It’s Hard To Compete With Port-A-Potties, But…

In October of 1995, I went on a mid-week overnight trip with my Girl Scout troop, in the greater Seattle area. We were all giddy about getting to skip school for a couple of days and spend time with our friends. 

After dinner, the camp counselors and a few other people gave us all a talk about the rules for the couple of days we’d be there. We were all around the ages of ten to fourteen, and we were getting antsy, but we tried to listen. The last talk was from a man whose job it was to clean the Port-a-Potties. In his few minutes of talking, he went into a strange amount of detail about his job, probably to encourage us to not make any extra mess. 

We understood the importance of his job, certainly, and we were glad someone was there to do the literal dirty work. The man was pleased that we took him seriously.

As he reached the end of his talk, all of us Scouts broke out in cheers.

Man: *Blushing* “I’m glad to hear that I’m appreciated!”

Then, another staff member behind him coughed. The man turned to see the real reason for cheering.

The other staff member had turned on an overhead projector and written the final score of the tie-breaker game between the Seattle Mariners and the Los Angeles Angels. The Mariners had won nine to one, securing the team’s first-ever trip to Major League Baseball’s post-season. As much as we appreciated having toilet facilities to use, baseball was more exciting!