Anecdotes from Our Walks DowntownMen Using the Bathroom, pt 1

The bushes have been removed.

On our walks, the babies and I would encounter strange things. What is described below is what I call a “bathroom incident.” As the name suggests, we stumbled across someone using the bathroom in a public place.


One time, we were taking an extended walk. Normally on an extended walk, we would go beyond the park across the street to other parts of downtown. I particularly liked going to the State Capitol when it was lit up at night. I also liked going down the renovated Fayetteville Street. Before the renovation, Fayetteville Street had been converted into a pedestrian mall back in the 70’s. It seemed like a good idea at the time. City leaders thought people would come back to the downtown area if the main street downtown resembled a mall at a shopping center, and it was the malls luring businesses from the downtown area. It was a bust. Downtown businesses seemingly closed at a faster rate after the Fayetteville Street Mall project.

We were almost home. The babies were sauntering down the street at their normal cadence, Andy on the left and Abby on the right. Suddenly, Abby took a hard right into the bushes by a parking deck. I tugged at her leash; she resisted. I snapped at her to come back to me. Finally, she returned to the sidewalk. Curious, I peeked into the bushes myself. I thought someone may have thrown some old food there. Much to my surprise there was a man squatting with a roll of toilet paper in his hand. He was taking a shit. Nobody said anything to anyone. Awkward. The best thing to do in such a situation is to act like nothing happened at all.

I felt bad for the guy because we invaded his privacy. I felt bad because he had to use the bathroom outside in the first place.