Get a Room -- A Locker Room

Did you know that cops sometimes wear garters that hold their socks up by attaching them to their shirts?

I know because I see police academy students dressing on the roof of the campus parking structure. No nudity, you understand. Just the occasional unexpected man in boxers. One of them said this is where they've been told to change. Before the structure was built, they got ready for class in a parking lot.

I'm not going to tell you which parking structure or when, but it's been going on for a while, and it's taken me a while to figure out what I think about it.

Finally I realized that coming around the back of my van and finding a guy reaching into his open fly to adjust... well, whatever it is guys do adjust ... pisses me off.

No, I'm not mad at the guy. I'm pretty sure it wasn't his idea. He's just going along to get along.

And I wasn't shocked or embarrassed or titillated. Just pissed off.

I'm way too old for this.

I'm too old to put up with second-class treatment just because I'm a student. And that's what it's all about, isn't it? I mean, the guys who are changing are students and the people who park in the structure are students. Someone has decided that behavior that wouldn't be tolerated in another public place is perfectly ok if it's just a bunch of students who are affected.

I don't think the practice shows much respect for me or for the students who are changing their clothes in public.

Have I got this wrong? Is stripping to your boxers while standing next to your car in a parking lot pretty much routine these days? What do you think?