Saturday, August 29, 2009

Travel Tales, Part II

You may recall back in July I wrote a post called Travel Tales. It chronicled a few incidents I observed while on the road. This past week, while I was in San Francisco I witnessed another episode that I thought was worth of a fresh Travel Tales follow up installment. I should start off with the admission reminder that I am somewhat of a germ-o-phobe. That being said here is the scene: I'm at SFO airport, waiting for my flight home. I'm at the gate area, relaxing with my Wall Street Journal newspaper when a woman sits down in the open seat next to me. She has a white bag with some food she had just purchased. As she settle into her seat, she pulls out a white carton of hot soup, and a piece of French baguette. All of a sudden, the whole piece of bread falls out of her hand and onto the floor. As it was sudden movement, naturally it caught my eye. She was still fiddling with her things and there the piece of bread sat on the filthy airport carpet at our feet. And then, the UNTHINKABLE occurred. She reached down, picked up the piece of bread and yes, you guessed it- she proceeded to EAT THE BREAD that had been on the FILTHY AIRPORT CARPET. I discreetly pulled out my camera and took these photos moments after. The top left is her hand, dipping the scum-laden, bacteria covered piece of bread into her soup.

above: The circle indicates where the piece of bread landed on the airport carpet. As if this were not enough, at one point, her plastic spoon fell onto the floor as she was eating. So keep in mind, the spoon was wet with soup. And yes, once again she reached down, picked up the spoon from the airport carpet and continued using it. SHE DIDN'T EVEN WIPE OFF THE SPOON. So there must have been carpet fibers, dust or worse- fecal matter or something like that on her spoon. God only KNOWS what that spoon picked up. Ugh, so utterly disgusting. While slurping her soup, the woman proceeded to strike up a conversation with me, so I used the opportunity to snap those photos. I pretended I was "experimenting" with my camera, trying to shoot a photo of a plane on the tarmac. That allowed me to get the photo of her hand with the bread and the soup. Oh it was so gross. It reminded me once again, how disgusting people can be. Now- all that being said, I should state that I fully understand that there are people in far worse situations, hungry, destitute and desperate who do not have food to eat. I have full sympathy for such people and would never judge someone in that situation eating and not wasting something just because it had fallen on the floor. But I differentiate between someone in that situation compared to this business woman who should have better judgement. So tell me, am I crazy about this? If your piece of French bread and soupy spoon both fell on the floor at the airport, would you eat the bread and use the spoon? Leave a comment, I'm curious. Thank you for stopping by.
-Rick Rockhill

18 comments:

Sheila said...

I'm with you Rick on picking up fallen food in public places. Yuk! I love these little installments on public behavior.

Maggie Moo said...

First, I wish I could take pictures of people like this-b/c believe me, there have been MANY times I wanted to photograph people on the T but just didn't have the cohona's to do so.

Next: While it's disgusting, I don't think the bread is AS disgusting as the WET SPOON! Ick. I personally would never pick up bread and eat it off of the airport floor. But the spoon thing...I shudder to think about what was stuck on that spoon when she put it in her soup.

I wish you had somehow gotten her name and phone number so you could follow up to see how sick she is.

Jen said...

Gross! No way would I eat anything off an airport floor! Where are people's minds these days?

kenju said...

YUCK! I can't believe she did that. Of course, I wouldn't be eating soup in an airport waiting room anyway.

Last time I went to the airport to pick someone up, some people were letting a baby about 9-10 months old crawl around on the floor in one of the busiest parts of the terminal. A woman sitting next to me said she ought to go to them and ask where their brains were - letting that baby crawl all over that horribly dirty carpet. Of course, the baby then proceeded to put both of his hands in his mouth. I bet he got sick within the week.

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

ewwww! and i triple LOVE the way you got the shots! i do that with my girls too at cards and things, pretending i am checking email and shooting a photo or two, the only thing is the iphone makes a "camera click" noise when i do it so i try to make some other noise at the same time, like talk or move my foot on the floor to cover it up. i know, sneaky, us bloggers! ha ha ha

smiles, bee
xoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxo

Mo and The Purries said...

I also applaud you for getting the shots.
I think I would have just grabbed my stuff and run, trying to block it from my mind.
I could *almost* forgive the bread - but a wet spoon - not even wiping it off??? Imagine how many shoes per day, shoes just coming out of nastola airport bathrooms, have been on that swatch of carpet.
I get the willies just thinking about it.
Ew.

grace said...

aaaahhhh! I cannot imagine someone would do that. I am a bit of a germaphobe too and that makes me want to vomit just hearing your tale about it.

KathyA said...

I wondered how you got those pics!!!
If there is any good news out of this -- her immunities must be great!!

Enrique said...

That's just disgusting. I too find humor in the actions of others. The best can be found at Walmart. I refuse to shop there anymore but did stumble upon a site that details some of these individuals. Peopleofwalmart.com Yikes!

Virginia Rockhill said...

I agree, this is all gross and disgusting. It supports how many people think that what they do is OK and excusable because it is their own behavior. I'll bet she's the type who doesn't wash her own hands after using the toilet. It amazes me to see how many women just leave a public restroom without washing their hands. These are the people who spread germs!

Elizabeth Bradley said...

I'm one of those that can't abide people chowing down while rushing down the sidewalk, let alone sitting in one of those spoon shaped airport chairs trying to eat soup! It's bad enough, that she saw fit to subject the person/or persons next to her, to the sights and sounds of her slurping, but then she goes on to be utterly disgusting. What a pig. I hope you recover!

Anonymous said...

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

::speechless::

Desert Songbird said...

Ugh. I think I may be ill.

Jeni said...

At home, if I drop something in the kitchen and if it is possible to wash it off -depending on what the items is -I will sometimes do that and then eat it. But to drop something on the ground or worse, on a floor in a busy place like an airport terminal, etc., there is no way I would ever even think about ingesting that or using a utensil without washing it at least first!

Sharon said...

You know, I'm one of those people who can't go into a hot tub on a cruise ship because I picture it as a boiling vat of people soup, filled with all kinds of bacteria. So to hear that someone dropped a wet spoon on an airport floor and didn't wash it off kind of makes me gag. I just don't know what's wrong with people!

Anonymous said...

I'm ill!
Too bad my kids didn't see it, they would have called attention to what she did ... in that loud, I'm sure no one else is listening to me way.

Cheryl said...

I love that you snapped the photos. Exactly what I would have done :)) Did you read my post about taking photos of the heavily tattooed crowd in Cape Cod and getting caught and confronted? It ended well, but was a little lesson for me. To be a better sleuth!

Michelle said...

This had me both laughing and disgusted! Laughing because I could just see your expression as this happened and absolutley disgusted at her actions!
People never cease to amaze me!

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