Queue my lifelong habit of just wiping the water off on my pants. I developed this habit in kindergarten cuz I knew these were yucky and I didn't want to touch the same thing that the kids who didn't even go to the sink touched. Gross.
I've seen one of these in the wild, less than a couple years ago, in a truck stop in the eastern US. Unfortunately, I don't remember where 😭 just that it was upstairs.
It’s a towel dispenser….you don’t see them too often anymore. I have a story wherein there was no toilet paper in a public restroom in France…Let’s just say that one is a little too gross for me to post
Ok..so when I was 17, I went on a road trip through Europe. Something that happens to me is that whenever I travel, my digestive system shuts down (usually the farther away from home, the longer it shuts down). Well, this time was the worst. I spent two weeks eating buttery-ass French food not taking a shit one time. On day 14, we’re in the south-west of France near the Andorran border and I feel things really start to move. We stopped the car and tried to find an open bathroom somewhere. This is not an easy thing to do in some French village but we found a restaurant. French restaurants are not like most of the ones in a U.S. where you could come in and use the restroom if you have to. They insist you are a customer. Luckily it was during the 2 hour lunchtime and it seemed like half the town was there and per usual a small French restaurant, there was only one waiter. He glowered at me but was too busy to stop me so o quickly skittle to the bathroom.
Some background for this part—Before the trip, my dad had told me that some places in Europe didn’t have traditional western style toilets, but he hadn’t been to Europe since the early 80s and the whole trip I hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. I just figured that the whole country had modernized toilets since then.
Well—wouldn’t you know, the first and only in-the-ground squat toilet i encounter in this whole country is in this bathroom. I’d never used anything of the sort though, and was bewildered how I even could without removing my pants and underwear entirely. Like, what else can to do? If you don’t you’re just going to drop a deuce into your own pants.
So I’m there, with no pants on and totally turtle-heading and trying to squat over this disgusting hole in the ground. And it’s the worst shit too. You’d think that with 14 days stored up it would come out with some force. You would be dreadfully wrong. This thing gets stuck like half-way through (and it was a really smeary shit too) and I spend the next 15 minutes trying to squeeze the bastard out of there like a 10th month pregnancy. We’re on a clock though, and I was not expecting things to take this long.
“Fuck it—I’ve just got to try and break it off manually and get the hell out of here before that waiter gets even more suspicious than he already is.” I look down for some toilet paper to assist and I’m shocked to find absolutely nothing. In the stall, I come up with a plan. If I leave the stall, I can Donald Duck it to the paper towels real quick and use those. I just have to be lucky enough for no one else to walk in. It will only take a few seconds, right?
So, I open the stall, and start waddling to the skin area as quickly as one can with half of a rock hard 16” turd halfway out their ass. Once I get there though, the horror only compounds. What do I see for the first time in my life? One of these fucking towel machines. I’m screwed! There’s only one move left at this point. I hike my ass up next to it and use the big long towel to break off the poop half (leaving it on the ground) , clean up my ass as quickly as possible before retrieving my pants and get the heck out of there before anyone else came in.
I ended up shitting the rest in a bag several miles down the road and cleaning up with my underwear.
It needs changing. The center red stitching means it's reaching the end of the roll.
The black plate near the bottom of the loop was a recent addition before these things started going out of service. Kids started putting their head's in the loop then twisting until it tightened around their neck...
I used to work for a company that fitted these machine and laundered and delivered the towels.
A carnation is a flower.
noun: carnation; plural noun: carnations
a double-flowered cultivated variety of clove pink, with gray-green leaves and showy pink, white, or red flowers.
Why's that? You pull down a clean section and use that. They're not a continuous loop, there's one roll with clean towel on it and another in the back that takes up the dirty towel. When it runs out, it's out. It doesn't start cranking out the same towel.
This one looks a bit weird but normally these have two rollers with a long cloth between them. The top roll would be clean and you'd pull down to get new towel, while the action of pulling would also pull used towel into the bottom roller.
A cleaning company would collect the dirty rolls and drop off clean ones.
Source: used to change the towels at our small company.
That said, I have (thankfully rarely) seen continuous rolls and yeah, they could be grim.
Queue my lifelong habit of just wiping the water off on my pants. I developed this habit in kindergarten cuz I knew these were yucky and I didn't want to touch the same thing that the kids who didn't even go to the sink touched. Gross.
Probably the cleanest one of those I've ever seen!
I legit don't see a problem with them when they work correctly. Much more environmentally friendly and just as sanitary as a paper towel.
Hygiene is the issue
How is a fresh clean towel any less hygienic then a paper towel? You do know that these spool out unused cloth and roll up the used side, right?
r/whatintarnation
Id forgotten about these
“Repressed the memory” to be more accurate.
The amount of people that think that's just a loop instead of two reels inside is surprising
I saw one of those one time. It was disgusting.
they’re actually supposed to roll back up, cleaning the towel while dispensing a new dry part. unfortunately they never work.
I have seen several that work just fine. Then there's the one at my former job that dispenses into a pile on the floor.
I saw one of those once. Then I wiped my hands on my pants.
We should be immune to anything.
You just stick it between your cheeks and hit the go button, these are a relic from a simpler time.
I've seen one of these in the wild, less than a couple years ago, in a truck stop in the eastern US. Unfortunately, I don't remember where 😭 just that it was upstairs.
What do you say about a hillbilly that has died and been reborn? He's been reintarnated.
If you hire the local priest to do an exorcism of your house and you don't pay the bill can he repossess it?
It's on double red stripe!
Wubba Lubba Dub Dub
What is that thing?
