Pay Toilets

Nowadays, all public restrooms are free of charge. I can remember downtown San Luis Obispo having public restrooms in a small area between a couple of businesses. This was before businesses started providing their own restrooms, and there was only one set so you had to walk a block or two to get to it. Also, many times you had to pay to use a public toilet. Though it was only a nickel or a dime (by today’s standards, that might be a quarter or two), it was still a nuisance.

Paying was especially more of a problem for women than for men. Since women had to use a stall every time while men hardly ever did, they usually spent more money. Pay toilets referred to using a stall. One could put money in and stay for as long as they wanted. But everything else in the bathroom was free. This wasn't much of an expense for men except on a date.

If a group went together they could always not let the door shut in-between each person and share a dime. But what did a person do when they didn't have any spare change? Hope that a stall door would be left open? Probably not. One just had to remember to take along some nickels and dimes.

Soon, though, it became more than just a nuisance. The Secretary of State for California, March Fong, must have forgotten her dimes one time when she was out shopping. Soon, she started fighting for free toilets to be put in public places. The change was quickly made that all public places had to have at least one or two free stalls.

This meant that less places had public restrooms for people to use. But it was much more fair than having to pay to use a restroom all of the time. Now, you never see this sort of thing.