I love this post it makes me realise it is not just me, even if I am at the other end. The problem I have with showers is when they are in the bath. Why you ask? Because if the sides are high my short fat legs just cannot clamber over. I always check to make sure I have a separate shower when I go away now. Mirrors are also a problem I often can only see things above my eyes. Not good for 💄.
Thanks, Jo! That's such a good point about the shower being in the bath.
I remember when I still very little and Dad had bought two small square mirror tiles for the bathroom wall: one for my brother and one for me. We'd got to a stage where we wanted to see our faces in the bathroom mirror but it was waaaaay too high, so Dad stuck up a mirror tile for each of us. I remember those mirrors being the first evidence I had that my brother was bigger than me! We're close in age, and were playmates for all our childhood, and I don't think I'd been aware of that difference in us before. ❤️
"I don’t wear lipstick, and my eyebrows fend for themselves" aha! me, too! What a great post and I relate (though I am an untall person) to adjusting to fixtures that are not quite right, or just plain not right. Sounds like you found some pretty great facilities in your trek, which would have been welcome in the 60s campsites my family frequented and the summer camps I attended and worked at in the 70s. A yellow bug light fixed on the wall with a cage around it (so it wouldn't break by what means??) and giant mosquito-like insects also fixed on the wall are memories of visiting the "outhouse" or "shower room", where one must wear flip flops or other waterproof foot covering to avoid the sand on the cement floors (and who knows what else). This was so great, RH, and added to enjoying my morning cup of Joe. I think a coffee table photo book of your and your Jim's camping adventures is in order.
Oooooh, now 'crane flies' over here do look like ginormous mosquitoes - they don't bite, though, they just make really annoying papery-fluttering noises with their wings and bang their way clumsily from lampshade to lampshade.
Guess what the other name for them over here is, though? It's very cute - they're called 'Daddy-long-legs'!
So funny! Here, crane flies are referred to as "mosquito hawks," which is a terrible misnomer, for they are neither mosquitos nor mosquito predators. A Daddy Longlegs is a spider, said to be among the most poisonous of all spiders but with fangs too short to bite humans. A too-short shower head is just called stupid.
I love daddy-long-legs (they are spiders here, too.) I didn't know they were venomous to people, but they are fabulous at eradicating other household bugs; I never ever squish or harm them. I do my best not to harm spiders of any sort-- in fact, I have two "pet" spiders in the bathroom at the moment, called "Hamper" and "Plunger" due to their choice of web locations.
Oh, how funny! Are they the ones with really really spindly legs and a tiny little body but the leg span of a small coffee cup? We call those 'harvestman spiders'. Their legs are very long indeed!
The name is scary! Apparently their actual name is crane flies, and they are 100% harmless. Where I live now, folks call them "mosquito hawks" and claim that they eat mosquitoes, but I think that's a myth.
Thanks so much, Mary! Gosh, I'm going to have nightmares about those campsite 'outhouses' of yours! I mean, I wear Crocs in campsite showers for hygiene reasons, but gosh, the thought of a bathroom with a sandy cement floor, and full of bugs - ugh.....!
You can rest assured that any such coffee table book would not include silly pictures of me in the shower, I promise! 😉
Such a great follow-up, Rebecca. Your selfies are hilarious. I loved the photo of the low-hung mirror, chopping off the head view. I am 5'1" and in many public places, mirrors are hung so high, I see only the top of my head. A very diverting read - as usual!
🤣 I had SUCH fun taking those pictures, Sharron - goodness knows what my fellow bathroom users would have been thinking at the time, because I'm sure I was giggling! 🤭
The problem can be easily circumvented using my patent-pending method. I don't bother to use our shower. I simply wait for it to rain, which in England is virtually every day, and race out into the garden with a bar of soap.
Wow, as a very short person (I'm 5'2") I'd never considered the difficulties of showering for tall folks. I'm well versed in strategically knocking things off of tall shelves using a long spatula or spoon, then deftly catching them on the way down, but clearly all is not consistently rosy in Tallville either! I was struck by your courage in ( I assume?) taking your phone into the shower for photographs. If I tried that it would assuredly lie drowning in the drain within moments.
