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02-09-2017 09:23 PM
I lived in Germany in the late sixties and my parents were visiting. Took my Mom to the toilet and found I only had 10 openings (enough for one and I had to go badly, so I went in). My Mom, who went with me but really didn't have to go, got someone to translate into German, and questioned the toilet lady until she got assurance that if she really had to go, the "toilet guardian" would let her in a stall without paying.
02-09-2017 09:26 PM
I don't ever remember them being in stores. I only remember using them at the rest stops when traveling. I also kind of remember crawling under the door. Totally disgusting to think of doing that
02-09-2017 09:28 PM
Yes I do in the 1960's. One store in Worcester Massachusetts, Denholms also had ultra violet lights to sterilize the seats. They lights were purple anyway not sure if they really worked but it was impressive. Those were the best toilets that you could find in that city.
02-09-2017 09:28 PM
I wonder if they were also in the men's restrooms?
02-09-2017 09:31 PM
@cherry I wish that I had the dimes for every time my mother asked me to crawl under the door in the 60s and 70s.
02-09-2017 09:33 PM
@GCR18 wrote:I never heard of it. I asked my mother. She thinks it was in the 50's.
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It was years after the fifties. It was an Asian woman City Supervisor who got it passed that there would be no more pay toilets in San Francisco. The bill was named after her... we were famous for doing away with that horror, LOL.
02-09-2017 09:35 PM
i remember them during the 60s and 70s both in the usa and abroad. i remember seeing bathroom attendants that you had to tip during those same periods of time. i had no problem crawling under the door if i had to go and had no change. lol
02-09-2017 09:35 PM
In the early 1900s, when railroads connected America’s biggest cities with rural outposts, train stations were sometimes the only place in town with modern plumbing. To keep locals from freely using the bathrooms, railroad companies installed locks on the stall doors — only to be unlocked by railroad employees for ticketed passengers. Eventually, coin-operated locks were introduced, making the practice both more convenient and more profitable. Pay toilets then sprung up in the nation’s airports, bus stations, and highway rest stops. By 1970, America had over 50,000 pay toilets.
By 1980, there were almost none.
02-09-2017 09:36 PM
This post has been removed by QVC because it is inappropriate.
02-09-2017 09:40 PM
I do remember the pay toilets. Sometimes, even when you put your coin into the slot....it didn't work! I crawled under the doors many times
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