Note the sign over the door, the one now spray-painted over, albeit with the matching colour to the graffiti, but I just sent two ladies into the info booth, and they came back informed that Sauble is probably one of the most progressive places on the continent, actually sporting co-ed public washrooms!

The tourists, however, were a tad confused and disconcerted. There was just the hint of 'Men" left visible through the blotch, and clearly the expected 'Women' on the verso side of the building, but that one was securely padlocked shut, so that left, here on one of the peak days of the season, only one reststop, obviously Co-Ed. Must be.

It must have been nearly 40 years ago when my U of T college first totally shocked and aghasted the academic status-quo when we introduced co-ed washrooms at Vladmir House, our residence only a few years before shockingly groundbreaking in offering the nation's first co-ed dorm. Young college folk reading this probably wonder what the fuss was about, but let me tell you, in 1967, it was some fuss, and still turned a few heads a decade later.

And to be fair, it is only really an issue here, and surprisingly so, considering we think of ourselves as the Civilized. One would expect safety and respect regardless of gender in a lavatory especially here, and yet you still hear tales from travellers taken aback discovering co-ed and often open-concept facilities in the 'underdeveloped' world.

And, as one would expect of the Civilized World, it is also true that, once implemented, once the few get over the initial shock and just GO, everyone behaves, everything works out just fine, and Public Works finds the expense sheet trimmed by 50%, and a few decades later, like the co-ed dorms at colleges across the country, everyone wonders with some amusement what all the fuss was about.