Apr 15
Handicap restroom dilemma
I ran into a little dilemma yesterday. Im driving along on my daily travels, drinking a 7-11 coffee. Just a normal day. All of a sudden it hits me. Too much coffee, I have to find a restroom. The closest thing to me at the time was a Pizza restaurant, so I pull over and walk inside.
Its early in the day so not many people were in the Pizza restaurant, just a family enjoying the Pizza Buffet. I make my way into the bathroom and looked around. There is one stand up urinal and a handicap stall. Now I cant wait much longer or I will be standing in a puddle. I look and see an empty wheelchair with the owner standing up using the urinal. I start walking towards the handicap stall and the guy using the urinal gives me a funny look, as if he was thinking…
"I know you aren’t going to use the handicap toilet with me, a handicap man, standing right here"
What do I do? Well I gotta go, so I ask the guy "is it ok if I use this" pointing to the handicap stall. He says "its a handicap toilet, are you handicap?"
I look to see if he was joking, but he was dead serious. I then said "Excuse me, I figured that you were already using the urinal and there aren’t any other handicap people around so maybe I could just use this one, I was only asking you to be polite" He went on about how he hates every time he goes to a public restroom and people are using the handicap toilet and he cant go, was really rude about it and went on and on. In the middle of his conversation I walked into the handicap toilet and did my business, I just couldn’t wait any longer. I got out, washed my hands and walked out.
As I was making my way through the Pizza restaurant to leave, the handicap guy rolled up behind me, calling me rude and making a scene. I was a little embarrassed and getting a little angry at the same time as I felt that he was out of line in this situation. The manager came out and stopped me, lecturing me about handicap people and how others are so rude. Finally I turned around and told him…
"Handicap toilets are for easier access to people in wheelchairs, its made so that you can get from the wheelchair to the toilet. Its not your personal toilet. You are handicap and using the urinal, I didnt go in complaining that you are using my toilet! you know why? ITS NOT MY TOILET, just like the handicap toilet is not your toilet."
The manager then kicked me out of that Pizza restaurant and told me I cant come there again.
What did I do wrong?
Maybe Im a little messed up, and if I am please explain to me why.
May 11th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
haha quite the story, i dont feel you were wrong, he wasnt using it, nor planned to, he should have went to the stall, i cant stand, so i would of course choose the stall first. but yea i feel you did nothing wrong, forget him! come check out what i have to say about other things that come with the life of a chair.