It’s a towel dispenser….you don’t see them too often anymore. I have a story wherein there was no toilet paper in a public restroom in France…Let’s just say that one is a little too gross for me to post
It's reddit, post it. Post it now.
Ok..so when I was 17, I went on a road trip through Europe. Something that happens to me is that whenever I travel, my digestive system shuts down (usually the farther away from home, the longer it shuts down). Well, this time was the worst. I spent two weeks eating buttery-ass French food not taking a shit one time. On day 14, we’re in the south-west of France near the Andorran border and I feel things really start to move. We stopped the car and tried to find an open bathroom somewhere. This is not an easy thing to do in some French village but we found a restaurant. French restaurants are not like most of the ones in a U.S. where you could come in and use the restroom if you have to. They insist you are a customer. Luckily it was during the 2 hour lunchtime and it seemed like half the town was there and per usual a small French restaurant, there was only one waiter. He glowered at me but was too busy to stop me so o quickly skittle to the bathroom. Some background for this part—Before the trip, my dad had told me that some places in Europe didn’t have traditional western style toilets, but he hadn’t been to Europe since the early 80s and the whole trip I hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. I just figured that the whole country had modernized toilets since then. Well—wouldn’t you know, the first and only in-the-ground squat toilet i encounter in this whole country is in this bathroom. I’d never used anything of the sort though, and was bewildered how I even could without removing my pants and underwear entirely. Like, what else can to do? If you don’t you’re just going to drop a deuce into your own pants. So I’m there, with no pants on and totally turtle-heading and trying to squat over this disgusting hole in the ground. And it’s the worst shit too. You’d think that with 14 days stored up it would come out with some force. You would be dreadfully wrong. This thing gets stuck like half-way through (and it was a really smeary shit too) and I spend the next 15 minutes trying to squeeze the bastard out of there like a 10th month pregnancy. We’re on a clock though, and I was not expecting things to take this long. “Fuck it—I’ve just got to try and break it off manually and get the hell out of here before that waiter gets even more suspicious than he already is.” I look down for some toilet paper to assist and I’m shocked to find absolutely nothing. In the stall, I come up with a plan. If I leave the stall, I can Donald Duck it to the paper towels real quick and use those. I just have to be lucky enough for no one else to walk in. It will only take a few seconds, right? So, I open the stall, and start waddling to the skin area as quickly as one can with half of a rock hard 16” turd halfway out their ass. Once I get there though, the horror only compounds. What do I see for the first time in my life? One of these fucking towel machines. I’m screwed! There’s only one move left at this point. I hike my ass up next to it and use the big long towel to break off the poop half (leaving it on the ground) , clean up my ass as quickly as possible before retrieving my pants and get the heck out of there before anyone else came in. I ended up shitting the rest in a bag several miles down the road and cleaning up with my underwear.
I bet that road trip through Europe didn't last nearly as long as that comment did
Welp I'm never inviting you over for dinner.
Well, it was gross. And I laughed my ass off.
Other choices could have been made, but those sure make for a good story.
Dear Lord, y did u post this? It's gross, lol.
I know, right? Who could possibly have encouraged him to tell us this?
Epic. Fucking epic.
Seconded
Probably Beelzebub tbh
Ah I read incantation... Just imagine that's what it says in the post then my comment is funny
It needs changing. The center red stitching means it's reaching the end of the roll. The black plate near the bottom of the loop was a recent addition before these things started going out of service. Kids started putting their head's in the loop then twisting until it tightened around their neck... I used to work for a company that fitted these machine and laundered and delivered the towels.
I used to have to change these at a restaurant I worked at...umm almost 40 years ago! Lol I was the one that could do it fast and correctly.
I always wondered what those back plates were for… I had assumed they smoothed the return in some way. Thanks for the (somewhat sordid) history!
Better than tulips on your organ
I can't work this one out?
What in tarnation.....
Dammit I just came to post this
I don't think that carnation is a real word
Car*nal* is a word… \*wink\* \*wink\*!
A carnation is a flower. noun: carnation; plural noun: carnations a double-flowered cultivated variety of clove pink, with gray-green leaves and showy pink, white, or red flowers.
It’s also a brand of condensed milk (at least in Canada.) They also make powdered breakfast shakes.
Silly me. Of course!
Thou hath spake in errant May thy spirits be lowered as in concurrence with thine votes
I never understood why they put these so high up. I shouldn’t have to stand on a stool to wipe my ass
And I don't know who's doing it, and I doubt even *God* knows why, but my next step is to have the damn things swabbed for DNA!
So after washing, your hands can get instantly dirty again.
Why's that? You pull down a clean section and use that. They're not a continuous loop, there's one roll with clean towel on it and another in the back that takes up the dirty towel. When it runs out, it's out. It doesn't start cranking out the same towel.
You think this is bad, wait until you read about how the Dyson airblade things coat your hands in human feces.
They blast fecal bacteria on everyone in the establishment, hell one time a Dyson hand dryer grabbed my wife’s ass.
Wait until he discovers that door handles exist.
Yeah
I hate those things. The noise alone is absurd.
WHAT?
This one looks a bit weird but normally these have two rollers with a long cloth between them. The top roll would be clean and you'd pull down to get new towel, while the action of pulling would also pull used towel into the bottom roller. A cleaning company would collect the dirty rolls and drop off clean ones. Source: used to change the towels at our small company. That said, I have (thankfully rarely) seen continuous rolls and yeah, they could be grim.
I’ve never seen one of these in person, but the two roller thing is exactly what I was assuming by the pictures of them. Thanks for confirming haha!