Independence Day celebrations are nearly over and the grind to go back to work will start shortly. This is a bittersweet occurrence nearly every year. I think the Fourth of July is really what marks the beginning of summer in America. It all starts days or even weeks leading up to the festivities.

Families planning lunches and barbecue, small and large fireworks displays abound and, in Amarillo, happen apparently at any time. This year we were invited to my younger sister's house in Bushland. She has this perfect little fantasy ranch where we had plenty of room to set up picnic tables in the horse stable and fit the 25 or so family and friends who came together in celebration of all things American.

The brisket and sausage was about as delicious a meal as ever presented on this day of celebration. We had wonderful conversations and got caught up on what everybody had been doing since the last time we had all gotten together, which was probable around Christmas. The children played together, running around in and out of shoes with big, gleeful smiles on their faces not quite understanding what this holiday is all about but with intense desire to begin popping fireworks even if it was just sparklers and smoke bombs that they got to light.

My youngest daughter became fast friends with a little girl she had just met. Two ornery children who seemed to have as much fun playing at being pigs rolling in the mud as dressing Barbie in her newest fashion. I didn't see a single phone or iPad being used for any other purpose than to take pictures and remember how sweet it is to appreciate being so blessed to be an American on Independence Day.

The founding fathers should have been hanged for crimes against the throne, and I am sure they would have been if we had not won our independence. It is hard to imagine a time when America wasn't one of the most powerful countries in the world, however it has only been that for a short time. I wonder what has made us so successful where so many other countries have failed. I think after having visited so many other places it is our desire to follow the rules mostly.

When traveling in other countries, I was always amazed at the rule breaking that went on. Little things like traffic lights. People trying to run them jamming up traffic in all directions as they try to fight for who gets through first. In America, it is mostly understood that you wait your turn and by doing so everybody eventually gets to go their way. When we break the rules, it is usually with much thought and consideration as a cultural whole.

We decide what is the best course of action for us and head that direction. We knew we would be better off as a strong independent country than as a colony ran by another country so far away and who did not understand our morals or culture. I enjoy Independence Day every year and look forward to seeing friends and family get together and celebrate all things American, and this year did not disappoint.

I hope the fireworks and camaraderie made an impression on my children and they understand just how blessed they are to have been born in America and how easy it is to make life choices for yourself here. There are no boundaries or hurdles in place to prevent people from striving to make the best life they possibly can for themselves and their children in this great country. Oh, well, back to the grind until Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the memories and the beginning of what I hope is a fantastic summer.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com.

I was talking with one of my customers about how busy life is nowadays. She has a full-time job and so does her husband. They are juggling life, kids and work. She used to iron her husband's work shirts herself but now that little bit of time is too precious to waste so she brings them to us. I absolutely know how she feels. It seems like June just started, however, we are at the end now about to go into July. Before you know it, school will be starting again. I know some of the laundry we do, especially wash and fold by the pound, is sent to us to save people time and open their schedules for what is really important -- spending time with the family or relaxing with a good movie or book. It doesn't take much to look your best, and, certainly, local dry cleaners love to help.

There is a reason that no matter how you try it is next to impossible to achieve the same results on a men's button-up shirt that a dry cleaner can. We go through many steps to put the best finish possible on a button-up shirt that are hard to impossible to recreate without the right equipment. The first thing that happens in the process is the front counter person decides if the shirt needs to be dry cleaned or laundered.

Most men's shirts are laundered, however, there are several dry clean only options as well such as Pendleton wool shirts or lots of Robert Graham shirts are defiantly dry clean only. There can be many reasons for this such as the colorfastness used when making the shirt or the amount of natural fibers such as wool which can lose shape and feel if laundered. Then the order is sent to be tagged. The tagger affixes a specific number to the shirt and double checks it for stains that need to be pretreated then sorts it by color and starch preference.

What dry cleaners mean by starch is not what most people think about when they think of starch. I know for most of my life I associated starch with what comes in the can at the store in the dry cleaning world this is sizing and used mostly for delicate items such as blouses. The starch used in dry cleaning is actually a form of corn starch that is added into the wash cycle where it binds with the fibers like a glue and adds additional protection against things like stains or if you are a welder it can help keep your shirts from burning from the small sparks.

The shirt is then sent to the wash. Once done, it is removed from the washer still wet and sent to the shirt presser to be put on the shirt buck. This machine has a body form that you put the shirt around, then vacuums the shirt down tight and two large hot plates one for the front and one for the back press and dry the shirt while adding steam. This presses the main body of the shirt, which is then sent to inspection. The inspector looks at the shirt for stains and wrinkles if there are none the shirt is then assembled on the customer's order. If on the other hand there are stains or additional wrinkles, it is sent to either the spotting board for stain removal or to be hand pressed to get the last wrinkles out. It is a long hot process to achieve the perfect shirt but when they do turn out perfect it is very rewarding as well.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com.

In the dry cleaning business, you just never know what the day will bring. This week my delivery driver has been sick so I have been doing the deliveries. This sounds like a straightforward and easy task until you get into the thick of it and realize how much prior planning it takes to achieve success. Starting the day this week, I opened the delivery software and printed out the schedule. Then I began organizing the orders of clothes and putting them on the clothes racks in the back of the delivery van.

I had to do this in the opposite order of delivery so my last delivery of the day goes into the van first and my first goes in last. We run two routes in Amarillo one east of Western and one west of Western. I have to admit even though I have lived in Amarillo for a good portion of my life I do not know all of the neighborhoods here. We have a bunch of small gated communities that if you don't know someone who lives there you probably don't know it exists.

If you see the Doche van circling around your neighborhood feel free to flag me down. I've probably gotten lost looking for your neighbor's house that my GPS says is right there but of course it isn't and I probably can't find it. So far this week I've missed deadlines, skipped deliveries and missed delivering sheets or other small items that don't go on a hanger. I have an enormous appreciation for all of my employees, which only grows when I have to do their jobs for a few days.

