Pay Toilets

About two weeks ago, I saw a T. V. commercial shortly after I finished dinner. I don't remember exactly what the commercial was about, because I was half watching, while talking to my grandmother. All I remember is different images flashing across the screen with one of of them showing a man putting coins into a bathroom door as if it were a vending machine. The bathroom door was not a stall like in a public restroom, but rather a door like to a private bathroom. Immediately, my thoughts went back to the 1970's when you had to pay a toll (or coins) to use a public bathroom. The cost was usually a nickel or a dime.

A week later after I saw this commercial, I saw a link to an article and video on either Yahoo or MSN, about an airliner who was looking for ways to cuts cost. The article, Restroom Ransom? Airline mulls toilet toll, is a story about an Ireland airliner, who is considering charging a toll to customers for bathroom use.

In today's debit card and cash free society, this idea seems absurd and has the been the source of many jokes. I have flown in an airplane less than ten times during my lifetime, and have never used the airplane restroom. I intentionally try to take care of these needs prior to boarding the plane. I know how cluster-phobic it feels to use a bathroom on a bus like Greyhound, so I assume that an airplane bathroom experience would be worse. Despite my lack of experience in using airplane bathrooms, I would not want a toll to be charged for this service. One never knows when and where nature will call, so if nature calls while I am on a plane, I don't want to have to wonder if I have enough change for a toll.
(Smile)

Pay Toilet Links

• Wikipedia - Pay Toilet


• The Washington House of Representatives votes to restrict pay toilets on April 19, 1977.


• Pay Toilet


• Pay Toilet