Ailantha
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

The men's Room crashers

2/6/2014

2 Comments

 
        My name is Patti Liszkay, and I'm a men's room crasher.
        Yesterday, once again the single-person ladies' room was occupied and there was someone in line in front of me.  Once again the single-person men's room was empty.  Once again I sashayed into the men's room.  Once again,  I didn't get arrested for it.  Nothing happened. Except that I didn't have to wait in line to use the bathroom.
        Which begs the question, actually two questions:  When there are two individual- commode public bathrooms side by side why can't anybody go into either one? And why should we gals have to queue up when there's a perfectly usable facility going vacant one door over?
       To quote The Dude's famous line from the movie  "The Big Lebowski",  this aggression will not stand, Man.  
        At least not for me.
        So whenever the women's side is locked, I always stake my claim on the men's side.  It makes no sense not to.  Yet I wonder every time:  is it illegal?
        I wasn't always such a restroom renegade.
        About 40-some years ago back when I was a young waitress in a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop at a truck stop along  the Roosevelt Boulevard in Northeast Philadelphia,  my manager, James, an
African American gentleman from Virginia Beach , caught me
during my break waiting outside the occupied employees' women's restroom. 
          "Why don't you use this one?"  He asked, cocking his head towards the men's room.
        My jaw must have dropped and my eyes bugged, for I was 18 years old and horrified at what he'd just suggested.
        "Why not?"  he continued,   " Men's room is just as clean as ladies'  here.  You don't have separate bathrooms at home, do you?"
          Of course there was no arguing his logic, but he was bandying about the proposition of breaking  the most primordial of taboos.  To James my using the men's room may have been sensible, but to me it was unthinkable.
            And so it remained until a few years ago when I was out at a restaurant with my daughter Claire, who had just returned from a year of working in the jungle in Nicaragua. 
            At one point she and I headed back to the ladies' room together to find that it was of the single-occupancy variety and occupied.  Claire said, "Oh well," and stepped over to the men's room.
            "What are you doing?!"  I cried. 
            Claire looked back over her shoulder as she stepped through the mens' room door and answered with the same question that James had posed all those years ago:  "Why not?" 
            And because I was  at a point in my life when so many mellowing years separated me from the green youngster I'd been the first time that question was
put to me,  that this time the question served as a moment of epiphany and liberation; and as the ladies's room was still occupied when Claire exited the men's room, she held the door for me as I entered.  And I've been entering ever since.
            And though I realize, as Claire pointed out to me last night when I told her the subject of today's blog,  that revealing to the world our identity as men's room crashers could jeopardize our advantage if others of our sisters around the planet decide to join us in this practice, still I'm going to take a stand:
            I hereby propose that gender-designating single-commode public bathrooms  go the way of covered wagons and facebook. These one-seaters should still exist in pairs, but not as men's rooms or ladies' rooms;  they should be called everybody rooms,  and no more pictures of gentlemen,    ladies, or icons germaine to either,  only one of these on the door:

Picture
                After all, who among doesn't feel like that ^ whenever we discover an unoccupied bathroom?
2 Comments
Romaine
2/6/2014 01:52:06 am

I think it is a bold move! Good for you.
In one of my jobs I was the tampon avenger. There were 3 floors - 3 ladies rooms. In each restroom was a dispenser with free tampons. Of course the dispensers would never work even though they were full of tampons. Then you had to go ask the facilities mgr (a man of course) to fix it for you. And that took hours. One day all 3 were in that condition. So I busted them all loose. My sisters on the job were all talking about how happy they were that the boxes were open. I never admitted that it was me behind the liberation until now.

Reply
Patti
2/6/2014 12:15:47 pm

The Tampon Avenger - Complete with cape and mask, I hope! I love it! As always, you rock, Sister!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    "Hail Mary"
    by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888

    Picture
    "Equal And Opposite Reactions"
     by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
    or from
    The Book Loft
    of German Village,
    Columbus, Ohio
    Picture
    Or check it out at the Columbus Metropolitan Library
    Picture

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    RSS Feed

    I am a traveler just visiting this planet and reporting various and sundry observations,
    hopefully of interest to my fellow travelers.

    Categories

    All


























































































Proudly powered by Weebly