One of the communities we deliver to is a beautiful neighborhood that has what I assume is a small manmade pool with a fountain. It is almost like going to a European village. The streets are cobblestone and meander in every which direction with very little organization as far as I can tell. Every time I go into it I feel as if I have been transported out of Texas and into another country. The houses line the streets without yards so they but up against the cobblestone streets.

This makes the streets seem very narrow it is an optical illusion I think just because the houses are right there and when you make a turn or try to turn around you feel like you might run right into a house. The people who live there are always outside walking their dogs or jogging around the central park area I think it seems like a really neat area of Amarillo to live in.

Hopefully, Monday will come and my delivery driver will return, enabling me to get back to business as usual. I enjoy being able to work in the production plant, ensuring every item of clothing is processed to the best of our ability. Organization is the backbone of dry cleaning, and every item of clothing is inspected several times. When you drop off, for example, a men's button-up shirt, it is first inspected by the front desk, then tagged and inspected again. The shirt is sorted and put into the correct starch: no starch, light, medium or heavy. Finally it is processed, pressed, and then sent to final inspection and assembly with the rest of your order. We usually have one of the owners do the final inspection to ensure it meets our standards.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com.

I think it's official: the 90′s are back. Time to break out the sundresses with super clunky shoes or even Doc Martins and for the guys flannel shirts and boots. It's interesting how fashion comes around and then goes again. I would say a lot of the fashion from the early 2000′s was definitely inspired by the 1980s, thankfully, in my mind anyway, that seems to be over.

I hope that buffalo shoes begin to be in style and the size makes the skinny jean no longer cool. I first noticed this trend of 90′s style about a six months ago or so we started getting a bunch of baby doll dresses to be cleaned and pressed. Which if I remember in my dusty old mind really started with the girls on "My So Called Life." We've also seen a resurgence of combat trousers in both tan and camo colors. I'm not sure if it will be making a return, but I hope the multicolored butterfly hair clips come back. I'm not sure if it is just my nostalgia talking or that fad really looks good.

Mathew McConaughey's new movie "The Beach Bum," I think, fashionably has a very 90s vibe. Heidi Bivens who does the costumes for the movie, whether she planned it or not, includes such 90′s staples as Jinco jeans worn by Zach Efron. Everything in the movie McConaughey wears could have come from any beach bum living in the 90s, even the bedazzled Ugg boots and flame suit he wears in a few scenes.

Unfortunately, he does not rock the dad bod, which I keep trying to convince the girls in my life is super popular and should be respected. He wears a fanny pack, which I'm not sure should make a comeback but would go with a dad bod I think. Snoop Dogg makes an appearance in the movie wearing what he would normally wear and I'm not sure he ever made it out of the 90s aside from being a little more peculiar than he would normally be. All together I think this movie could help bring back the 90′s style even more than it already has started to.

I had a professor in college that I cannot remember what he taught exactly, maybe economics. However, he said something that has resonated with me for the last several years. His opinion is there are three things every business has to choose from to be successful unfortunately you only get to pick two of those three things. A business can be fast. It can be cheap or it can be good. You cannot be all three things and if you try you will not be successful. Now every time I go into a business I look to see what they are trying to be. We try to be reasonably priced and good but not fast. I have applied this to many businesses and looking at their models you can see how this plays out in all of them.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com.

My last duty station in the Army was a little place in Virginia called Fort Monroe. It is basically a small island established to guard the entrance between the Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads specifically the Elizabeth, Nansemond and James rivers. The fort itself is interesting it has an interior area surrounded by a moat. Inside that area is housing and if I remember the museum. The fort has since been decommissioned, I believe in 2011, and turned into a national memorial or portions of it was by President Obama. This area is full of historical and unusual places and things.

We lived in Newport News, which was a short drive to the post and close to Colonial Williamsburg, Busch Gardens and Virginia Beach. This enabled us to spend lots of time in all three areas. There are a bunch of small beaches that are mostly only known by locals which are much better than Virginia Beach proper. We owned a small boat and would go out on the Chesapeake Bay and go fishing. One of my daughter's first time to catch a fish, we had bought her a small Barbie fishing pole, and I guess she was not sure if she actually wanted to catch a fish.

She had the hook in the water and a fish came up and nibbled on her line. She got this shocked look on her face and I will never forget how fast she let go of her fishing pole and it seemed to leap from her hand and into the bay never to be seen again. Boating in the Chesapeake is great, however there are some enormous ships that go through those channels and it is a little nerve-racking when they come by and you realize just how small your personal boat is.

I would highly recommend going to Busch Gardens if you are ever in the Virginia Beach area. It is a good sized amusement park, a lot like Six Flags except much prettier. It was started by the Anhuser Busch company in 1975 across from their brewery in the Williamsburg area. It has several roller coasters and other rides. One of my favorite things is they would take you over to the brewery and let you see how the beer was made as well as let you sample some of the different beers. My daughter loved the roller coasters once she was old enough to enjoy them and made me ride a few of them so many times it nearly made me sick.

Colonial Williamsburg is a living history museum in Williamsburg, Virginia. I know it seems like all of these places may be far apart, however, these towns are like driving from Amarillo to Canyon or maybe a little closer. They have costumed employees who mimic life as it was in colonial times, including many neat portrayals of life during that time. We always enjoyed getting to experience the clothing and old buildings that Williamsburg had to offer. It is free of charge to walk around and if you want to go into the different buildings it is a minimal fee.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com.

Sitting at my desk in my office at work all I want is to go outside and enjoy this beautiful spring day. I can't remember in recent years Amarillo actually having a spring. It seems like we have gone straight from winter to105 degree days with almost no moisture the last several years. My garden and backyard are blooming. I've got the largest crop of roses my bushes have produced in several years and the greenest grass. This will be a great weekend to get out and do all of the honey-do's my wife has laid out for me, especially after last weekend's high school graduations making it difficult to do any real work.

