Spend a Penny

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi.

Hi, who’s this?

Mandy, Mandy McKee.

Where are you calling from, Mandy?

Plano, Texas.

Plano, Texas. How are things in Plano?

Well, I had called in to share a saying with you that I’ve used all my life,

That as far as I know, most Americans don’t use,

Except for all of my American friends now use the same saying.

So you’ve influenced them.

I take it you’re not from this country originally.

No, and that’s why Americans generally haven’t heard of the same.

Okay.

I say I have to go and spend a penny,

Which means that I have to go to use the restroom or the bathroom.

And so now all my friends, when they need to go to the bathroom,

They say, well, I have to spend a penny.

-huh.

So you’ve influenced them all, huh?

Oh, yeah, I think so. Quite a few people, actually, because I’ve lived here for so many years.

-huh.

Do you know how it came about?

Oh, sure. This is pretty easy, fortunately.

The locks on the doors of the loo used to require coins.

And, of course, you would put a penny in and then turn the knob and then the door would open.

And then you could use the bath.

And that’s the way they paid for the public facilities to be cleaned and maintained.

That’s correct.

Yeah.

You knew already.

I knew what it meant.

Stump the radio host.

When I was a young child or a teenager growing up, I had to use a penny all the time.

Aha.

And there are still plenty of restrooms in the UK that require something similar to that, right?

You may even just drop some coins in a basket to an attendant, but…

Well, I’ll tell you, though, if you ever go into Harrods, they charge, I think, about two shillings now or like 20p.

20p?

To use the restroom.

So now do you say I have to go 20p? That sounds more appropriate.

No. I grew up in the age where it just cost a penny, and I guess I keep hoping it will go back to costing a penny one day.

So if there’s a phone in the bathroom, what you do is you spend a penny to drop a dime.

Actually, it would be a shilling.

Oh, okay, yeah.

And I noticed that you said restroom and toilet.

You don’t say loo anymore?

Well, my friends in England say loo, but my mother would slap my hand if I’d said that when I was a child.

What?

Is that kind of crass, is it, to say loo?

Well, it’s sort of, I don’t know.

I just know that my mother would never have allowed me to say that.

Martha, we’ve talked about this before.

There are some incredibly ingenious but also crass ways of saying I have to go to the bathroom.

Yeah, I think my favorite, Mandy, is I have to go visit Miss White.

Now, what does that derive from?

Oh, the toilet paper?

I hadn’t thought about the paper.

I was thinking about the porcelain.

Okay.

Yeah.

I have never heard that.

And my favorite, which comes in a number of variations, is I need to drop some friends off at the lake.

That could mean anything.

The next time we find there’s a body missing, we’ll come and look for you, Grant.

Well, no.

I mean, if it wasn’t a joke, if you dropped friends off at the lake, it simply means you’re taking somebody out for a swim.

Well, Mandy, I have to go pluck a rose now.

Okay.

It’s nice talking to both of you, and I enjoy the show, and I love NPR.

Oh, it was a pleasure to take your call, Mandy.

Thank you.

Thanks a lot.

Okay, goodbye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, what do you say when you have to go to the bathroom?

Give us a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-Wayword.