I used to be a different person. I was in my twenties during the days of women’s rights, burning bras and free love. I worked at a plastic molding factory, back in the 1970’s and I don’t know why it made an impression on me, but I noticed the mechanics at the factory had pin-up pictures in their lockers. Of course, my mind went hmmm, if they can get away with that why can’t we have pin-up pictures? We didn’t have a locker room, but there was a woman’s restroom. The seed had been planted and it was just too good to pass up.

That evening I went to the variety store and picked up an issue of “Playgirl” magazine. I couldn’t wait for the next day. I left for work prepared with a large role of scotch tape.

I decided to wait until 9 a.m. and go into the bathroom as if I was just making a regular trip. I had my purse in tow and I knew no one else was in there….perfect. I went into each stall and plastered a wonderful full-page color spread of man in all his glory on the inside door of each stall. They had labels on them like, “boy next door”. Awesome!
It didn’t take long and I left as quietly as I had entered as though nothing unusual had happened.

A little later on in the morning a woman went to the restroom and I noticed she was in there for quite a long time. Finally she poked her head out of the restroom door and looked both ways. I started chuckling because I knew what she had seen. She didn’t go directly back to her seat. She stopped by a couple of other woman’s stations who were working away and whispered something to them. After about a minute the women she had stopped by to talk to headed toward the bathroom. This process repeated itself until every woman in the finishing department had visited the restroom.

Before I go on...I have to say that Monroe Plastics in Albia, Iowa was a booorrriinng place to work, so we were left to our own devices to amuse ourselves.We worked on a lot of Sunbeam parts for mixers and car parts for Chevy and Ford. It’s a wonder I don’t have Mesothelioma from all of the asbestos that was flying through the air.

I was working with a good Baptist woman who was trying desperately to get me saved. I already was, but I was Methodist so I didn’t know it. I did however, come from kind of a bawdy family that enjoyed a little course and somewhat dry humor now and then. The lady I was working with tried hard not to laugh at the women and their trips to the bathroom, looking at me slightly disapprovingly, but as each little group took their trip I was giggling without shame. I had to control myself every now and then when a manager came around, but by noon time I was literally falling off my chair with tears running down my cheeks.

Lunchtime came and I could barely eat because I had the hiccups from laughing so much. No one but my work partner knew who the culprit was that “decorated” the women’s restroom. So I sat in the lunch room and listened to them talk about the new “pin-ups”. Most of the women were in their 40’s and 50’s some were even a little older. I remember one commenting, “I’d sure like to have a boy next door like that living next to me!” They even surprised me.

We all went back to work, but the smiles and giggles were still all over the department. The finishing department manager was kind of a cranky old Italian guy of about 50. He strode around saying. “What’s wrong with these women? Why are they all smiling...what’s going on?” Maybe he thought we were getting ready to pull something on him, I don’t know.

Finally he started quizzing individual women and someone gave in and told him during our mid-afternoon break. "Go in there and get those out of there!”

Of course I spoke up and said, “The guys have pin-ups why can’t we?”

He ignored me and just said. “Who put those up? Who did this?” I didn’t admit to anything.

However, one woman did. She was the oldest employee at the plant and had been there the longest. She had to have been close to 65 with gray hair put up in a French twist...always wearing a scarf on her head. Her clock number was 001. She said. “Those are my pictures, and I want them back!”

We all roared. He sent some maintenance men into our bathroom to rip them all down and that was the end of that. But it was a hilarious day that I will always remember and will never regret.