. If you have a neighbor you would like to write about, email me for information on guest blogging.
