OT - Please Help Ladies!! Restroom Etiquette - Your Opinions Needed!!

On Sat, 25 Dec 2004 04:21:25 GMT, "Pauline O'Connell"
wrote:

Whenever I have visited France, I have been fortunate enough to always have
access to a ladies restroom. The worst I had to deal with was no toilet
seats (easily remedied with toilet paper). I am happy to say that every
country I have ever been in has had separate facilities for the sexes &
toilet paper & all those goodies. Although, when in Hungary, if we used a
public facility - such as at the zoo - there was always a lady attendant in
the rest rooms happily doling out ONE SQUARE OF TISSUE! I know my sister
has traveled to Turkey & they have a lot of holes in the ground in even the
finer establishments. I'm sure there are lots of - what we would consider -
horror stories about bathroom facilities in other countries. When I was a
child, we lived in Australia & often, when we would go for a Sunday drive in
the country, we'd have to use "outhouses" - Sharon, et al, are they still in
existence?

Recently, in Russia, I stumbled upon public toilets where the men's
was out of order so the whole queue was using the one labelled as
"women's". There was no seat on the toilet. There was no loo roll.
I had learnt to carry a wad in my coat pocket by this point in time.
I was just happy to find a toilet. I found 2 public toilets in St.
Petersburg when I was there, and there are nearly 5 million people
living there. Hence, all the alleyways smell of urine.
At the dacha, there was an outhouse. There were dried paper towels
(how's that for recycling?) in a tin can in the spider-infested
outhouse. Pull the spiders off, use the dried paper-towels.... or
again, bring your own roll.
There were many habits I came home with, and carrying a roll of loo
roll everywhere with me was one of them.


-- Jo in Scotland

I'm not Sharon but I live in Australia and here's my opinion.
Depends on the type of outhouse that you mean. There are not doubt a
few around where the can is removed at the back of the building and
emptied, probably a few more around where the 'loo' is a fully flushing
affair, some times as a second or third loo to save workers traipsing
inside. I know of a number of people that live in older houses that had
the 'outhouse' but in modernising kept the 'outhouse' as well as having
one inside.
The majority of National Parks have toilets and some of these are 'long
drops', self composting toilets due to lack of water availability.
These are constructed in such a waythat there is little to no smell.
Hope that answers all of your questions, if not let me know.

Dee in Oz

Thank Dee. You pretty much covered my questions. The ones I remember from
my childhood were small wooden structures in back of mostly restaurants I
think. Perhaps in parks as well, but I sort of remember stopping for tea
along the road & having to use the outhouse. I don't remember if there both
Men's & Women's, but I remember they were all wood inside & smelled
horrible. I remember the toilet paper was on these great huge rolls & it
was more like tissue paper than toilet paper. You could always see through
to the bottom of the loo - whatever the bottom was - it was pretty
disgusting.

Maybe that's why I hate using the portables when there are big outdoor
events or fairs - some are a bit nicer than others, with the running water,
etc., but all in all, I'll try to hold on as long as I can till I can get to
a proper toilet!

Pauline
"Dee in Oz" wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm not Sharon but I live in Australia and here's my opinion.
Depends on the type of outhouse that you mean. There are not doubt a
few around where the can is removed at the back of the building and
emptied, probably a few more around where the 'loo' is a fully flushing
affair, some times as a second or third loo to save workers traipsing
inside. I know of a number of people that live in older houses that had
the 'outhouse' but in modernising kept the 'outhouse' as well as having
one inside.
The majority of National Parks have toilets and some of these are 'long
drops', self composting toilets due to lack of water availability.
These are constructed in such a waythat there is little to no smell.
Hope that answers all of your questions, if not let me know.

Dee in Oz

Thomas A. McKean wrote:

Must be a lil more clear.....are there walls between the gals and guys
stalls in the French restrooms.
Thanks
Butterfly


ACK!!! I would hope so! I think even I would have problems with a half naked
lady watching me stand there doing business.

Can't imagine that there wouldn't be...

Thomas

http://www.thomasamckean.com
Colonel, HOKC
Member, ASA, Board of Directors, 1992-1994, 1997-2000
Author, Soon Will Come the Light: A View From Inside the Autism Puzzle
Author, Light On the Horizon: A Deeper View From Inside the Autism Puzzle

The ones I've seen ther urinal was on the wall and the cubical with the
grotty sqatty had a door...

--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Pauline O'Connell wrote:

Thank Dee. You pretty much covered my questions. The ones I remember from
my childhood were small wooden structures in back of mostly restaurants I
think. Perhaps in parks as well, but I sort of remember stopping for tea
along the road & having to use the outhouse. I don't remember if there both
Men's & Women's, but I remember they were all wood inside & smelled
horrible. I remember the toilet paper was on these great huge rolls & it
was more like tissue paper than toilet paper. You could always see through
to the bottom of the loo - whatever the bottom was - it was pretty
disgusting.

Maybe that's why I hate using the portables when there are big outdoor
events or fairs - some are a bit nicer than others, with the running water,
etc., but all in all, I'll try to hold on as long as I can till I can get to
a proper toilet!

Pauline
"Dee in Oz" wrote in message
oups.com...