Last weekend was bittersweet for me. My daughter graduated and is moving on to the big college adventure. It was nearly 20 years ago my wife and I were graduating from AHS and now we get to see our daughter do the same. I can't say I am going to miss the last minute I have a project due tomorrow at bed time. I will however miss all of the little sweet things like running to The Ruffled Cup and catching them right before close to grab a special treat after a hard day's work. I know that look on her face when you get to do something little and special like that is near priceless. Now that she is going to be a grownup I bet we don't get to do things like that anymore.

When I was contracting in Afghanistan I would work about seven or eight months on and then get three weeks off. One of those times when my daughter was I think still in middle school we went to Padre Island for a week. I know that is not as exciting as going to Jamaica or Hawaii, however Padre is one of Texas' perfect little getaways.

It's just a small sand bar in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. The water is definitely not perfectly blue and clear but it has its own brown charm just like the island its self. I think the culture on Padre is perfect for a beach town. Everything is a little run down and could use a coat of paint. If you like fishing or riding jet skis, they have plenty of charter boats and ski rentals. However, they will all be from 1985 and barely held together with duct tape and bailing wire.

The jet skis may propel you to 20 miles an hour but beyond that they will bog down and show their age. If you're lucky, they won't sink. There is a wonderful little shop there I have gone to since I was a little kid called Kay's Jewelry. I remember when I was little getting the obligatory shark tooth necklace and talking with the owner as he smoked cigarettes in his little shop and his wife assisted us in picking out beads and teeth.

We took our girls there and like the town itself the shop has gotten a little more run down. The ashtray on the counter is no longer being used since the owner's husband passed. However the wife is still running the business and greeting customers with her infectious smile. My youngest daughter and my oldest both picked out their shark tooth necklaces sitting in the same chair I did when I was their age. This is a sweet memory of mine and one I will cherish even though now my daughter is a grown adult and no longer has the time to sit on my lap and let the ocean wash over our toes.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com.

Happy Memorial Day or thank you for your service. These are terms nearly all veterans will hear on Memorial Day. People who have never been in the service have a hard time distinguishing the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. These are distinctly different holidays.

Veterans Day is a day to honor all veterans who served and is a great time to thank them for their service. Memorial Day on the other hand is a day of observance for those who laid their life's down to ensure the freedoms of the people of the United States.

When America first began, we had politicians with the most fortitude and mental toughness to ever grace the planet. People often forget but when they signed the Declaration of Independence, they were committing treason to their country and the penalty for that was death. They still understood that the idea of America was a great one and one worth dying for.

This is an idea that has permeated the American psyche for generations and why we have the best fighting force on the planet. I think today's politicians for the most part will never understand the commitment to service displayed by the honorable people who preceded them. Those who were willing to sacrifice their lives for an idea that the responsibility of leaders is to ensure the best for those they lead.

In recent years the wars fought by American soldiers have all been on the other side of the pond. My experience was during operation Iraqi Freedom, which started March of 2003. My squad was specifically assigned to a small Iraqi police station in a suburb of Baghdad called Abu Ghraib.

At first we ran 24-hour shifts there and then they moved my squad to night shift only in 12-hour shifts. Our company took over what I think may have been a museum of some kind near the Saddam hands. This was our main area and from there we would all run different Iraqi Police stations.

We would drive out to our Iraqi Police station every day to assume our shift. The road out there was pretty treacherous at that time. There was one area in particular that stands out. We had a roundabout we had to go through that was notorious for improvised explosive devices. We called it the Indianapolis 500 and when you arrived you just floored the HMMWV, shut your eyes and hoped you made it through unscathed.

My gunner through all of this was a young female who was assigned to me right before we left for Iraq. PFC Betsold did an excellent job without complaint. She arrived to the unit on the same day as PFC Bosveld. I actually had the two of them confused for the first few days they were with us. Our Iraqi police station was next to an open-air market where the locals traded everything from food to mortars.

Because of our location, we were attacked by locals something like 145 nights in a row. Somebody was keeping count and that was the number I heard. Private First Class Betsold was at the Abu Ghraib Iraqi police station when it came under mortar fire for what was probably the 100th plus time. She was fatally injured that day. Finally, after that the brass in charge brought in tanks and leveled the open-air market to help stop the free flowing movement of weapons in that community.

That is what Memorial Day is for -- to remember and honor those who died for our country. One day of solemn silence lest we ever forget what sacrifices were made for an idea that is America.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com.

It is nearly summertime, and that makes for a large change in the dry cleaning business for what is sent in to be cleaned and pressed. We are moving from sweaters and winter suits to summer sport coats, polo shirts and shorts. It is as important in the summer time to put your best foot forward even though the clothing is less formal. If it is properly cleaned and pressed it can still look great and well presented.

This is an exciting weekend. The next installment of the John Wick movies with Keanu Reeves is coming out. The first two are some of the best action movie offerings to come out in several years. For those of you who don't know, John Wick is an assassin who lives in a world where there is a network of assassins who interact and live with the real world but one of their own making as well with their own rules and codes. The action scenes are phenomenal with beautifully choreographed fights and splendid background sets, which if you pay attention helps to tell the story.

I believe the character of John Wick may unhorse James Bond as the best dressed hit man in the movies. His suits are designed and tailored by Luca Mosca with an impeccable eye for detail. Throughout the series it is interesting to watch for all of the small changes that happen to the suits. One of the things I think is hard to notice is that even though most people think he wears black throughout the movie it is actually a dark grey in nearly every scene. I think in the second movie the shirt collars are increased by a few millimeters, which alters the look completely. Finding the best fit and style of clothing to wear is a trial and error process which is why it is so tough to buy clothes online that fit correctly.

According to Luca, he made about 50 suits for the most recent movie to allow room to do some of the stunts or to add padding. He had to add material to the arm hole of some of the jackets or to the inseam to allow the actor to perform certain stunts. Creating the look is about all of the small details such as the red cufflinks John wears. They are just one small pop of color in an otherwise dark attire.

