We've
been spending a month back in our old hometown of Berkeley, California.
Of course, there are features that distinguish Berkeley from Oxford --
the hills, the ocean, the redwoods and eucalyptus, the sunshine -- but
one that particularly struck me this time were the drinking fountains
and toilet facilities in all the municipal parks. It's not just
Berkeley. The whole Bay Area, at least, seems to have these basic
amenities in parks, as does Portland, Oregon, where we've also just
been visiting. Some parks have clean, well-lighted, well-functioning
toilets, while others have dingy, rudimentary sanitary facilities, but
they all have something. Where I grew up, on Long Island, you also
expected to have them, so I'll make the inference that this is a
general US thing. It's not such a big deal if you're not a parent or a
child, but for children and their caretakers the opportunities to take
in water and to let it out loom large. You can make a point of bringing
water with you, but public displays of excretion are generally frowned
upon in public, even if you do use your own containers, so the absence
of lavatory facilities puts an effective time limit on playground
visits. (Although, I've seen surprisingly large boys peeing on the
grass at playgrounds in Oxford.) The only playgrounds in the UK that
I've found to have toilets (I'm judgeing, admittedly, from a tiny
sample, having been living there for less than two years) are the two
in Regents' Park in London, and these are exclusively for children, to
the extent that each playground has a fulltime attendant who seems to
have no duties other than to keep unauthorised age-groups out of the
loos. Drinking fountains seem to be entirely unknown on the Sceptered
Isle. Interestingly, there was recently a BBC report,
on the suggestion of some children's health advocates that providing
water at the playgrounds would reduce the temptation to bring bottles
of sugary drinks instead, a net plus for children's health. A
representative of the Local Government
Now, it may be that the park officials were lying, and drinking
fountains just seem like too much bother. But if they are to be
believed, there is
I've been in the UK long enough to be, at the first moment, shocked to
observe in Berkeley signs, scattered around houses and apartment
blocks, saying "No Solicitors". For that matter, the trash bins
stenciled "REFUSE ONLY" struck me for a moment asa polite variant of Nancy Reagan's antidrug "Just say no" slogan.
