In 1997 Linda and I traveled to Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales. We were with a group of people, college kids, old folks, young folks and a group from Louisiana, some middle schoolers in the Louisiana group and a few teachers and a professor. So we had women, both young and old, men, again, both young and old and kids aged 14 and older. A very mixed group and it was so much fun and very enlightening.
As we traveled through the various countries we were impressed with the difference in the cultures of the people. The Irish were super friendly and so, so funny! They were anxious to please us and went out of their way to be accommodating, We loved them and the scenery, the pubs the churches and of course the sheep. There are five sheep for every citizen in Ireland! Sheeps rule! The people of Wales were quite friendly also, but not quite as colorful as the Irish. The Scotish people were delightful, we visited famous battle fields, the Queen's summer home, beautiful cathedrals, a minute wedding chapel called St. Margaret's that would only seat about 50 guests, and beautiful fields of gorse, heather and poppys. England was so wonderful but the people are rather staid and serious. Shakespear's home, the beautiful cathedrals, the avant garde of Soho, the ambiance of Chester, (my favorite place) with Bobbies and the Hadrian Wall and the pomp and circumstance of the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace all so enthralling.
BUT the countries all had one thing in common that we found to be rather daunting! Each country had a good supply of public restrooms, that they call toilets, and they all had coin operated doors to enter these necessary rest stops! Our very diverse group resented this abomination! Particularly the young among us, and I must admit, I found it to be a little over the top too. Now, you all know that a group of Americans are not going to take this 'sitting down'. They simply put their coin in and then held the door open for their companions to have access to the facility! However, they spent a lot of time looking for relief stops that did not require a coin. They dubbed the coin operated 'toilets' Pay to Pee stops. Europe was not yet using Euros and it cost one to five pence to pee. So aliteration prevailed. In loud voices the teenagers would anounce, " Five pence to Pay to Pee here!" Outrageous!
Well, all of this is leading up to the news last Friday or Saturday that the Irish and British have decided to install coin operated 'toilets' on their airplanes!! I was so upset about the fact that our airlines were no longer serving peanuts and then lately have decided to charge for luggage, pillows, blankets and soft drinks that I expected great protests from the frequent flier but now, will out airlines have the nerve to ask us to Pay to Pee on airplanes?
May I suggest a couple of things? One , emmulating the astronaut that traveled cross country in her car to persue another woman's husband and wore diapers to cut down on the time spent traveling, or fly Southwest! No diapers needed! Yet. Ciao
No comments:
Post a Comment