Did those nasty public bathroom drying towel loop things really exist, or was it just some personal nightmare of mine?

@catsalad
Some went from a spool to a roller and then got washed, so were OK, but I was at a campsite once with two ordinary towels stitched together around a couple of towel racks...

@catsalad og doomscrolling

@jbaggs
Not usually, but the DIY ones are a different story...
@catsalad

@catsalad I HAVE SEEN ONE sorry for caps. I was at the banquet for my neighbor's firstborn in Chinatown and the restroom, which was of course in the basement, had the cloth loop hand towel thing. It looked exactly like the one with the paper towel roll inside, but it had this cursed loop of white terrycloth with a blue stripe in the center.

*edit: I forget if it had a lever to advance or if you were supposed to pull the towel

I declined to use this thing

@catsalad folx got really worked up when I'd blow my nose on them

Like, they go through the magic box, it's fiiine...

@alice they wouldn't put them there if you weren't meant to use them

@catsalad

@alice @catsalad this is why i do a farmers blow out in the parking lot

@catsalad

Several folk here have said they weren't a looping towel.

Some of them.

As a child and teenager, I specifically remember them as being damp already. So yes, nasty.

@emily_rugburn that's gotta be a truck-stop euphemism...

@catsalad

@alice @catsalad noooooo i lived in iowa! you plug up one side of your nose and blow out the other! works every time!

@catsalad
Last saw one in a London tube station about 48 years ago. Had seen them in the movies, so knew what it was, but it was horrifying.

On the other hand, when I was about 10, went with a neighbor to Haymarket in Boston, he got some oysters off of a cart, and wiped his hand on a little towel that was *nailed* to the cart.

@emily_rugburn @alice @catsalad telling you about my snot rockets from a corn cob

@catsalad Those existed.

@catsalad yes. I think they were supposed to only go around once...

@emily_rugburn @alice @catsalad ahh that's also very common in soccer

or at least I hope so because I'm doing it there all the time

@tek @catsalad

@bazkie @alice its better thank wiping boogers all over your arm or shirt. i do it all the time where i live now which is sorta rural wisconsin. no one dose a double take...but this might also explain why people dont find me attractive

@emily_rugburn @alice lol true
and don't worry there's at least some people out there who are attracted to that kinda behavior 🤩

@IanAMartin @grumpy_copi @catsalad thank you for making me a bit knowledgeable on the subject. I only encountered this thing recently, a-few-months-ago'ish, and was taken aback by the prospect of drying my hands on that suspicious rolly towel.

@catsalad Seen it in a commercial building in Germany a few years ago.