Watching these movies with all of the characters dressed to the nines is fascinating for me. I like to think that at one time people always put this much attention and trouble into what they would wear for specific occasions or every day. I was talking a customer the other day about how when he was younger people would dress up for the most mundane task. He especially mentioned flying which used to be an event people would wear suits and dresses for. Last time I flew I think most on the plane people were wearing athleisure wear at best and pajamas at worst. With any luck this weekend I will be able to put on my best attire take my wife to a nice restaurant and escape into the world of John Wick one more time.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com.

Sometimes you get to have an adventure. It can come as a surprise or be a planned vacation. In my case this time I was assigned to provide security for soldiers on R&R during their time deployed to Kosavo. We were sent to Sophia Bulgaria, which is the capital and much like a major U.S. city.

They sent my entire squad, which consisted of nine people, and set us up in a local four-star hotel. We had a great per diem which more than covered food and laundry. They would rotate the soldiers on R&R through for three days so we would work six days on two rotations and then have one day off. It was interesting to me that many films are shot in and around Sophia. While we were there, we met Jean Claude Van Damme, who was shooting a film, and Dean Cain, who was about to start filming something.

You would be surprised I think at how often Sophia is supposed to be some other European city. There are many areas with beautiful cobblestone streets and luxurious old buildings. One day we took a small field trip out of the city. I think it was about an hour bus ride or so and saw one of the oldest monasteries in Europe. Right around the corner from our hotel was the Church of St. George. It was built during the reign of Constantine the Great in the fourth century. It is quite a sight to see with its large dome with beautiful frescoes underneath.

The culture in Bulgaria is unusual. The Russian mob, at least in the early 2000s, controlled quite a bit of the city. We had many interactions with them when soldiers would drink in their establishments and not realize they had ran up a thousand dollar bill.We patrolled with the Bulgarian police and one night while on patrol we went to a doughnut shop that appeared to be a legitimate franchise.

Sometimes in foreign cities they will open coffee shops or retail places and use a familiar brand as the name, but they don't have anything to do with the real companies. We went inside and the patrolman pulled out his weapon, set it on the counter and began speaking with the customer service representative in Bulgarian.

It didn't seem to be a heated exchange, however, she proceeded to turn around, fill up a box of donuts and the patrolman reholstered his weapon and turned around and walked out with the donuts without paying. I was in shock, to say the least, however you never can tell when people in other countries are messing with you and at least in my mind he was playing a prank on me. Another night we were off duty and decided to go to a fancy restaurant. I love to try new food and can tell you when in a foreign country ask what the best restaurant is and try whatever the waiter recommends as the best thing on the menu.

This particular night we got into a cab. It was December and snowing so the streets were icy. The cab driver didn't seem to care and went speeding through the night with little trepidation as to what might happen if we slid into something. The three of us going out that night were white knuckled holding our seat belts in our hands and at least I was praying we did not have an accident. Whipping around a corner, we did slide into another car causing some minor damage. However both cars were still operable.

The driver we hit started his car and took off through the night on the small cobblestone roads, which twisted and turned through the city with no discernible plan. I think they just followed whatever old horse trail was in the city at the time they were built without thought as to what direction people actually wanted to go. Our cab driver jumped back into the cab, speeding off in hot pursuit of the poor driver we had hit.

Yelling into the radio, I assume, for help from his fellow cab drivers because as we raced through the city we were joined by four other taxis. They boxed the driver of the other car in at a dead end and our cab driver jumped back out of the cab proceeded to pull the other driver out of his car and they began beating the other driver up. Our cab driver then hopped back in apologized and sped us off to our pre-planned destination.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com.

One thing about being a dry cleaner is that we get to see all kinds of clothes. We also get to see how they age over time and what companies have the best construction. Simple things like how they source their fabrics and what sort of stitching they use can make all of the differences in the world.

Some companies go all out and get the best materials available and some outsource for the cheapest materials they can get. Small boutique items are typically the most delicate and difficult to clean. There are many reasons why I think this is the case. The biggest reason is these clothes are specially made in small batches with little concern for how long they will last. They are made to be perfect for the one season before the next year's line comes out.

Some of the most expensive brands fall into this category and should be taken to a professional cleaner every time they are soiled. Something I never took into account prior to owning a dry cleaning company is the small beads and plastics found on clothes. These, if not made correctly, can melt in the dry cleaning process or the glue used to fasten them to the clothing can come off making the beads or gems come off in the dry cleaner.

This is worth pointing out to your cleaner when you drop off something like that. A good cleaner should be on the lookout for that type of thing, but sometimes it can be overlooked. Amarillo is really lucky that we have several small clothing stores here that are locally owned and will really take care of their customers.

Being a small business owner is an interesting and challenging proposition. You have to fill many shoes and wear all of the hats to make everything work. In a large business everything is more compartmentalized. You have the CEO who makes the command decisions and the CFO who controls the budget.

There are several such titles in a large business so that not one person ever gets too much on their plate. In a small family owned business there is typically one or two people who share all of those responsibilities.

It becomes a juggling act to try and make everything consistent and perfect. I will say having worked for small and large companies in the small companies where the owner is present there is typically more care and pride in the work, which I always thought was one of the best reasons to try and stay local with my shopping. Being able to walk into an establishment and talk to the owner about things is a huge plus in my book.

Try going into one of the major chain stores and see if you can talk to an owner I don't think it would be possible unless you spent some astronomical amount of money with the business. Case in point I had a customer call the other day about getting a stain out of an item of clothing. I spent several minutes talking to her about what we would try to do to get the stain out. Dry cleaning is as much art as science. You have to watch the PH levels of the water and the clothes having too much acidity can lead to yellow spots etc. Working on the stain board if your technique isn't good, you can blow a hole into the garment, especially a delicate silk blouse. I try to be available to interact with the customers as much as possible.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com

I've lived all over the world, not on vacation but lived in other places for months and years at a time. Amarillo is the greatest little city I have ever been to. People here will help other people in need. I know if somebody is visiting here and their car breaks down many of the local dealerships will go above and beyond to get them back on the road. Locally, we have many great institutions to help people with little legs up such as the High Plains Food Bank, which, through all of the community support, helps locals be able to eat, or our favorite, Colorful Closets, which helps provide children in need with clothing to go to school and have the confidence they need to become successful in their lives.

