The car.....it's not just transportation.
I couldn't wait to get my drivers license. A car meant independence, and so much more.
I took drivers ed my fifteenth summer, it was 1964. I learned in a 1955 Ford, 3-speed (3 on the tree) standard shift car, with two brake pedals. My instructors never had to use theirs. Irving taught me to safely drive when I was fourteen. I took my tests and got my license on my 16th birthday. I got my first car soon after. It was also a '55 Ford.
My car was transportation to school and my part-time job. On week-ends my buddies and I would cruise around all evening on a couple of bucks. There was nothing better than the drive-in restaurants along Woodward Avenue in Detroit.
My next car was a '57 Buick. It was a big step up from the Ford. By then I had a girlfriend. My week-ends with the guys were replaced with dates at the local West Side Drive-In. Oh, some of the guys were there, steaming up the windows of their own cars. Now I had a place to make-out. I thought I was so grown up then. I look back now and shudder, I was a baby.
Today a car is so much more. It's a portable office. It's a place to eat, a place to nap, and a place to (depending on where you live) make-out and cover all the bases. Some things haven't changed.
In 'N Out burgers claims the first drive-thru, as does Jack in the Box. But to read Wikipedia the honor belongs to Sheldon "Red" Chaney, operator of Red's Giant (ever notice it's always GIANT) Hamburg in Springfield, Missouri. His drive-thru window opened in 1947. Located on the famous Route 66, the restaurant closed in 1984.
The very first drive-thru business was at a bank. The City Center Bank in Syracuse, New York opened it's drive-thru in 1928.
Eighty-five years later: No car, no sex.
That's the rule for an experiment Zurich is launching Monday to make prostitution less of a public nuisance and safer for women.
Fashionably teak-colored open wooden garages, popularly called "sex boxes" by the Swiss media, will be open for business for drive-in customers. The several dozen sex workers who are expected to make it their new hub will stand along a short road in a small, circular park for clients to choose from and negotiate with. The park was built in a former industrial area nestled between a rail yard and the fence along a major highway
The publicly funded facilities are open all night and located away from the city center. They include bathrooms, lockers, small cafe tables and a laundry and shower. Men won't have to worry about video surveillance cameras, but the sex workers, who will need a permit and pay a small tax, will be provided with a panic button and on-site social workers trained to look after them.
As far as Daniel Haversham, a Zurich lawyer, is concerned, it's a win-win situation.
"Safety for the prostitutes. At least it's a certain kind of a shelter for them. They can do their business, and I respect them" (this coming from a lawyer) "They do a great job, (the voice of experience) and they have better working conditions here. They're not exposed to the bosses, to the pimps, in here."
Voters in Zurich approved spending up to 2.4 million Swiss francs ($2.6 million) on the project last year as a way of relocating the sex traffic away from a busy downtown area where it had become a public nuisance and safety concern due to lack of sanitation, aggressive men, and associated drugs and violence. The city, which only allows prostitution in certain areas, also plans to spend 700,000 francs ($760,000) a year to keep the sex boxes running.
The sex boxes will be open daily from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. The city painted the outdoor bathrooms in soft pink and blue, strung colorful light bulbs among the trees and posted creative signs encouraging the use of condoms to spruce the place up a little and make it seem more pleasant.
There's so much here I don't know where to start. The "bathrooms, lockers, small cafe tables, a laundry and a shower" are a nice touch. I imagine there will be several vending machines where a gentleman can buy a condom and grab a snack or coffee while he waits. The shower and laundry will come in handy for the married man who needs to "freshen-up" before headed home.
Just in case a client is having a disagreement with a hooker a social worker will referee. Nothing like a big tough burly social worker.
The lockers are convenient. Wonder if they'll have a built in combination lock or you'll need a key like in the bus stations? "Will you wait just a minute hon? I need to run these books and lunch to my locker."
Can you imagine having this on our ballots? "I'm going to vote NO on schools, NO on highways and YES on Hooker Havens."
I bet the colorful light bulbs strung in the trees are very festive.
It's quite the coincidence In 'N Out is in this blog post. Wanda and I ate there Saturday. For those of you living away from this coast, the burgers and fries are super. Everything is fresh (you can watch them peel and cut potato's) and made to order. They even grill the buns. And the price is right. Two burgers, an order of fries and a drink, under $8.
By the way, they opened their drive-thru in 1948, just after "Red".
We ordered and Wanda went to wash her hands. Over the last few years we've become a little more germ conscience. We're not overboard, just more careful. We keep hand sanitizer in the car and Wanda usually has individual wipes in her purse. Many retail stores now provided wipes to clean the shopping carts. We always use them.
In 'N Out has "self serve stations" with napkins, salt, ketchup pump thingys, and little cups to put the ketchup in. I was standing near one while waiting for Wanda. I watched a little girl about 4-years-old stand on a chair, reach over the side of the station, and take the top ketchup putting in cup. You know, they're all stacked down into some unseen hole that's spring loaded to push them up.
She put the cup to her lips and did who knows what inside it. She put it over her nose which made her look just like Porky Pig. And, I just KNEW she was going to do this: she reached back over the side of the station AND PUT IT RIGHT BACK WHERE SHE GOT IT.
Kudos for her neatness?
I watched as if she was in slow motion and mouthed don't you do that, while shaking my head no. She didn't have a clue. Maybe I should have said something to her mother? No, what would that have done? I went over and removed that cup, the one it was resting on, and tossed them.
I watched a grown man on a cruise lift the top piece of bread off a mini sandwich, inspect the meat and cheese, replace the bread and walk away. I tossed that too.
It just goes to show you can only protect yourself so much. I wash my hands often. If I was single and living in Switzerland I'd do more than that.
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