SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Dori’s big idea for Seattle’s new rolling toilets
Nov 21, 2019, 3:41 PM | Updated: 5:11 pm
This 1976 image of kids gathered around an ice cream truck is reminiscent of Dori's childhood in Ballard, when the highlight of a summer day was a visit from Popsicle Joe. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)
(Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)
Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant and Councilmember Lisa Herbold have proposed over a million dollars to have five rolling toilets in Seattle.
The trucks will be driving around the streets because too many people are defecating in public on our sidewalks and streets.
An image instantly popped into my head when I heard about this.
When I was a kid growing up in Ballard, on any typical summer day it was a safe bet that you could find me with my friend Christina, playing in the backyard at her house. The highlight of every summer day for us was when we could hear the Popsicle truck coming up the street. We called him “Popsicle Joe.”
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We’d hear him in the distance and jump on our bikes to go find him. We had worked chores earlier in the day so that we could earn a quarter to go get a Fudgsicle or Creamsicle.
Now with the image of these $1 million rolling toilets, I couldn’t help being reminded of my wonderful childhood memories.
I think we should have ice cream truck music — like “Do Your Ears Hang Low” or “Turkey in the Straw” — playing as these rolling toilets drive around. And rather than Popsicle Joe, I think we should call the drivers “Poopsicle Joe.” Or, as listeners have suggested, we could tie in the bathroom theme and call the drivers “Poopsicle John.”
The homeless people can hear the far-off music and cry, “It’s the poopsicle man!” Then they can come running from blocks away and line up to use Poopsicle John’s truck. They can feel the same joy that I felt at age 6, pedaling after the ice cream man.
That is what I am going to push for. I am going to throw my full support behind Sawant and Herbold on the rolling toilet trucks, as long as we can have whimsical music playing and can call the drivers Poopsicle John. It’s slightly different from the bucolic childhood I had growing up in 1960s Seattle, but it’s very reflective of today’s Seattle.
Aren’t you glad Sawant and Herbold were reelected?
Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
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