When was the last time you saw a pay toilet?

[EYESORE 9001]

It occurred to me that I hadn’t seen a pay toilet since the early ‘70s in New York City. That prompted me to look it up, and I found this interesting, funny article:

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/649324/pay-toilet-history

[CurtEastPoint]

1. I'e run across a few in Europe, with an attendant. But not a coin-in-the-slot indiv. toilet.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

2. Thanks!

I never knew this part, despite living in the Dayton area for years.

... In 1968, Dayton, Ohio, teenagers (and brothers) Michael and Ira Gessel were on a road trip in Pennsylvania with their parents when they encountered a pay toilet at a Howard Johnson's restaurant. The brothers couldn’t believe spare change was needed to relieve themselves. Back in Dayton and with friends Steve Froikin and Natalie Precker, the group formed what became known as the Committee to End Pay Toilets in America, an activist group that championed free bowel movements for all.

The foursome drafted model legislation and circulated press releases drawing attention to the issue, which received national media exposure. Their logo was a fist clutching chains rising out of a toilet bowl to represent this evacuation oppression. The Gessels were voicing what America had been thinking all along: That charging a person to poop verged on being inhumane.

While some of this was clearly a kind of juvenile theater—the foursome wrote ballads like “Ode to a Pay Toilet”—their endgame was no joke. They opened collegiate chapters around the country and drew the attention of lawmakers...

Phil Donahue started his show in Dayton, so he might've interviewed them for all I know.

[tblue37]

11. IOW, a movement movement.

[Harker]

14. Flushed with victory, surely. n/t

[Hugh_Lebowski]

3. In the mid-oughts in SF ... fast-food restaurants for example would have bathrooms w/lock that took

a quarter or a token you could get from the cashier if you bought something.

[Tree Lady]

8. Funny I was thinking SF was last time

I saw one down by the piers.

[randr]

4. The cost of my latest home project makes my toilet

a pay toilet for sure.

[wyn borkins]

5. A Very Long Time Ago

I remember sneaking underneath the doors at a grouping of terlets on 21st Street Beach, North Miami, Florida during the late 1950's.

[mitch96]

6. Yup, anyplace that has a sign that says "toilets for patrons only" Pay to play... nt

[Ocelot II]

7. Ages ago, maybe the '70s.

I do remember slithering under a stall door when I didn't have a quarter to unlock it and I was young enough to slither.

[Walleye]

9. I know an ode:Here I sit brokenhearted, paid a dime and only farted

Sorry about that, couldn’t help myself. The words of the prophet are written on the subway walls

[CentralMass]

13. Great minds..., you beat me to it.

[Walleye]

16. I thought maybe some here might be too young to have heard that

[EYESORE 9001]

15. Come to think of it...

That was what prompted this thread. That memory arrived randomly and started me thinking about pay toilets.

[rownesheck]

10. I think I remember

using one in London, March 1994.

[CentralMass]

12. Here I sit broken hearted, spent a dime and only f..ted.

[Archae]

17. I remember a TV ad...

Where an airliner had pay toilets.

And a guy didn't have any change.

He was offering large bills for change.

[csziggy]

18. 2019 in Scotland

I think I gave the attendant a one pound note.

Oh, there was another one on St. Thomas, also in 2019, outside one of the fresh air markets.

[NNadir]

19. When I paid forty grand for a new septic system. n/t.