A couple of weeks ago I took Little Gaffer #2 (age 3) to the bathroom at the local pizza parlor. As we walked down the hallway I asked him:
“Which one is for the boys and which one is for the girls?”
He pointed to the correct door and said “That one.”
Not that this feat was particularly astounding or anything but I asked him how he knew, thinking that maybe recognized the skirt on the lady figure or something. However, he responded with:
“That one is a triangle (on the men’s door) and that one is a circle (on the women’s door) and boys go in where the triangle is!”
Well, that was great and I didn’t think too much about it (actually I was just excited that LG #2 had decided to go pee in the bathroom and not in the flowerbed in front of the pizza parlor).
The next day…
I’m at work and as I walk into the restroom I notice that the men’s bathroom sign is on a…you guessed it…triangle. So I glance down the hallway and sure enough the women’s is on a circle. Now, two examples does not a pattern make so I had to do some further research.
Yesterday on my way home I checked the bathrooms at Vons and Orchard Supply. Sure enough, triangles and circles.
Now, I am in my early 30s and I have probably pissed in thousands of public restrooms in my life. I have NEVER, in my life, noticed that men and boys go in the triangle and girls and women go in the circle.
Now I’m starting to look around me to try and see what else I’ve missed all of these years…