Kerry, that sounds like EXCELLENT use of a spatula! Brilliant work! 🙌
That's a very good point about the phone in the shower - I was very careful! I actually took all but one of the pictures before turning the water on, and then put my phone safely into my bag which was hanging safely on the furthest hook from the actual shower part of the shower cubicle, and after I'd taken the single picture (the silly face-pulling one) when the water WAS on I put the phone safely onto the shelf above and beside me. No harm done (apart from perhaps to my reputation - for taking pictures in the shower, I mean!!). 🤣
I installed a wonderful rain shower after I found one on sale in the local Aldi. Makes the shower head a full 12 inches higher and provides a beautiful rainy shower. Definitely recommended.
I grew up in a family where tallness is the norm. I'm the shortest at 5'5". My husband and son are also over six feet. My daughter is 5'9" and her fiance is 6'3". So, yes, I know how things are for tall people.
Our first apartment was a studio. The shower was so short that both of us had to kneel down to get under it! 😂
Wow, Shauna: hurrah for tall families! I'm the second-shortest in mine (Mum's 'only' 5'10"!) but the chaps are both well over 6'. Jim (6'5") has got nephews, all bigger than him - the tallest is 6'8"!
LOL about your studio apartment's shower! We have a tiny bathtub as well as a (separate) shower in our bathroom - neither of us fits in it - it's entirely pointless. Never mind CLEANING the tub - for ours it's only a dusting and decobwebbing job! 🤣
I've tried to take camping trips short enough to avoid use of camp showers or do a basin bath right there in camp. With our teardrop and the lack of boundaries of some elderly RVs who have perfectly wonderful showers in their 45-footers, my dear husband found he had company while washing his hair on the picnic table of our camp one day. He rose from the basin, dripping all over himself, to regard this simple-minded man who probably just wanted to get acquainted with the new neighbors. So, Rebecca, it could be worse, and probably in the UK, fellow campers have a better manners as well as a few more marbles than some of the folks we've met here in the wild American West. Oh, and then there was that toilet in the middle of a large restroom in Austin, NV. Hmmmm. No walls, by the way. We all know each other in this town, so don't worry about privacy.
Oh gosh, Sue, that's rather too close for neighbourly comfort! Your poor husband!
Jim sometimes uses things called 'Drench', which are single-use, disposable 'no water shampoo and conditioning caps'. You put a towel around your shoulders, open the pack, pull out a dripping, spongy shower-cap-type thing, pop it over your head and rub it all over vigorously. It's extraordinary - it cleans your hair (like a proper wash) and although you don't need to rinse it off it doesn't leave residue or make your hair feel icky - it feels and looks and smells and IS really clean! We use showers when we can, but the Drench caps are an excellent alternative for our hair if we're pushed either for time or for access to showering facilities.
We first started camping during the first year of Covid when we had work trips away from home, and in those scary times didn't dare even enter a communal shower block, let alone use one. Instead we had an awning clipped to the side of the van, a 10-litre bucket, and a solar-powered shower (dunk one end into the bucket; the other end is the shower head). If we had gas to spare we'd boil a kettle for warm water; if not, then brrrr. Also, a Portapotti. Life-saving! 🤣
We were pretty primitive in our teardrop camping days too. That little Porti-pottie and its little tent got a workout. We had an over-sized coffee pot that would heat enough water to make coffee, oatmeal, and still have enough to dip a washrag in for a refreshing basin bath. Still, it's always wonderful to come home to the familiar shower.
This is awesome Rebecca! I love the pics you took and the running dialog on showers. I could do the same, mostly on furniture, because I'm the size of a 12 year old child and nothing fits me ever. However, since the water runs down it will hit my hair even if the showerhead is very high. The couch is another story as my feet stick straight out in front of me if I am using the back. Same problem from a different direction.
Gosh, Donna, I can imagine your issues with the couch - that must be so frustrating. I remember having a problem in a restaurant once, where the fixed bench seats were very narrow front-to-back, and the tables too were fixed. Now, I have very long femurs, and until that day I hadn't realised that being too close to one's food could be a problem. Turns out it can - I was so close to my plate that I could barely reach it with my cutlery without elbowing both neighbours in the face! 🤣
This is hilarious, and I love the photos. Being such a shrimp, 5' I can't even imagine. But we shorties have our issues as well, never able to reach anything. I especially loved the photo of you in the full length (lol) mirror. That mirror would have fit me perfectly. Thanks for this fun post.
