It required Mrs. Cook to be reservationist, timekeeper and money collector. I would write the time that the customer started in a little notebook. They would sign up to wash for one hour. When they finished, they would come up and pay me. The laundry moved forward in 1954 by adding six more washers and its first two dryers.
Washing cost a quarter.
The Cooks dried clothes for a dime. A major change came a few years later when the Cooks had 24 automatic washers installed. Previously, he had mounted coin slots to their previous machines before the factory started manufacturing built-in coin controls. Kinder confirmed Cook's Washateria's claim to being the oldest laundry in Oak Cliff, though he and Mrs. Cook agreed that the Snowflake laundry in nearby Cockrell Hill is the oldest in southern Dallas County. Kinder said he has serviced Cook's Washateria since the early 1950s and knows its equipment well.