To the Editor:
While the Altamont Fair is happening, I have an inquiry about a tradition that I'm sure many others have wondered about. 

What is the story behind the bathroom attendants? Ever since I was a boy in the 1960s, they have always been present just inside the door of every public bathroom, with a tip jar, at the Altamont Fair.

Sometimes, as a youngster, I felt a bit intimidated having someone maybe watching my back as I used the urinal and then seemingly expecting a tip as I left. There were times I didn't have any small change, which left me embarrassed as I left because I wasn’t contributing to the attendant’s efforts to keep the place clean.

I also imagined that I might be receiving a scowl at my back from the attendant because I was too cheap.

I noticed, as an adult, that these bathroom attendants are present at other county fairs and at the ladies' room as well. So here is what I want to know.

Why, in my experience, have they always been Black Americans? Do they come with the midway traveling operation and why? Or are they employed by the fair association?

How much do they get paid, because they’re also asking for tips? Is it like waiters and waitresses who receive lower base pay? Why doesn’t our entrance fee cover the bathroom maintenance like every other venue?

I have never been anywhere else except China, where there were bathroom attendants always on site. I know historically there were people in bathrooms or just outside the bathrooms, at train stations, who would shine shoes. 

I am not opposed to bathroom attendants or the tip jars! I’m interested in an explanation of this really unimportant subject. It’s just a matter of my curiosity and the questions that have always involuntarily popped into my head.

I love the Altamont Fair and its traditions! I hope it’s always there and I have a great appreciation for all the workers and volunteers who make it happen.

Thank you all!

Timothy J. Albright

Meadowdale

Editor’s note: Pat Canaday, spokeswoman for the Altamont Fair, answered, through The Enterprise, Timothy J. Albright’s questions. The attendants are not traveling with Dreamland Amusements, the midway company, she said; rather, they are paid minimum wage as part of the fair’s payroll.

“I think we’ve always tipped restroom attendants,” Canaday said. “They keep the bathrooms supplied and they keep them spotless. We don’t have enough volunteers to cover all the bathrooms and do all the other stuff that we do. And they’re wonderful people.”

She went on, “Many of them are relatives or friends of the person who makes the arrangements .… We don’t advertise for these jobs. Some of them come back year after year … I don’t know if anybody remembers, we had this one lovely woman who would make rhymes and sing. I mean, she was fabulous … She made it kind of fun to go to the bathroom. Everyone always left with a smile.”