We have many wonderful donors who support the arts here such as the Amarillo Little Theatre and there is an awesome initiative through the city to have local artists draw murals on public buildings to beautify Amarillo and support the artists in their endeavors. It never ceases to amaze me how, if you look around Amarillo, how many people are there donating their time and money to help this community be great.

Recently a customer brought in a family heirloom to have a spot removed that had gotten on it during storage. It is a beautiful Easter dress that every member of the family gets their picture taken in, I would say, when they were about three or four. I love the challenge of things like this and the trust we have developed in the community for people to come to us specifically for items that are sentimental or valuable and they know they can't just trust anyone with it.

I recently had one of my most challenging pieces ever brought in. One of our customers is a big motorcycle fan and he was setting up his garage to reflect that. He brought in an old Triumph banner from a dealership that had been hung up for decades in a shop. I knew the colorfastness in the dyes was not going to be very good. It made me feel like an archeologist cleaning this. I used delicate brushes and PH neutral water and soaps to keep the orange from bleeding onto the white. It was an adventure to get all of the dingy yellowing and old grease off. I worked on one little section and stain at a time. It turned out great and the customer seemed extremely happy or at least happy enough to bring in another one.


I've been trying to find live music in Amarillo, and it seems there is a shortage of it here. When my wife and I lived in Virginia, they offered monthly live music in the park which was a lot of fun. One of my hobbies aside from cleaning clothes is to try and pluck my way through a song on the guitar. I've been at it off and on for the last few years and can honestly say a teenager who started playing last week can probable pull off more licks than I can. However, it is still fun to try.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com

Today is Easter, which I believe is a great time to be thankful for everything in our life. Whether tackling a new project you are not sure of the outcome of or having just successfully completed a project. I have realized many times that failures often teach us more than successes.

For those who follow my articles, you know I have two daughters and a wife. This means I am highly outnumbered when it comes to any decisions that need to be made. The estrogen is nearly overwhelming in our house. This means on Easter there will be three girls trying to get ready with limited bathroom and mirror space. We as the parents in the house have messed up raising our girls; I think it is a problem with my generation. We haven't instilled the appropriate amount of fear in our daughters.

I remember waking up Sunday mornings as a kid to the sound of my mother's high heels on the hardwood floor in the hallway running to the kids' bedrooms. Nothing in my life compares to that sound. If you think of any scene in a horror movie where the main characters arm hair rises in anticipation of what is next that is what happens to me when I hear the clack-clack of high heels on hardwood. Unfortunately for us, that is not the case with our daughters so I am sure Sunday morning will be a challenge to make it to church on time and in our Easter best.

Dream big. That is such a small statement and yet it means so much. Dreams are where every adventure begins. I had dreamed of being career military and following in one of my granddad's foot steps. However, after five years in the military I realized I had a 5-year old daughter and had been there for her about six months of her entire life off and on I had even missed her birth having been sent to Kosavo and not being able to return home on time.


I knew when it was time to reenlist that her life meant more to me than the small snippets I had been able to enjoy up to that point. So my wife and I moved on and at that point I had no direction and my dreams had to change. After several years of college with no real direction, we figured out what our next dream was or at least mine. I wanted to own a respected small business in Amarillo and be able to give back to the community by providing jobs and being able to help people in whatever way I could like the people who had helped me in my life.

This has been more than the adventure I had hoped for and we have for the last several years been the owners of several dry cleaners here in Amarillo. Every day is an adventure and the dream keeps changing, moving bars set by leaps and bounds. I am so grateful for the people in Amarillo who are now a part of our small family and see us every day. I hope everybody gets to spend Easter with their families and loved ones. I know I am going to try to this year and make it the best Easter I can. Even if that means having PTSD over the sound of high heels on the hard floors of the church.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com

This is probably an odd statement from a guy who grew up in middle-class Amarillo, but the first time I was ever on the receiving end of enemy fire was in a little country called Kosovo. I went into basic training in 1999 and then went to Airborne training in Georgia. Afterward, I received new orders taking me from either being stationed with the 101st or the 82nd to being with the 527th in Giessen, Germany.

I didn't know it at the time, but the reason was they were gearing up for missions in Kosovo. The Army had just spent millions with Textron to produce a new armored vehicle called the ASV, and the 527th was the first unit to be issued them. The Army wanted to prove they were efficient and capable vehicles, so they immediately sent the 527th to the closest proving grounds they could to help write practical training and see how they handled in rough terrain.

While in Kosovo we put the vehicles to the test. Kosovo has a lot of small mountains and undeveloped areas in between cities and small villages. With that in mind the Army unleashed us in these small wheeled tanks and we took them to task. Something that people don't think about the military is how young everybody is.

The sergeants are in their 20s and the higher enlisted are typically in their 30s. So when the Army said we needed to test these out, we did. Driving to every little village in our patrol sector we were in mudder heaven. We crawled up every muddy mountain trail and through streams and lakes many times getting the Humvees stuck and having to use the wench to pull them up with the ASV. One time while I was driving, we did get one stuck so bad we had to call in the tank recovery vehicle to get us pulled out. Suffice it to say, my superiors were not very happy with us over that one.

Sometime during the deployment, they got word of a rebel training camp up in one of the mountains. The plan was to take Blackhawks up into the mountain and ruck the last little way to assault the camp. Unfortunately, it was snowing too hard that day for the choppers to fly in, so they decided to ruck the entire way up through these small mountain trails. They had planned on using a truck to meet us at the top with our extra gear in our rucksacks, to help us make better time up into the mountain passes.

