Neighborhood walkers don’t ask city hall for expensively fun things, such as more gyms, more balls, more courts, and/or Carlsbad-style remodel of a perfectly good public swimming pool. We occasionally whisper our observations that more public restrooms are needed, for the sake of everybody (not just walkers).
During the past 22 years, I have hurriedly entered, at least a thousand times, the restroom at Carlsbad’s swim facility on Monroe. Quick exchange of smiles and hellos with the city’s desk workers; then quickly through the important door, and back out in about a minute, followed by “thank you.” Twenty-two years.
Things were different the afternoon of July 27. As I was about to touch the restroom door, I heard a man’s voice shout to me in an angry tone, “What do you need!!?” As I could not afford to break stride/slow down, I simply pointed to the door/restroom and said, “That.”
Upon exiting the restroom about one minute later, the sloppily dressed man without a name tag , told me that he is the pool manager, and “that is not a public restroom!” And, paraphrasing, that I “could only use the restroom if I pay full price to use the pool for the 3-hour open session.” He said his name is Tim, and there were two seated employees who were witness to this.
I told him clearly that he is wrong to say that it is not a public restroom, and that he has “just now failed the human decency test.” Because this observation bothered him, he demanded, IN A COP-LIKE MANNER, that I tell him my name. Without saying a word, I gave him the world’s best hand gesture that I could think of, and promptly exited the building to resume my walk.
“Manager Tim” provided a powerful demonstration to the two young employees as to how old people should be treated by city employees at a city-owned facility. I returned the next day to use the restroom again for about a minute. Manager Tim was gone, as usual, but his two underlings from the previous day were on counter duty. The smiles were replaced by scowls; quick learners.
My age is 71, and I look 71. This is bigoted Elder Abuse.
Editor's Note. The above was written by an occasional contributor to this website.
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