by Joe Kirkpatrick

I was in a fast food place a couple of weeks ago, and went to the men's room. While I was standing doing my business at one of the urinals, I could hear that evidently, whoever was in one of the stalls was having a diarrhea problem. After I finished, I was at the sink washing my hands, when a big skanky looking guy came out of the stall where the diarrhea noises had been coming from.

Since there was only one sink, and I was almost through, I moved over so he would have access to wash his hands; He walked right past and didn't wash them!

I watched as he grabbed the bathroom door with that hand he had just wiped his butt with, and thought to myself "I can't believe he is leaving the building without washing his hands!" As I walked out behind him, I couldn't help but notice he wasn't leaving the building - he had walked over and gotten in line to order some food.

I just stood and watched as he got up to that nice, clean counter, and placed his hands palms down on it looking up and studying the menu. Finally, he gave the girl behind the counter his order, and she told him how much it was. He then reached that big hand down in his pocket, pulled out a wad of $1 bills and started counting them out to the girl. She took them, and placed them in the register.

He moved on down and waited on his food. His food finally came, and he went over, pulled out a chair with that same hand, and sat down and ate.

Let's think about this - It's not just the skanks who don't wash their hands. In a survey published by a medical journal two years ago, it was stated that 7 out of every ten people who use a public restroom either do not wash their hands at all, of just run a little cold water on them, which really does nothing at all.

Let's say you come into a restaurant 15 minutes after this skanky guy, or one of the 7 out of 10 just like him. You go to the restroom and wash your hands - lets talk about proper hand washing: warm water, soap, 30 seconds - anything less than that just will not do. After washing, you walk over and grab the bathroom door handle - we already know what is on that! (For those of you who say, "I always take a paper towel and grab it." To that I say, what about places who have a hand dryer instead of paper towels?

After you leave the restroom, you go over and get in line. You get up to the counter, give the girl your order, and she then gives you a total. You hand her a $10 bill, and see reaches into the drawer, and starts counting you some $1's out in your hand. Guess who those $1's came from?

You then go down to the other end of that nice, clean counter, leaning up against it with your hand on it while you wait for your order. Guess whose hand was on that same counter 15 minutes ago? You then get your food, walk over to a table, pull out a chair - Wait! - perhaps you pulled out the same chair that big skank did just 15 minutes before!

You sit down, thinking your hands are clean since you washed them thoroughly when you came in, but wait - since you washed them, you touched the door handle, the money, the counter, and the chair! You bring your burger up and take a big bite of it - - - You might as well have been in the men's room 15 minutes before when the big skank opened the stall door and said, "Sir, could I please lick those fingers you just wiped your diarrhea laden butt with??"

Did you know that some bacteria from unwashed hands can stay live outside the body up to three days? Did you know viral germs Hepatitis B & C on unclean hands can stay live outside the body up to 30 days? Think about it!

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