Awww, thanks, Sue! D'you know, I went to a fabulous exhibition yesterday, which had things to look at on two levels - one quite low down, one quite high up - and there were free-standing step-stools for people to step up onto for looking at the higher-up stuff. I didn't need to do that, but I did have to stoop to see the lower-down exhibits. My height was a big advantage, because I wasn't sure about using the stools! !https://www.ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk/event/bloomin-brilliant-the-life-and-work-of-raymond-briggs/
It was a brilliant exhibition. Raymond Briggs' work is awesome - over here the short animated film 'The Snowman', adapted from his book, is pretty much compulsory viewing on Christmas Eve. It's absolutely gorgeous - do you know it?
I have to say I never thought about this before, but you're absolutely right. I don't know why everything isn't adjustable by default. Would make things so much easier!
My husband and I are pretty average height, me at 5'7", he at 5'10" and still we are familiar with the tendency toward position or angle issues in many showers. What we encounter and bemoan more often, though, are sink faucets that are so poorly chosen or so badly installed that it's impossible to wash one's hands without them rubbing against the back of the basin. Ew!!
Your pictures are such fun, Rebecca, evidence of your perfectly situated sense of humor.
Thanks, Elizabeth - I had such fun taking those pictures! I wondered about which to post, and then I thought 'heck, why not - I'm sure my readers know me well enough!' 🤣
Your point about sink faucets ('taps' over here) is about right! Also, so often over here we have separate taps rather than mixer taps (which make so much more sense, and in mainland Europe mostly come as standard) - our bathroom washbasin has separate taps, and they really annoy me! 🤣
We lived with separate taps for 13 years, in the little farm cottage. I got quite accustomed to the "triangle hand dance." Cupped palms up, cold water, hot water, face, cold water, hot water, face. There was a rhythm to it that I learned to love, believe it or not.
Not sure why the showers are like that in the US. But everything business people do is based on the lowest quote for the work done. And because most things are planned by men, this seems to be the best they can do. Also, if there was a fancier shower head it would probably be stolen. Sad.
This was quite funny Rebecca, possibly more in your retelling than at the time. It was a humorous follow-up to the story about too-short shower heads. That one was quite useful for me to understand some of the issues you teller people face. Being at the shorter end of height, I do have sympathy for the misplaced heights of most everything it seems, and agree with the notion that all those 'everythings' should be adjustable, or at least slightly bigger in scope (in the case of mirrors, for example) so we all have a chance at a reasonable experience using them. But, Hey ho. As a result, you have produced some great storytelling and well observed documentation(and entertaining photographs) for the rest of us! Thanks for another enjoyable read!
I love this post it makes me realise it is not just me, even if I am at the other end. The problem I have with showers is when they are in the bath. Why you ask? Because if the sides are high my short fat legs just cannot clamber over. I always check to make sure I have a separate shower when I go away now. Mirrors are also a problem I often can only see things above my eyes. Not good for 💄.
Ah, we are of the same species, Jo.
Thanks, Jo! That's such a good point about the shower being in the bath.
I remember when I still very little and Dad had bought two small square mirror tiles for the bathroom wall: one for my brother and one for me. We'd got to a stage where we wanted to see our faces in the bathroom mirror but it was waaaaay too high, so Dad stuck up a mirror tile for each of us. I remember those mirrors being the first evidence I had that my brother was bigger than me! We're close in age, and were playmates for all our childhood, and I don't think I'd been aware of that difference in us before. ❤️
"I don’t wear lipstick, and my eyebrows fend for themselves" aha! me, too! What a great post and I relate (though I am an untall person) to adjusting to fixtures that are not quite right, or just plain not right. Sounds like you found some pretty great facilities in your trek, which would have been welcome in the 60s campsites my family frequented and the summer camps I attended and worked at in the 70s. A yellow bug light fixed on the wall with a cage around it (so it wouldn't break by what means??) and giant mosquito-like insects also fixed on the wall are memories of visiting the "outhouse" or "shower room", where one must wear flip flops or other waterproof foot covering to avoid the sand on the cement floors (and who knows what else). This was so great, RH, and added to enjoying my morning cup of Joe. I think a coffee table photo book of your and your Jim's camping adventures is in order.
