Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Column
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 22, 2003
This year's Chasco Fiesta in New Port Richey has all kinds of wonderful things to do, buy and see, but the one thing you will notwant to miss is the portable restrooms.
More precisely, the Charmin restroom truck between the food booths and the Sims Park playground.
I'll say up front that I love outdoor art shows and fun festivals, but my staying limit is usually about two hours because I can't stand to use those abominable portable toilets.
I don't have to describe them or say why, because anyone who has ever used one already knows. Worse, after you use one, you can't eat or drink any more festival food, because although some venues also have little hand-washing stations nearby, most don't.
Hey, I'm so picky that I sterilize my car's steering wheel when I get home after I've had to use one of those portable things.
So after nearly four hours of eating, drinking, shopping and concertgoing at Chasco on Thursday, I had just about reached my, um, limit -- and, drat, it happened just as singer-songwriter Bill Miller was playing his best songs on the Sims Park stage.
So, gritting my teeth (and clenching my knees), I sprinted for the brightly lit truck labeled "restrooms" behind the Boys and Girls Club's food booth.
Well, was I in for a pleasant surprise.
The potties in the Charmin Pottypalooza -- yup, that's what they call it -- were as clean as mine at home and, better, a lot less cluttered. The 12 stalls look something like the restrooms on jumbo jets, but they're light cream-colored plastic instead of unfriendly stainless steel.
Each stall is brightly lit and air conditioned, with walls covered in cute Charmin bear wallpaper. The toilets have water in them that really flushes, and the lavatory has warm water and scented Safeguard soap. There are thick Bounty towels, a mirror so I could see how wind-blown I looked, pretty light sconces on the wall, a handy shelf for my purse (and stuff I'd bought) and a little television screen overhead with people giving Charmin testimonials.
All I needed was a copy of the St. Petersburg Times, and I could have settled in for a spell.
Charmin also thought about others. There's an equally well-equipped baby-changing station and a special large stall -- with a hydraulic lift -- for those using wheelchairs or walkers.
There were about a dozen attendants scampering around the truck, some inspecting each stall after it was used to make sure it was spotlessly clean and had plenty of paper products, others keeping the line in order and pointing out which stall was ready to be used. One was filming new testimonials to show inside the stalls and on two big plasma screens over the doors to the stalls.
Gosh, it was all so much fun that I chug-a-lugged a bottle of water in hopes I would have to go again.
Tom Cherek, the field manager making sure everything runs right, says his team deep-cleans the whole setup every night.
"We even clean the air conditioning vents," he said.
The 35-foot truck can serve 230 to 240 people an hour.
"Each person takes about 3 minutes, 25 seconds in there," Cherek said.
From Chasco, the Charmin truck is going to a few more Florida festivals, then take off for state fairs and other events in 18 states over the next eight months. Another, larger Charmin truck with even more stalls is just as busy.
"People just love this thing," Cherek said. "We try to make it as nice and pleasant for them as we can."
The wisdom of inviting genuine American Indians to be part of the Chasco Fiesta was underscored for me on Thursday when I went out for the opening hours of the annual event.
Before their involvement, there wasn't much of anything to do except ride carnival rides, which I won't and don't, or eat, which I will and do -- too much.
Now, the Indians provide a large circle of booths selling everything from fine, collector-quality, reservation-made jewelry to inexpensive toys for kids and trinkets for grownups. In between are vendors of bright, Indian themed T-shirts, Indian flute and drum recordings (one pan flute player was playing along with his compact disc on Thursday night), Indian herb mixtures, Indian food, fine art, decorative art, casual art, drawings, woven blankets, rugs, items of clothing, hair ornaments, costume jewelry, musical instruments, beads, incense, dreamcatchers -- you name it, they have it.
There's also the performance ring, which has continuing educational programs about American Indian life and lore from noon to near closing throughout the festival.
Now, truly, isn't this better than that hokey Indian pageant that held sway for so, so long?