I'm not Sharon but I live in Australia and here's my opinion.
Depends on the type of outhouse that you mean. There are not doubt a
few around where the can is removed at the back of the building and
emptied, probably a few more around where the 'loo' is a fully flushing
affair, some times as a second or third loo to save workers traipsing
inside. I know of a number of people that live in older houses that had
the 'outhouse' but in modernising kept the 'outhouse' as well as having
one inside.
The majority of National Parks have toilets and some of these are 'long
drops', self composting toilets due to lack of water availability.
These are constructed in such a waythat there is little to no smell.
Hope that answers all of your questions, if not let me know.

Dee in Oz




Ah, the joys of the 'Chemi-Kahzi' Pilot!! Bloo Poo Houses we called
them when I was at school, after the blue stuff in the po. Porta-Loo is
one company that does them for festivals here in the UK, but my family
regularly still refers to them as Chemi-Kahzi's'.

Which reminds me... I have the cub camp loo tents and need to find them
some new zips...

--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

On Sun, 26 Dec 2004 00:30:13 +0000, Johanna Gibson
wrote:

About 4 years ago when on holiday and travelling south to LA from San
Franscisco we stopped at a nature reserve (DH is a keen birdwatcher).
While I was sitting stitching waiting for his return a couple passed
me in the car park. 'I have to go to the bathroom before we go' said
the man heading towards a small, very rusty and rickerty old Portaloo.

In England 'bathrooms' are only found in houses and have baths and
pink fluffy towels - my mind boggled - was this a magic Portaloo?

Here public loos are toilets, Ladies or Gents, Mens or Womens or even
Lavatories, and if very upmarket 'Powder Rooms'. There are also the
ones with little drawing on the doors of a skirted or trousered
person, or worst of all those little male and female scientificalified
signs, then I always have my fingers crossed that I'll pick the right
one!

Sally

Sally Swindells wrote:
On Sun, 26 Dec 2004 00:30:13 +0000, Johanna Gibson
wrote:

About 4 years ago when on holiday and travelling south to LA from San
Franscisco we stopped at a nature reserve (DH is a keen birdwatcher).
While I was sitting stitching waiting for his return a couple passed
me in the car park. 'I have to go to the bathroom before we go' said
the man heading towards a small, very rusty and rickerty old Portaloo.

In England 'bathrooms' are only found in houses and have baths and
pink fluffy towels - my mind boggled - was this a magic Portaloo?

Here public loos are toilets, Ladies or Gents, Mens or Womens or even
Lavatories, and if very upmarket 'Powder Rooms'. There are also the
ones with little drawing on the doors of a skirted or trousered
person, or worst of all those little male and female scientificalified
signs, then I always have my fingers crossed that I'll pick the right
one!

Sally


Well, from what I remember anyway, WC (water closet) refers to a
facility with only toilet and sink... bathroom is of course the room in
which one can bathe... when I was in France a gosh-darn many years ago.
In the US, bathroom is the generic term applied to a facility
containing a toilet and (hopefully!!) a sink.
~handmaiden

Sally Swindells wrote:

On Sun, 26 Dec 2004 00:30:13 +0000, Johanna Gibson
wrote:

About 4 years ago when on holiday and travelling south to LA from San
Franscisco we stopped at a nature reserve (DH is a keen birdwatcher).
While I was sitting stitching waiting for his return a couple passed
me in the car park. 'I have to go to the bathroom before we go' said
the man heading towards a small, very rusty and rickerty old Portaloo.

In England 'bathrooms' are only found in houses and have baths and
pink fluffy towels - my mind boggled - was this a magic Portaloo?

Here public loos are toilets, Ladies or Gents, Mens or Womens or even
Lavatories, and if very upmarket 'Powder Rooms'. There are also the
ones with little drawing on the doors of a skirted or trousered
person, or worst of all those little male and female scientificalified
signs, then I always have my fingers crossed that I'll pick the right
one!

Sally


As kids we designated public and shop po's according to their general
swepped-upidness or mediaeval qualities. Top notch po's with fluffy
towels, acres of mirrors, and fresh flowers were designated Powder Rooms
(based on the glorious mock marbled pink effort in Mawer & Collingham's
department store in Lincoln), and they went down through Ladies' and
Loos to po's and on through several more layers until they hit BOG!
After visiting France we added the Grotty Squatty to the bottom (!) of
the pile.

--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Kate Dicey wrote:

Thomas A. McKean wrote:

Must be a lil more clear.....are there walls between the gals and
guys stalls in the French restrooms.
Thanks
Butterfly



ACK!!! I would hope so! I think even I would have problems with a
half naked
lady watching me stand there doing business.

Can't imagine that there wouldn't be...

Thomas

http://www.thomasamckean.com
Colonel, HOKC
Member, ASA, Board of Directors, 1992-1994, 1997-2000
Author, Soon Will Come the Light: A View From Inside the Autism Puzzle
Author, Light On the Horizon: A Deeper View From Inside the Autism Puzzle


The ones I've seen ther urinal was on the wall and the cubical with the
grotty sqatty had a door...

In Austria if memory serves, ladies stalls on one side, men's on the
other, all with doors, urinals in the open. Don't remember co-ed in
France but I hated those squatty potties.

The ones I've seen ther urinal was on the wall and the cubical with the
grotty sqatty had a door...

Yeah that's usuallyhow it works, but geez Kate how would yew know? *Blink*

Thomas

http://www.thomasamckean.com
Colonel, HOKC
Member, ASA, Board of Directors, 1992-1994, 1997-2000
Author, Soon Will Come the Light: A View From Inside the Autism Puzzle
Author, Light On the Horizon: A Deeper View From Inside the Autism Puzzle