I don’t read Beetle Bailey very closely: I already have enough to do monitoring for problematic art and text in Hi and Lois. Today’s Beetle Bailey might be meant to remind us that group-living impinges upon one’s privacy. Or perhaps the Walkers have never seen a urinal. Guys, get it together.
Other Beetle Bailey posts
Beetle Bailey ketchup
Comic strip anachronisms
Missing bathrooms
comments: 11
Since mandatory military service is long a thing of the past, I can't think of anyone who would relate to this comic strip, let alone read it. I mean, except when seeking examples of anachronism or solipsism or dumbth.
Since we've seen the u-shaped toilet seats in the up position, it's hard to understand how they could support a coffee can of flowers in the down position.
Elaine, thank you for dumbth, which I just read up on.
George, I can’t believe that I missed the toilet-seat problem. Maybe Beetle replaced the old seat so as to have a place for the flowers.
My basic training in the Army had toilets with these seats, and a can of flowers can physically sit on the back of one of the sit-down toilets. The urinals would be on another wall -- urinals not supplied by Marcel Duchamps of course. Because one has not seen something does not mean it isn't there. Oui?
The seat inconsistency occurred to me, too. Still, if that strip was drawn by the Hi & Lois artists, not only would there be that problem, but Beetle would also be scrubbing the floor of the women's restroom - with urinals.
Anon., were there no dividers?
Pete, I would imagine it’s very difficult scrubbing with a urinal. :)
Here’s a photograph from the website for PHN Commercial Structures: Bathroom Facilities for Military Barracks Application. Stalls with doors.
Yes, egregious grammatical error there. My apologies.
Mr. Leddy, in the older barracks there were no dividers. Just "crappers" all in a row, if you don't mind the reference to an English inventor. The new military has become sensitive to far too many things, I think. Sometimes only the crude basics are what one must deal with; being trained to be a soldier is not a sensitive thing. My drill sergeant was a tough-as-nails, foul-mouthed Puerto Rican who managed to turn a kid into me who survived Vietnam. Hate the war? Sure, but when one is in it, tough counts. Sensitivity doesn't. This is one reason fragging went on in rare exceptions. Another was incompetence. Sad to speak of it, for that time is decades past for us old folks. Beetle Bailey might be a cartoon, but the crappers were the way it was. No stalls. And one duty for an E1 draftee in that time would have been to scrub crappers and urinals occasionally. The picture pretty much says it.
Anon., I don’t doubt that things were just as you describe them.
This reminded me of the movie No Time for Sergeants in which the lead character played by Andy Griffith rigged the toilet seats in the barracks to "salute" when the officers arrived for inspection.
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