I thought I'd seen it all, here in my reeking little trash-heap slum of a neighbourhood.
I was, as people who employ such phrases usually are, wrong. Walking back from the subway station this afternoon along the main street, I saw a young mother squatting with her girl-child (who was perhaps 3 or 4 years old, and thus past the age where using her as a meat animal is a viable option† any more) in the middle of the sidewalk.
The little girl's panties were around her ankles, and she was pissing. Like a little pink-clad racehorse.
Now, Koreans tend to be less prissy and self-conscious about the functions of elimination than us western folk (which is perhaps odd in light of all the other faux-christian pruderies they've saddled themselves with), and their earthiness is always refreshing to me, but it's a little beyond the f--king pale to encourage your children to drop their drawers and let fly all over the goddamned sidewalk, isn't it? Well, isn't it?
† No, I'm not suggesting they cook and eat infants here -- once in a while I just like to see if you're paying attention out there...
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John said
Saw a mom holding her little kid over a trashcan to take a piss in the subway (though thankfully not on the train) in Shanghai.
The Orient never ceases to amaze.
July 24, 2002 5:40 AM
eyeballkid said
More than once I've seen women changing baby diapers on the table of a fast food restuarant. Mmmmm. Tasty.
July 24, 2002 8:55 AM
Heather said
A couple of years ago, I was working in a supermarket, on checkout, and one Saturday there was yet another little girl complaining that she needed to go to the toilet. Presumably, her mother asked her to hold it, because the next I heard about it, the little girl was crying and there was piss all over the floor. I pity the poor soul on mop duty that day.
Reaally, though, I think there need to be bathrooms attached to supermarkets. After all, these poor people spend an hour shopping and another half hour standing in queues trying to get the hell out of there, of course their kids are going to have to pee.
July 24, 2002 11:22 PM
chuckles said
At least a little girl comes with a veneer of innocence and purity. It's really heinous when you're on Clement in the middle of new Chinatown and some aged crone is hunkered down at the busstop dumping a load in the gutter. I mean, she's two blocks from the woods, three blocks from the park, surrounded by trucks and people and pallets of live food, and she can't manage to find anyplace else to crap? This is a land of opportunity - take one, damnit!
July 27, 2002 12:28 PM