A Tip-Top Team: Momsie and Pam

(Left) Pam Kramer and May “Momsie” Jutila make a great team at Tip-Top Laundry in Sturgeon Bay. Photo by Len Villano.

Tucked back from Kentucky Street and hugging an alley between 4th and 5th Avenues in Sturgeon Bay is an unassuming beige building with a row of windows where more often than not you can see May “Momsie” Jutila at work. Her work and what satisfies her most about it is, simply, “Making stuff come out clean.”

Welcome to Tip-Top Laundry and Dry Cleaners, which is, as the saying goes on Tip-Top Laundry-branded pens, “The best place in town to drop your pants.”

“When I first started working here in 1979 – 80, I was cleaning at night. Eventually I got into pressing and worked my way into the cleaning,” Momsie said.

In 2004, owners Jack and Janet Schultz were ready to retire after owning Tip-Top for 38 years.

“Jack asked me if I wanted to buy this place. I always wanted to buy it because I like doing this kind of work,” Momsie said.

Photo by Len Villano.

With machines that have seen better days, Tip-Top is not the most modern of laundromats. But it is the most inexpensive laundromat in Door County and also the most efficient in terms of how long it takes to wash and dry your things.

But more importantly, it does not feel like a roomful of impersonal washing equipment. It feels as if a human being is behind this, almost as though you are airing your laundry to someone you know.

Maybe it’s Momsie’s photographic wall of fame in one corner near the front windows, with pictures of her husband Tim in his role as bowling coach at Sturgeon Bay High School, as well as other family, friends, pets, co-workers, customers and their families.

Or maybe it’s the homegrown artwork that adorns the laundromat walls, courtesy of her now 20-year-old granddaughter Makayla.

“It started when she was in first grade. When I bought the place, she started drawing pictures,” Momsie said, laughing, “and I decided to make it an art museum down here.”

Momsie began life as a Washington Island Gunnlaugsson, the fourth girl in a family of five children.

“My dad wanted a boy. My uncles all had boys and he had girls,” she said.

Everyone was so convinced that she would be a he that Momsie ended up with a very unique name.

May “Momsie” Jutila. Photo by Len Villano.

“My name is Maynette,” she said. “I was supposed to be Maynard. The doctor was wrong. He lost a quarter to my mother because I didn’t have the little thing. Well, I was a tomboy, so. I’ve been called Mayonette and Little Martina. So we shortened it to May. It’s easier.”

Since coming to the mainland at the age of 18, Momsie has worked a variety of jobs.

“I worked at the shoe factory, cutting out soles. I worked at Doerr Electric and Emerson’s. Then I worked at the courthouse part-time. I was a bailiff up there. It was very interesting. My dad was on one of the juries, so I got to tell him where to go and what to do.”

And while working at the Schultz-owned Tip-Top Laundry, she also cooked at the Neighborhood Pub [where CVS Pharmacy now stands on Egg Harbor Road in Sturgeon Bay]. That’s where she got the nickname Momsie.

“The Navy was here down at PBI [Peterson Builders Inc., a Sturgeon Bay shipbuilding company that closed in 1998 after a long history of building military vessels]. I cleaned their clothes here and cooked their food at the Pub,” she said. “I did everything but tuck them in at night. They started calling me Momsie and it just kind of stuck. That was back, I don’t remember exactly what year it was. It was fun knowing them people. They were around for a while, more than a year, I believe. They were nice guys. Now I can walk in any place and somebody will call me Momsie. That’s fine with me.”

Pam Kramer. Photo by Len Villano.

Another sign that Tip-Top is not just another business is the loyalty of longtime employee Pam Kramer, who has worked there twice as long as Momsie has owned it.

“Pam’s been here 24 years,” Momsie said.

“I started here part-time when my daughter was in first grade and she’s 32 years old now,” Pam said, whose response to what she likes about working here echoes that of her employer.

“Helping you look good,” she said. “Comes in dirty, goes out clean. Everybody’s happy.”

Momsie laughed and added, “And well dressed.”

The two obviously enjoy each other’s company, and that apparently rubs off on customers.

“We usually know everybody’s name,” Momsie said. “The summer people that go away for the winter, we’re always happy to see them back in here. We’ve got regular customers every season, every week.”

“You really develop a rapport with a lot of them,” Pam added. “Sometimes they just come in to say, ‘Hey’ come in and see how we’re doing. Our seasonal birds, they check in and check out so we don’t worry about them all winter.”

“We’ve got good people. You get to know customers,” Momsie said.

But it’s not all fresh linen and lace in the laundry business. Three very different things take the shine off the business, with the biggest challenge being keeping the machines working.

“My husband does all the maintenance. Not too thrilled sometimes, but…” Momsie said, drifting off to let you find your own conclusion to that.

The second thing is vandalism and theft at the laundromat.

“One night I came in here to close up and the top of one of my white washers was gone,” she said. “Somebody ripped off the top, I don’t know how. They wanted the money, but there was no money because I had already emptied it out. They ruined it for nothing. I called the police and said if you see the top of a white washer running around, it belongs to Tip-Top Laundry. Otherwise, we’ve got some people who come in and take spray cans in the bathroom or soap left out on the sink. You don’t know.”

The final major problem in the cleaning business is people who attempt to fix stains themselves.

“Now they’ve got that Dryel stuff. They use it and then bring it to us to fix it,” Momsie said, referring to a popular home “dry cleaning” preparation.

“That’s probably the No. 1 thing I tell people,” Pam added, “if you’ve got something, just leave it. Don’t do anything. Don’t put water, don’t rub on it.”

“And then they put Shout on dry cleaning stuff and we can’t dry clean that,” Momsie said.

“We’ve pretty much seen it all. Nothing surprises us,” Pam said.

Which brings up the “No Rush Jobs” posted by the cash register.

“They want us to dry clean it and press it now,” Momsie said.

“I think they’re used to the bigger cities. We’re a slower pace here,” Pam said.

“Yeah,” Momsie said. “It takes a good week, unless it’s an unexpected funeral. I’ll break my back just to get something for a funeral done.”