Bathroom Situation at USNA

My son went to Emerson College in Boston. One of the buildings included both dorms and classrooms. It was a newly remodeled building (5 years ago) and they did have the unisex bathrooms (in the classroom areas) . I only mention this because i don't know if the older buildings had been converted to unisex bathrooms. My son told me a story where he, his female teacher and a couple of female students all wound up going to the bathroom. at the same time. When he saw this he got nervous. They still had two bathrooms, one of each side of the room (both Unisex) so when saw them going to the bathroom on the right side, he turned and went to the bathroom on the left. He told me it's weird enough going to the bathroom with your professor, but weirder when it's women. Since these were all new dorms, there was nothing communal about the bathrooms or showers and the suites were either all male or all female although the floors were unisex and that was true of all the dorms in all of the buildings
 
I went on a Boy Scout camping trip several years ago to Wright Patterson Air Force Base. We stayed the weekend at some Boy Scout camp nearby that only had pit toilets. They were so disgusting that one of the Dads on the trip who had grown up in and emigrated from India said that they were the most disgusting thing he had ever seen or smelled in his life. He assured us that this was indeed quite a feat, having grown up in India. Having experience myself in Central and South America with some less-then-stellar privvys, I tended to agree with him. These things in podunk Ohio were just putrid.

I remember asking him if he ever wanted to go back to India and he said "No. Never" and he was dead serious. I remember experiencing a wave of uncontrollable laughter. He's a good guy. I still see him every now and then. I will never forget the olfactory overload that weekend.
 
We had two shortages on my first Med cruise in 78-79. Fuel oil and toilet paper. The DFM shortage kept us in port longer (which ain't always a good thing) but the TP shortage caused near-riots and mutiny. We were using rags, magazines, and the Plan of the Day in the place of toilet paper. We pulled into Venice and the SUPPO, SKCS, and an armed guard went ashore and brought back boxes of the roughest TP I've ever used. But it was toilet paper.
 
Seeing the so-called Turkish toilet reminds me of when we lived in Europe and DD was little (from 3 to 6). We’d be strolling through some random city or town or village, and DD would say, “Daddy, I gotta go potty.” We’d search out a public facility, and sometimes it would be that hole in the floor. And sure as day, DD would look and say, “I don’t have to go potty.” And she’d manage to hold her bladder quite a bit longer, at least until a Western toilet was found. I think that’s where she got her amazing bladder control. 🤣🤭😳
 
Wow... 3 pages of potty comments, might give Bacon a run for its money.

Back to the original topic (sort of), I saw comments about Midshipmen preparing the heads for inspection -- do the Midshipmen really have to field day the communal heads, or just their rooms showers and sinks ? Back in the day, we had Government Service janitors cleaning all the common spaces. The janitors were often long time employees of USNA, were dedicated to their jobs, and very friendly -- especially to Plebes, and really seemed to be part of the Company. Toward the end of my stay, Administration made the change from GS employees to private contractors, and the dedication and level of service dropped dramatically.
 
The great class of '23!

Yes, "ourselves" likely means plebes, but I am not opposed to sweeping, scrubbing, and other cleaning things. Currently, there is no ownership of common spaces in the hall. I've seen plenty of gross heads and even wardrooms and it is appalling. How else do you fix the sense of entitlement and lack of ownership?
 
We had the contractors when I was there. You got to know them well. A few bad apples in the mix who stole stuff. We did have a cleaning schedule for the wardroom. Although our wardrooms weren’t used heavily. 3/C cleaned it. Plebes didn’t rate it;m, so we didn’t make them clean it. One year we did do ‘sweepers’ in the hall. I think it was a BattO that implemented that.
 
I used to feel sorry for the gentleman who cleaned my college dorm bathroom. He was an older student, married with a baby, trying to pay for school. We inconsiderate freshmen — to various degrees — acted like privileged snots who had someone to clean up our messes. I do believe if students had to clean up their own mess — some kind of rotating schedule to share the pain — dorm bathrooms would be a heck of a lot cleaner.
 
Skipper07 said:
The great class of '23!

Yes, "ourselves" likely means plebes, but I am not opposed to sweeping, scrubbing, and other cleaning things. Currently, there is no ownership of common spaces in the hall. I've seen plenty of gross heads and even wardrooms and it is appalling. How else do you fix the sense of entitlement and lack of ownership?
Click to expand...
Here’s what worked for me at home and in the fleet.

I’d tell my boys to make sure the dishwasher was unloaded before they went to bed. I’d check the dishwasher late to see if it had been done. I’m a night owl or early bird. I can do either. If the dishwasher wasn’t unloaded, I’d rouse ‘em both after midnight and tell them to unload it. They got wise really quick.

I did the same type of thing on my ship. If the division office wasn’t squared away as I directed after a zone inspection, I’d wake my chief up at the most inconvenient time. He’d be hotter than a microwave sandwich. He wasn’t going to clean up so he’d awaken the rest of the division up to clean the space. It’s called accountability and he knew I was right. When you start messing with people’s time, like sleep or liberty, they don’t like it. Discipline and cleanliness improved in both cases.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top