I know the drill. A couple enters Buzzy’s Country Store. The woman asks me if I have a restroom which she rushes into after I say yes. The dude will putz around pretending to be looking for something. Woman comes out and promptly leaves without saying anything. Dude hits the bathroom and a few minutes later comes out and also beats feet for the door. I purposely wait until he is half way out the door and say as sarcastically as I can “Thanks for dropping in.” But what I really want to say is “Now you know why businesses don’t have public restrooms for jerks like you who don’t even say thank you.”
A recent Washington Post article discusses this phenomena albeit from the point of view of the user (click here) and not the proprietor as I have spelled out here.
OK, full disclosure time, in fact, the majority of my Buzzy visitors who are only there to make a non-monetary deposit, are good about saying thank you and buying either a Coke or a bag of chips as they do so. Some will even grab a beer, pull up a chair and stay awhile. I had a couple in the other day who thanked me for having a public restroom and noted that they had stopped at 4 other places which did not. They then purchased a couple of Buzzy hats along with a bottle of wine and a 6 pack of Jack Daniels Country Cocktails. Bottom line, it really is only a few folks who will do the (s)hit-and-run-bathroom-shuffle on me. Still it pisses me off when those few do so. Buzzy used to say that it was 1 out 100 who was an Adam Henry, so don’t let that affect how you deal with the other 99.
All of which reminds me of Jimmy Buffett again. (Stay with me here.) Many “moons” ago I went to my first, last and only Jimmy Buffet concert at the then Nissan Pavilion. Parked a few spaces down from me was a fella with a trailer attached to his F-150. He had a blue (aren’t they all blue?) Porta potty strapped on the trailer, a ramp leading up to it and a sign indicating a $5 charge to use it. I was amazed to see a couple folks waiting in line to do so. I was also very impressed by the fella’s entrepreneurial spirit. (Evidently this is quite a thing among Parrotheads many of whom will bring their own makeshift toilets to use when tailgating before a Buffett concert (click here.) )
When it came time for me to relieve myself, I made my way over to the rows of Porta potties Nissan had stationed at the edge of the parking lot only to see the waiting line several deep at each one. I returned to my parking lot neighbor and gave him 5 bucks to use his rig. The entire time I did so however, the Buzzy in me marveled that I had just paid 5 dollars to take a leak. But hey, it was my own damn fault right?
Ok, after a pissy topic like this, how about a nice Sunday morning song. It’s ironic that I have been trying to remember the Jimmy tune where he mentioned Mick signing his name on a bathroom wall. I couldn’t recall it until Jacki Lacey cited “Bama Breeze” as her favorite Jimmy tune in response to my Buzzyblog post yesterday.
Thank you Jackie for directing me to this tune. (Mick’s reference is at the 1:00 mark.)