The trucks got snowed out, so all we had was what we were wearing when we started. Somewhere about a mile or two away from the training camp, we stopped for the night after an entire day rucking up these little mountain goat trails, carrying easily a hundred pounds of equipment apiece. Our clothing was wet from sweat and snow, and since the trucks with the extra gear never made it, we had very little to change into.


I have never been so cold in my life. My bones ached. I was about 19 and remember trying to sleep and thinking, "Well, this is the day I never wake up because I am going to freeze to death in this little blown-up ruins of a building on this little mountain pass in the middle of nowhere."

Thankfully, we all made it to the next morning. We ate, checked our gear and marched the last few miles to the training camp. The Special Forces soldiers who were with us did the initial assault, and we stayed on the perimeter to catch any runners and to step in if they started to become overrun. Special Forces completed the mission with only a few incidents, one of them being a small group who tried to escape and headed our way. As we moved to try and flank them, they engaged us, with one of the bullets hitting the snow inches from where my foot had just been.

I can't remember right now, but I think one or two of the SF soldiers did get injured on this mission. This paper had an article on the mission the next day or so, I know, because my mother kept every article on any mission I was involved in in a scrapbook usually from the Globe-News.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com

Today is a beautiful spring day here. It makes me excited to start working in the yard planting flowers, shrubs and all the other general outside maintenance that has been long ignored over the winter months.

I'm sure my wife has a list as long as her arm of the much needed honey do's on top of what I think needs to be done because that's how it works, at least in our marriage. It also means it is time to clean all of the winter clothes and get them ready for storage, which we did start the other day.

I ran into one of my favorite jackets, which is a 70′s Sears and Roebuck slightly orangey brown coat with a fleece collar. I acquired this particular item of clothing from my father-in-law a few years ago and it has become a staple of my winter wardrobe. It amazes me the amount of craftsmanship clothes had even at a Sears price point, which I believe even then their claim to fame was price and availability.

It has been a regular item of worn clothing for nearly 50 years and still has a lot of life left in it. The collars are not frayed and the fabric is not coming apart in any particular areas. Most clothes made today even at higher price points are made to be discarded within a few years of use. The clothing manufacturers don't double-stitch the seams and the colorfastness has declined so much so that how you clean the clothes makes a tremendous difference in how they look even after a few cleanings.

I wonder if there will be any of today's clothes remaining when the current styles come back around in 20 years or if people will be forced to constantly upgrade their wardrobe with newly purchased items. I will admit to being a little bit of a snob in this area. I prefer older things, partially because I figure if it made it 20 years then it must be well made and partially because some antiques, I believe will always be classy.


Besides my old jacket, I also love old German cars. The leather has a uniquely old German car smell that you cannot replicate. The knobs and buttons are analog and you can feel it do something, unlike newer cars where everything is controlled by the computer telling it to do something. It doesn't hurt that you can buy these for pennies on the dollar, and if you pick it out right, you can drive it for five or six years and sell it for what you bought it.

I also have an affinity for old watches. Most of what people wear today for a watch is technology-driven fit bits or Apple watches that cannot stand the test of time. They are reliant on whatever the most recent advances in technology are.

I think everybody should invest in a beautiful Swiss time piece. They will always look classy and serve the purpose of telling time through the intricate series of gears inside them. Keeping old things looking new is one of the things that attracted me to dry cleaning. Most people don't think about it when they launder at home, but small details like the PH balance of the water and soap can make a tremendous difference in the quality of the cleaning and the longevity of your clothes.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com

One of my favorite destinations in the world is Dubai. It is a part of the United Arab Emirates, which is an Arabian Peninsula nation settled mainly along the Persian (Arabian) Gulf. One of the first things you will notice once you arrive at the airport is the country's commitment to luxury.

I know it's kind of a funny example, but even at the airport the toilets are heated and use hot water in the bowl, which you would never think of but it's a memorable experience. As soon as I got through customs and left the airport I was amazed at the number of luxury vehicles I saw. There were Lamborghinis and Ferraris lined up driving everywhere. I walked to the taxi line and they were all very nice Mercedes, which you will see in Germany but there they use the less expensive, smaller Mercedes and in Dubai it is the big fancier models.

There is so much to do in Dubai, but I think the first thing everyone should see is the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world. It stands more than 2,700 feet and 163 floors high. At the base there is a fountain that shoots water to music, which is a simplification of how cool it is. I highly recommend watching a video of the fountain. There is also all of the shopping you could ever want to do. Around the Burj Khalifa is Armani, Gucci, Channel and nearly any other high-end brand you can think of.

They also have an indoor ski mountain and manmade islands in the gulf with all kinds of neat aquatic life and other attractions. I would recommend eating at the Bread Street Kitchen, which is a Gordan Ramsey restaurant near the Atlantis where the islands are located. It is better than his restaurant in Heathrow airport in London. If you ever get the chance to visit Dubai just say yes, it is one of the best destinations in the world.

Now that spring is here and summer is just around the corner, it is time to get the summer sport coat out or to purchase a new one. There are many things to take into account when picking out the best summer sport coat. The first should be what type of material. I prefer linen although it never presses out as well as wool or cotton. It will always have a slightly wrinkled finish no matter what method you use to press it.


Another option is cotton. Cotton will breathe great and press out better than linen, making it a little more formal and yet still a much cooler option than wool or a wool cotton blend. The next thing to take into consideration is the lining. They make summer sport coats without a lining, which is the coolest option. However, I prefer suits made with a partial lining. It goes in the suit just around the shoulders and upper torso.It is typically referred to as a butterfly lining because it is shaped like a butterfly.

The next thing to think about in a suit is the button choices. On a summer sport coat the two-button is the most versatile. For less formal occasions I recommend a single button. It's a little different and looks great. Until you dress up a little, you will never understand how people treat you differently than if you just wear a wrinkled t-shirt and jeans.