In our family those large insects are affectionately referred to as 'galnippers.'
Ah! That's a new word for me so I looked it up, and yes, indeed, this describes perfectly what I remember: https://dare.wisc.edu/words/word-of-the-month-archive/gallinipper/. Thanks!!!
I looked them up and apparently their proper name is "crane flies." But gallnipper is so much more vivid!
Oooooh, now 'crane flies' over here do look like ginormous mosquitoes - they don't bite, though, they just make really annoying papery-fluttering noises with their wings and bang their way clumsily from lampshade to lampshade.
Guess what the other name for them over here is, though? It's very cute - they're called 'Daddy-long-legs'!
So funny! Here, crane flies are referred to as "mosquito hawks," which is a terrible misnomer, for they are neither mosquitos nor mosquito predators. A Daddy Longlegs is a spider, said to be among the most poisonous of all spiders but with fangs too short to bite humans. A too-short shower head is just called stupid.
I love daddy-long-legs (they are spiders here, too.) I didn't know they were venomous to people, but they are fabulous at eradicating other household bugs; I never ever squish or harm them. I do my best not to harm spiders of any sort-- in fact, I have two "pet" spiders in the bathroom at the moment, called "Hamper" and "Plunger" due to their choice of web locations.
Daddy long legs here are huge spiders!
Oh, how funny! Are they the ones with really really spindly legs and a tiny little body but the leg span of a small coffee cup? We call those 'harvestman spiders'. Their legs are very long indeed!
Ooooh Kerry, I've never heard of those! Even the name is monstrous! 🫣
The name is scary! Apparently their actual name is crane flies, and they are 100% harmless. Where I live now, folks call them "mosquito hawks" and claim that they eat mosquitoes, but I think that's a myth.
Yes (more in comment above). Galnipper calls to mind something else altogether. 😂
🤣 Yes! If you said to me 'don't go into the bathroom - there are galnippers in there' I'd probably call the police! And my dad, actually. 👀
Mosquito hawks? Now I'm OFFICIALLY terrified..... 👀
Thanks so much, Mary! Gosh, I'm going to have nightmares about those campsite 'outhouses' of yours! I mean, I wear Crocs in campsite showers for hygiene reasons, but gosh, the thought of a bathroom with a sandy cement floor, and full of bugs - ugh.....!
You can rest assured that any such coffee table book would not include silly pictures of me in the shower, I promise! 😉
You’re welcome, and the outhouses were something else! Part of fond memories, though, of camping. It all seemed so rustic and pioneer-y. 😂
Yes! I know exactly what you mean - but it seems the older I get, the more I am likely to eschew rustic in favour of five-star! 🤣
Yes! 😂 Hot water and a clean floor and fixtures are much preferred, and without those mysterious smells . . . .
Yikes, don't mention the SMELLS, Mary....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
🤣
Such a great follow-up, Rebecca. Your selfies are hilarious. I loved the photo of the low-hung mirror, chopping off the head view. I am 5'1" and in many public places, mirrors are hung so high, I see only the top of my head. A very diverting read - as usual!
🤣 I had SUCH fun taking those pictures, Sharron - goodness knows what my fellow bathroom users would have been thinking at the time, because I'm sure I was giggling! 🤭
Thank you so much! xxx
The problem can be easily circumvented using my patent-pending method. I don't bother to use our shower. I simply wait for it to rain, which in England is virtually every day, and race out into the garden with a bar of soap.
🤣
Wow, as a very short person (I'm 5'2") I'd never considered the difficulties of showering for tall folks. I'm well versed in strategically knocking things off of tall shelves using a long spatula or spoon, then deftly catching them on the way down, but clearly all is not consistently rosy in Tallville either! I was struck by your courage in ( I assume?) taking your phone into the shower for photographs. If I tried that it would assuredly lie drowning in the drain within moments.
