i just witness this at a sam's club af few months back.  they had closed
the men's room and even turned the lights out.  a female employee was
standing there and a man and his son (about age 30) approached.  the man
tried to explain to the female employee that it was a matter of an
emergency.  that his son been in an accident early in his life and can't
tell when he has to go until right now.  she told him that he would just
have to wait 10 minutes.

he yelled at her, "don't you understand!!!!  he's going to go right
now!!!!!  can't we use the women's restroom???    she said "no!!!"

after a couple more frantic pleadings with the female employee got
nowhere, he finally told her that she may have another mess to clean up.
he said he was going to talk with the manager about this.

they do have a "family restroom" and it had just opened up and the
person walked out.  i pointed it out to him and off they went.  had a
successful conclusion and no accidents.

later, in the store, the man walked up to me and explained why his son
was like that and thanked me for helping him in his time of need.  he
didn't understand the lack of sensitivity of the employee at all.

a few weeks later, i got hit with the urge to go.  and with the reduced
size of the bladder and had been drinking a large soda was building
pressure fast.  i got to the same restroom and guess who had closed it
and turned the lights off??

i tried to explain to her the urgency and it went right over her head.
luckily, it was just finishing up drying out and she turned the lights
back on in less than a minute, but it had nothing to do with my
conversation.  i do plan on talking with the manager at that sam's club
about this type of problem.

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional