SANDinyourPANTS.com 991213 -Shower Time

Shower Time

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Yep, that's me. Usually, there are far more interesting folks to feature in my semi-weekly dribble, but Dave didn't feel quite comfortable hanging out at the showers waiting to take pictures of other dudes, ...imagine that. The point I wanted to illustrate here is just of many in this after spoke-time ritual.

Sometime ago between childhood and now, I became accustomed to showering off the salt water. Never cared when I was a kid, but at some point the salty crust on my skin and crystals in my eyes and nostrils (not to mention that pheasant's butt hairdo) got cured by a quick trip to the freshwater shower. Apparently, I'm not the only one as all footprints lead to the same place. But... "give 'em an inch and they'll want a mile."

As it turns out I have questions, lots of them. For instance, I'm about 6' 1", lots of folks are six feet and over, so why are all the

shower heads built for pigmies, do we have a large pigmy population? Now don't get me wrong, I'm quite proud to have the cleanest belly button in the world, but I'd promise to work hard to retain this title with a higher shower head too. Now you understand the head of course, has nothing to do with the button which can remain low for shorter folks and kids, but the shower head could rain water for them just as well from seven feet as five. And I'm just getting started.

Have you ever noticed the drinking fountain at around two feet. What's going on there? Talking with the good folks at the L.A. County Dept of Beaches and Harbors I asked if they were drinking fountains or foot washes? They said drinking fountains, that low for kids. But when's the last time you saw a two-footer able to handle a drinking fountain by himself? I'm sticking with the footwash theory in Manhattan where they're two feet off the ground, but I'll give Redondo the benefit of the doubt for their three footers.

I surf all three beaches, lately south-south Redondo ("So-So Redondo") a lot. Boy, I noticed they've got a lot of showers. Again, in the cracker-jack reporting you've become used to (yeah, right) we decided to take a quick count. Bathroom showers and beach poles combined, Redondo's got fifteen!! This is impressive and obviously well planned as they seem to be evenly spaced (about every 150-200 yards.) Compare this to Hermosa Beach. Hermosa has got ...count 'em... one south of the pier. Add this to the three north of the pier, the one at the pier and you've got five showers for Hermosa's two miles of sand ...about a third more sand than Redondo. When I made this observation to the guys at the County, one said" "yeah, they don't have any do they?" He went on to say that "...if they build 'em, we'll maintain 'em."

That isn't necessarily the answer either. The truth of the matter is that I worry about our little bit of nature getting high-teched out. I wouldn't want Hermosa to build the Taj-Mahal of bathrooms or showers like Huntington did. It supposed to be a beach with a shower, not a shower with a beach. It's not that I'm not tempted by hot & cold water

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Redondo's executive washrooms.

showers, little lockers for my flip-flops, and a microwave next to the muffin vending machines for those cold mornings, but it comes with a high price, more loss of open space. There ain't much left for us city dwellers, the beach is one of our last refuges.

You gotta hand it to Redondo. They've added a lot of facilities over the years, and with two exceptions (one small) they're all against the slope. That's great and obviously decision makers of the past feel the same as I do. Even Hermosa's three non-pier bathrooms are sunken half below sand level in an obvious effort not to restrict the panorama.

And no, I haven't forgotten Manhattan. The problem isn't the lack of showers there, though there are less than Redondo. Instead, Manhattan has been blessed with all that sand. It seems like crossing the Sahara from the break to the facilities. For some reason I've got lots of vigor for the trip after getting out of the surf (getting my land legs back maybe), but this is

not the case for some of my lazy friends who've had too many Snapples on warm summer days. The ocean is too tempting when compared to the trek across Manhattan's hot sand. Certainly the reason your mom warned you away from warm spots. So with Manhattan you've gotta take the good with the not so bad.

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This do-it-yourselfer found himself the answer.

Okay, I'm done. I guess the moral of this story is, a Home Depot card, some PVC pipe, and a tape measure longer than five feet with someone else doing the digging and I'd be satisfied. More in some places, taller in all, please get back to me councilmen types.

EP.
December 13, 1999