Kerry, that sounds like EXCELLENT use of a spatula! Brilliant work! 🙌
That's a very good point about the phone in the shower - I was very careful! I actually took all but one of the pictures before turning the water on, and then put my phone safely into my bag which was hanging safely on the furthest hook from the actual shower part of the shower cubicle, and after I'd taken the single picture (the silly face-pulling one) when the water WAS on I put the phone safely onto the shelf above and beside me. No harm done (apart from perhaps to my reputation - for taking pictures in the shower, I mean!!). 🤣
I installed a wonderful rain shower after I found one on sale in the local Aldi. Makes the shower head a full 12 inches higher and provides a beautiful rainy shower. Definitely recommended.
Oh wow, Beth - I'm going to seek out our nearest Aldi! That middle aisle is the business!!! 🙌
I grew up in a family where tallness is the norm. I'm the shortest at 5'5". My husband and son are also over six feet. My daughter is 5'9" and her fiance is 6'3". So, yes, I know how things are for tall people.
Our first apartment was a studio. The shower was so short that both of us had to kneel down to get under it! 😂
Wow, Shauna: hurrah for tall families! I'm the second-shortest in mine (Mum's 'only' 5'10"!) but the chaps are both well over 6'. Jim (6'5") has got nephews, all bigger than him - the tallest is 6'8"!
LOL about your studio apartment's shower! We have a tiny bathtub as well as a (separate) shower in our bathroom - neither of us fits in it - it's entirely pointless. Never mind CLEANING the tub - for ours it's only a dusting and decobwebbing job! 🤣
I've tried to take camping trips short enough to avoid use of camp showers or do a basin bath right there in camp. With our teardrop and the lack of boundaries of some elderly RVs who have perfectly wonderful showers in their 45-footers, my dear husband found he had company while washing his hair on the picnic table of our camp one day. He rose from the basin, dripping all over himself, to regard this simple-minded man who probably just wanted to get acquainted with the new neighbors. So, Rebecca, it could be worse, and probably in the UK, fellow campers have a better manners as well as a few more marbles than some of the folks we've met here in the wild American West. Oh, and then there was that toilet in the middle of a large restroom in Austin, NV. Hmmmm. No walls, by the way. We all know each other in this town, so don't worry about privacy.
Oh gosh, Sue, that's rather too close for neighbourly comfort! Your poor husband!
Jim sometimes uses things called 'Drench', which are single-use, disposable 'no water shampoo and conditioning caps'. You put a towel around your shoulders, open the pack, pull out a dripping, spongy shower-cap-type thing, pop it over your head and rub it all over vigorously. It's extraordinary - it cleans your hair (like a proper wash) and although you don't need to rinse it off it doesn't leave residue or make your hair feel icky - it feels and looks and smells and IS really clean! We use showers when we can, but the Drench caps are an excellent alternative for our hair if we're pushed either for time or for access to showering facilities.
We first started camping during the first year of Covid when we had work trips away from home, and in those scary times didn't dare even enter a communal shower block, let alone use one. Instead we had an awning clipped to the side of the van, a 10-litre bucket, and a solar-powered shower (dunk one end into the bucket; the other end is the shower head). If we had gas to spare we'd boil a kettle for warm water; if not, then brrrr. Also, a Portapotti. Life-saving! 🤣
We were pretty primitive in our teardrop camping days too. That little Porti-pottie and its little tent got a workout. We had an over-sized coffee pot that would heat enough water to make coffee, oatmeal, and still have enough to dip a washrag in for a refreshing basin bath. Still, it's always wonderful to come home to the familiar shower.
Yes, although it's great fun being away camping, there's nothing like a return to home comforts! 😊
This is awesome Rebecca! I love the pics you took and the running dialog on showers. I could do the same, mostly on furniture, because I'm the size of a 12 year old child and nothing fits me ever. However, since the water runs down it will hit my hair even if the showerhead is very high. The couch is another story as my feet stick straight out in front of me if I am using the back. Same problem from a different direction.
