I have been keeping a running list of differences I observe between West and East coasts and today I submit the following: toilet seat covers.
Here in New Hampshire, there are very few public restrooms that offer toilet seat covers, those rice-paper thin, disposable covers cut into the shape of the toilet seat. They are easily disposed by flushing them down the toilet. There are a nice addition to the hygienic practices of using public restrooms. On the West Coast, they are ubiquitous.
I remember when I was first introduced to toilet seat covers in college in California. They were foreign to me at the time and I didn’t understand how to slip the thin sheets out of their pockets, snap off the centers and lay them on the toilet. This was demonstrated by a dorm resident assistant in an amusing skit, during which the RA pranced about the room with a stack of toilet seat covers around his neck. That RA is now a surgeon at a top hospital in Boston and a professor of public health at Harvard, in addition to writing for Slate, The New Yorker, and authoring two best-selling books. I knew he was smart back then, so I listened to his advice.
My mother has always been particularly wary of public restrooms, so much so that she taught me to squat on top of the toilet seat rather than sit on them. This squatting training would come in handy whenever I traveled in Asia, where squatty potties are the norm and, I might add, more hygienic than Western toilets because there is no actual skin contact. (I understand this squatting training will also be helpful in childbirth, but I digress.) So I was pleased to see that my mother orders toilet seat covers for the restrooms at their company. My mother, however, does not trust the toilet seat covers and insists on covering the toilet seat with her own makeshift cover of toilet paper. Same concept, less convenient.
At any rate, I am annoyed at the dearth of toilet seat covers in public restrooms here and may find myself resorting to my mother’s toilet paper covers or squatting on top of the toilet. I miss California.
I hear you! and yes that squatting you learned on the toilet will be beneficial for childbirth! i squat as often as I can. 🙂