With a well pressed outfit and a sport coat, random people will stop and talk to you about anything and smile when they see you. You will immediately notice a difference. Try it for a week and if I'm wrong, email me at dochecleaners@outlook.com. I might change my stance, but I don't think that will be the case.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com

Today is the first day of spring, which means wedding season and prom season have officially arrived. Over the years, we have helped new brides save their precious wedding dresses from all kinds of wedding day abuse. The most recent that comes to mind occurred when the new bride came in with a balled up mess of a wedding dress with a large stain down the front.

She pulled it out of the bag she had it in and with a small embarrassed smile she advised us of what happened. Apparently, her wedding was a lot more fun than mine was. We were only 19 and 20, respectfully, so there was not a lot of drinking and partying when we got married. Apparently for this new bride, which at this point is a term I use loosely because it has been over a year since their wedding, was not the case because of the large brown stain down the front of the dress.

After the wedding she had balled the wedding dress up put it in the trunk of her car and forgot about it until recently. This is the opposite of what you should do with your wedding dress after the big day. Luckily enough in this case even though the stain had set very well by this time with a little luck and patience we were able to save the dress and box it up correctly for storage. I would say the best thing a bride-to-be can do is add wedding dress planning to the to-do list.
You just spent several thousand dollars on your perfect dress and there is no reason it cannot be a keepsake passed down to your one day possible daughter or daughter-in-law. Dry cleaners provide quotes for cleaning and preserving the wedding dress and many will let you prepay for the service either on an account or on a gift card then all you have to do is have somebody drop the dress off after the wedding and forget about it until they call and let you know it is ready.

Typically, cleaners usually request about four to six weeks to do this because they try to only do three or four a week. The process of cleaning and preserving a wedding dress is pretty arduous. There are several methods to cleaning a wedding dress which can be used so the first thing is to decide what will work best on a particular dress. Then you have to press it and take it to a clean room where very little dust can collect on the dress. It must be handled with gloves so no grease gets onto the dress. Then it must be boxed so it is presented beautifully in the window of the box. It takes many hours of effort and know how to properly keep a wedding dress perfect for many years to come.

Prom season is also upon us, and this year it is a special one for me. My daughter is 18 and this will be her senior prom. I can't believe how fast she has grown up. It seems like yesterday she was watching cartoons and eating cereal on Saturday morning. We will get the dress for prom and have it fitted, cleaned and pressed so her pictures come out perfect and she makes the most of her last memories of high school. Once it is over, and she is in the real world all I can do is hope she goes out and lives up to all of her potential which she has in abundance right now at the start of her life.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com

It's incredibly hard to believe, but I have been married to my first wife for almost 20 years. My wife and I had barely graduated from high school and I was getting ready to go to my first duty station in Giessen, Germany. I had known my wife for a couple of years and we had gone out on a few dates but never anything very serious.

Mostly we hung out together or studied for tests for classes we had together. I was packing my stuff getting ready to go and I realized if I left and was gone for several years I would lose my chance with this great girl so I went to Barnes Jewelry, bought an engagement ring and called her to see if she wanted to go out that evening.

I was beyond nervous. We had talked a few times that if we kept hanging out we would end up getting married, so I hope it wasn't a complete surprise when I asked. By today's standards I messed up the entire proposal. I didn't really have anything prepared so I hope it wasn't the worst proposal ever but I bet it was pretty close.

I waited until I was about to drop her off at her father's house. At that point, she hadn't started college or moved out yet. I pulled the ring out and just asked, "So, um, you want to get married?" It was not nearly as romantic or awesome as what you would see in a romantic movie or from some guy who had spent months planning some elaborate ordeal. I was 19 and hadn't really thought more than five minutes ahead.

Incredible enough, she said yes so then the real panic started because it was on the condition that her dad gave his blessing. We went to talk to her dad in his living room. I can't remember now if it was the next day or a few days later. He sat in his favorite chair by the fire and we laid it out to him. He was a great man and his only response was "well OK," which if you knew him he was a man of few words and that was about the best you could hope for.

Now that all of that was settled I told my parents everything was a go. For those of you who don't know my mom, which in Amarillo is probably not very many, she pulled the wedding together, I am going to say, in an afternoon. Making the near impossible happen is one of her specialties. Even today if she hears one of us is sick, she will make chicken soup from scratch in five minutes and it will be nearly a gourmet affair.

She lined up the church, the preacher, the bride's and groom's cakes and the reception so all my wife and I had to do was the wedding dress and honeymoon. I only had two weeks of leave before I had to report to Germany so time was of great importance. My wife may not have had the fairy tale wedding she might have hoped for, but she can clean and box a wedding dress better than most.

We are still in need of new socks and underwear for our seats and feats drive with Colorful Closets. We are thankful for the people who have already donated. The Amarillo community always amazes me at how well it will help those in need.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com

Being a dry cleaner is an interesting and challenging job. Sometimes I feel like the old Dunkin Donuts commercial "time to make the donuts." The day starts at 6 a.m.. You have to get the boiler going and the air compressor before any of the pressers arrive so it is at temperature and pressure by the time they get here. I have to get loads of laundry and dry cleaning ready so that when they are ready to press they have several garments waiting and ready. One of the most interesting things about dry cleaning is there is nothing really dry about the process. It actually refers to the fact that an alternative liquid besides water is used.

There are several options to choose from in today's market. We use a man made chemical that used to be the dry cleaning staple because it cleans the best, however, it is one of the more expensive options so most dry cleaners have changed to other chemicals. The dry cleaner itself is really like a giant washer that washes and dries the clothes.

It is referred to as a dry to dry system meaning the clothes go in and come out dry. You have to separate the clothes by light and dark colors and also by how delicate they are. You cannot dry clean blue jeans with delicate blouses otherwise the jeans will possibly rip or ruin the blouses. The clothes are then pressed on dry cleaning-specific presses designed for blouses or suit jackets using a mixture of heat, steam and pressure to release the remaining wrinkles.