Gosh, Donna, I can imagine your issues with the couch - that must be so frustrating. I remember having a problem in a restaurant once, where the fixed bench seats were very narrow front-to-back, and the tables too were fixed. Now, I have very long femurs, and until that day I hadn't realised that being too close to one's food could be a problem. Turns out it can - I was so close to my plate that I could barely reach it with my cutlery without elbowing both neighbours in the face! 🤣
Scratch that restaurant off your list of places to ever return to!!
🤣
This is hilarious, and I love the photos. Being such a shrimp, 5' I can't even imagine. But we shorties have our issues as well, never able to reach anything. I especially loved the photo of you in the full length (lol) mirror. That mirror would have fit me perfectly. Thanks for this fun post.
Awww, thanks, Sue! D'you know, I went to a fabulous exhibition yesterday, which had things to look at on two levels - one quite low down, one quite high up - and there were free-standing step-stools for people to step up onto for looking at the higher-up stuff. I didn't need to do that, but I did have to stoop to see the lower-down exhibits. My height was a big advantage, because I wasn't sure about using the stools! !https://www.ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk/event/bloomin-brilliant-the-life-and-work-of-raymond-briggs/
I would have been using the stools!!! The exhibit sounds delightful.
It was a brilliant exhibition. Raymond Briggs' work is awesome - over here the short animated film 'The Snowman', adapted from his book, is pretty much compulsory viewing on Christmas Eve. It's absolutely gorgeous - do you know it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx48m4ge8kc
(Hanky warning for the end.)
I didn't know of this story. I just watched it now, so sweet. And yes, a hanky ending. Thanks for sharing it with me. 💕
Oh Sue, I'm so pleased you enjoyed it! It's glorious, isn't it? xxx
It surely is. I loved it! 💕💕💕
I feel your pain, as I suffer from SAD ('Short Arms Difficulty').
I celebrate our differences, Olga! That's a great acronym, btw. Hugs! 😘
I have to say I never thought about this before, but you're absolutely right. I don't know why everything isn't adjustable by default. Would make things so much easier!
I love what you've said here, Chris - 'adjustable by default' needs to be the guideline for pretty much anyone installing pretty much anything!
My husband and I are pretty average height, me at 5'7", he at 5'10" and still we are familiar with the tendency toward position or angle issues in many showers. What we encounter and bemoan more often, though, are sink faucets that are so poorly chosen or so badly installed that it's impossible to wash one's hands without them rubbing against the back of the basin. Ew!!
Your pictures are such fun, Rebecca, evidence of your perfectly situated sense of humor.
Thanks, Elizabeth - I had such fun taking those pictures! I wondered about which to post, and then I thought 'heck, why not - I'm sure my readers know me well enough!' 🤣
Your point about sink faucets ('taps' over here) is about right! Also, so often over here we have separate taps rather than mixer taps (which make so much more sense, and in mainland Europe mostly come as standard) - our bathroom washbasin has separate taps, and they really annoy me! 🤣
We lived with separate taps for 13 years, in the little farm cottage. I got quite accustomed to the "triangle hand dance." Cupped palms up, cold water, hot water, face, cold water, hot water, face. There was a rhythm to it that I learned to love, believe it or not.
That's EXACTLY it, Elizabeth - the 'triangle hand dance'! 🤣
🚰 + 🙌 = ▲🕺
🤣
Not sure why the showers are like that in the US. But everything business people do is based on the lowest quote for the work done. And because most things are planned by men, this seems to be the best they can do. Also, if there was a fancier shower head it would probably be stolen. Sad.
Over here the discussion is always about washbasin taps, and why mixer taps don't come as standard!
Haha, hilarious!
Thanks, Margreet! 🤣
This was quite funny Rebecca, possibly more in your retelling than at the time. It was a humorous follow-up to the story about too-short shower heads. That one was quite useful for me to understand some of the issues you teller people face. Being at the shorter end of height, I do have sympathy for the misplaced heights of most everything it seems, and agree with the notion that all those 'everythings' should be adjustable, or at least slightly bigger in scope (in the case of mirrors, for example) so we all have a chance at a reasonable experience using them. But, Hey ho. As a result, you have produced some great storytelling and well observed documentation(and entertaining photographs) for the rest of us! Thanks for another enjoyable read!
Awwww, always so kind, Sabrina - thank you! Yes to everything being adjustable - let's start a campaign! 🙌