peeing in public

In middle school, Rachelle, her mom and I would often take day trips to the “big city” to find treasures at thrift stores, Ax Man hardware store and of course, Ragstock - the Mecca of alternative apparel in the early 90s.
We traveled around midtown, uptown, downtown and North Minneapolis – with the prompt, often, from Chelle’s mom stating “lock the door” if we were getting into a shady neighborhood.

After finding an incredibly great panda purse at Ax Man that was probably included in a kids ‘beauty’ kit in the 1970s, we were off to Ragstock.

We parked relatively far down on University Avenue. We started walking past African beauty supply stores, Asian grocers and finally - FINALLY making it to Ragstock. My heart was beating so hard. I had seen advertisements for clothes at this amazing store – not knowing what to expect, I expected it all.

We walked in – the store smelled like musty basement mixed with incense. Loud music was playing over the speakers. Luscious Jackson? L7? It had to be The Edge, whatever was playing. The best radio station around.

My fingers flitted across the flannels, cartoon t-shirts, crinkle skirts, crocheted vests, baggy skater jeans, sunglasses, tights –Oh. My. God.
I could have slept there. Lived there. Please, don’t make me choose – I only have $50! I want more!

Luckily I had time to decide. Chelle’s mom is notorious for taking her time – this was the one place I could bare to stand for more than 1 hour. I got lost in the directly imported Kimonos wondering if I could get away with wearing one of them to school. I slid hangers from one side of the rack to the other, looking for the perfect shirt that would encompass me and my aspirations to be … well, I don’t know what.

I cannot remember exactly what I came out of there with but I know eventually I had in my possession a few vintage shirts, sweaters, a Mr. Bubbles t-shirt, a pair of bellbottoms and a pair of white Kurt Cobain glasses.

On our way back to the car, Chelle’s mom realized how bad she had to pee and pulled us into the African beauty supply store looking for a bathroom. While she tracked down a clerk, Chelle and I smelled the oils, looked at the fake hair and were pulled out of the store so quick when it was realized there was not a bathroom available for customers on the premises.

“Come on. We are going to Rainbow across the street”Tammy said getting into the car.

Oh. Rainbow grocery store – that sounds OK.
We quickly maneuvered across University Avenue and into the parking lot of Rainbow foods.

Running to the back of the store near the meat section, we finally found the restroom in a dark hallway. It was a 1 stall bathroom with a sink and mirror. Tammy went into the stall while Chelle and I stood over the mirror, primping and putting on lip gloss.
Suddenly the door leading back to the store flew open and a guy in a trench coat came in.
- WHAT! You can’t be in here – this is a women’s restroom!

Mumbles came from the man as he fumbled with his zipper.

The man pulled out his penis and started urinating in the sink right in front of us.

Rachelle yelled “MOM STAY IN THE STALL THERE IS A CRAZY MAN IN HERE”

“What?” she yelled back.

Both Chelle and I ran outside looking for a store clerk to help us. We found a man who worked in the meat department and told him about our experience. From what I can remember, he followed us to the bathroom where he found Tammy in the stall yelling for us and the smell of urine in the sink.

“We weren’t lying - he was here!”

Tammy came out and all of us were shook up about it – mostly Chelle and I. We just saw a grown man’s penis – he could have easily peed on us!

If I didn’t have issues peeing in public before you better bet after this crazy event
that I did for a long time.

I tell people about the guy busting in on us at the Rainbow foods off of University and they say “what do you expect? It’s the ghetto Rainbow?” true. It is.