Most people don't know this, but on the laundry side of dry cleaning the men's button-up shirts and blue jeans are actually pressed while they are still damp. The laundry presses are much hotter than the dry clean presses and they dry the garments while they are being pressed. This is why shirts and pants sent to the dry cleaner have a much better finish than what most people can achieve with a home iron.

It is also interesting that the starch is added in the wash cycle which is why you cannot have a heavy starch press only shirt. The make of the garment also plays a large role in how it takes starch. Synthetic fibers such as polyester will not stiffen like a 100 percent cotton garment will.

After all of the pressing and cleaning is done for the day, a dry cleaner's day isn't done. You have to begin getting ready for the next day and make sure customer orders are complete or if there is a garment that needs additional attention for stains. You have to decide what process you are going to use on the garment to try and get the stain out and make sure that gets taken care of so the order is still ready in a timely fashion. Customers have high expectations from the places where they do business, and it's up to business owners to do everything they can to meet those expectations and challenges.

David Koen is an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaners and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com

The surprising thing about having kids is the ridiculous things you will do to make them happy. When my oldest was about 4, we decided that every kid deserves a dog so we acquired a beautiful golden retriever. He was the cutest little puff ball with these ginormous feet.

Over the years he, of course, got much bigger and because of his great personality was certainly a part of the family. My daughter and I would take him for walks and to the park to play fetch. One time when he was about a year old or so I let my daughter hold the leash while we were walking. He saw a squirrel and took off after it. I know it's kind of mean but I remember as soon as the end of the leash hit my daughter launched two feet in the air horizontal so her feet were up in the air where her head was.

It was devastating for her, but once I knew she was OK, I had the hardest time not laughing. He would smile when he met new people, which really made them nervous especially pizza delivery guys or mailmen. He would let us hug him when we cried or just be there for whatever we needed as a family. About two years ago he started having organs fail and they ran all sorts of tests but couldn't pinpoint what was wrong. He pretty quickly passed away. This was very devastating to my two daughters.

He had been a part of the family as long as either of them could remember. One day several months later, my daughters convinced me we needed another dog so we loaded up in the car and adopted a sweet little black lab. She on the other hand is like my youngest daughter and is just as ornery as she can be. I wonder if animals take the temperament of the ones they grow up with. My oldest daughter is sweet and loyal and tenacious just like our golden was and my youngest is fearless but will get into and try almost anything.


A few months went by and everybody got accustomed to each other when my little sister called and said her barn cat had kittens and wanted to know if we wanted one. My 7-year-old couldn't resist so we got a kitten. I made the mistake of not getting her fixed or rather I just kept meaning to do it and time got away from me so of course she ended up pregnant and had a litter of kittens. Out of the six, my daughters wouldn't let me get rid of four of them. If you are a parent of little girls you will understand how hard it is to say no to those little precious faces when the bottom lip comes out and they just melt your heart. Needless to say I am now in the middle of a cat-tastrophy with five cats, two daughters and a dog.

I think it is the responsibility of small business owners to give as much back to the community as they can. We support a local charity here in town called Colorful Closets. They provide outfits to children in need and organize and distribute tenderly used and new clothing for children and adolescents throughout the Amarillo area. They seek to fill this need for those in our area while also ministering to them with the hope of spreading the love of Christ. With that in mind, this month we are doing a seats and feets drive for socks and underwear. We ask anybody who would to bring new socks and underwear in any size to either our Paramount or 34th and Bell locations. Thanks in advance for helping us support this cause.

I was a part of the invasion force into Iraq in 2003. You will never understand the might of the U.S. military until you see it lined up at a border about to take over another country. I stood on top of my Humvee and looking as far as the eye could see in every direction were military vehicles and soldiers. We advanced across the country all the way to Tikret and then back down to Baghdad. After taking over the airport and the city, we were tasked with finding and retraining Iraqi police in a suburb of Baghdad.

This was an interesting time because Iraqi police like many other parts of the world do not work at night and will not investigate a crime without monetary incentive from the victims or their families. Needless to say trying to get them to operate like a western police force was difficult.

Thankfully since that time, my daily interactions with people are much more pleasant and as a dry cleaner I get to know each one of my customers and how their lives are and what their preferences are such as starch level or whether they want their blue jeans washed or dry cleaned.

We have some of the best customers, especially when they pull an interesting prank on us. We have a customer who came in and picked up one of his orders. While he was in the shop, he asked what we would charge to clean his chicken suit. This is not a question we get asked every day, as I'm sure you can imagine, so we quoted him a price we thought was fair. He agreed and said he would bring it in next time. The next time he came in we asked about the chicken suit. He advised us that a friend of his had borrowed it and ruined it. Our employees are thought it would be funny to attach some feathers to the outside of his order bag as a memorial to the destroyed chicken suit. A few weeks later the owner received this email from our website dochecleanersamarillo.com:

"Good afternoon!

A few weeks ago I dropped off a handmade comforter to be cleaned. I had forgotten to ask if you could repair a small rip in the material when I dropped it off. Due to this rip, it appears that a large number of feathers flew out of the comforter as it was being cleaned. Normally, this would not be a big deal to me, but these feathers were plucked from exotic western Peruvian peacocks. The feathers are highly valuable due to their many rainbow colors, water resistance, as well as their gentle touch. My hope is that you did not throw these feathers away and that I will be able to stuff them back into the comforter. Please give me a call and let me know if this option will fly with you.

Sincerely,
Rooster Eggelston"

This, of course, turned into hours of the owner looking through all of the recent comforter orders to find a Rooster Eggelston which, from the name, we should have surmised this was a prank.

Several days later the aforementioned customer came in with a new order and asked if we had received an unusual email, which he had sent. Touche, customer, touche.

David Koen as an Amarillo native who owns Doche Cleaders and is an active member of the Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute. Learn more at dochecleanersamarillo.com