Shameless shitter or not, to me, cross-stall conversation is a no-no. When I'm in the bathroom, I'm either focusing on the task at hand, or I'm reading. Talking is not an option.

One time I was in a stall along side a fellow pooper….
Since I’m shy and it's hard to initiate a meaningful conversation with someone that’s half naked and shitting, I remained silent, except for the occasional fake “I’m in the stall here” cough. I was minding my own business when this guy blew off the most incredible piece of gas I’ve ever heard. I don’t know if he chunked a turd with it, but I thought I heard the water splash. The reverberation sounded like we were in a cave and the volume was loud enough to give me a little adrenaline rush.

I recovered my wits and was going about my business, when I heard the guy say “Jesus” and sigh. I figured he must have been praying, so I risked starting a conversation by saying “Rough day?” he replied “Pretty bad eh?” and I told him that “that was the loudest fart I’d ever heard” and asked him if he was Ok. He was all right and told me he thought “the bathroom smelled like the Suez Canal”…I asked him to “drag the dead body out with him when he was done”…. we went back and forth with this meaningless banter until he was finished…said “See ya later” and left.

It wasn’t until I was in my car, driving away, when I realized that I had just had a conversation with some one that was 12” from me and I’d never seen his face.
He could have waited until I was done and washed my hands, as his tremendous gas feat deserved a high-five.

I think stall walls should have those speak-easy…priest… sliding window things installed, so us consenting shameless shitters can see whom we talk to. You never know who you might meet. The toilet; much like a machine-gun is a great equalizer. Even the President becomes a simpering, grunting pig while shitting and all class distinctions are left outside the bathroom door

I say converse whenever you can, you might learn something that could change your life.

Peace

G Ras

In school us guys talk all the time. But when we were in elementary school we had curtain to separate the stalls. When we started talking to someone we could just push the curtains away. Man did us kids stink the bathroom up. Don't even get me started on my teachers and principal.

A couple weeks ago some friends and I were staying in a yurt at the Oregon coast. After a night of drinking and eating fried this and that two of us took a walk to the communal bathroom. The girls and one guy stayed behind. There were two stalls and Frank and I occupied them both. Our grunting and growling was about the only conversaton we had. Frank got up and left before I did. Within a minute someone else came in to the bathroom and sat on the pooper. A few moments later I hear a distinct, but fake, British accent exclaim "Gawd it stinks in 'ere." From a previous story I immediately realized this was my friend Jones that had stayed behind in the yurt. After an awkward silence my stall neighbor blurted, "it's not like we can help it." Attempting to quell my laughter I got up and walked to the sink where Jones was brushing his teeth. I leaned in close and said, "you know, frank left the bathroom a few minutes ago" Jones, thinking his friends got the joke, turned red and ran out the door. I followed and found Frank waiting outside, unaware of what had occured. He found it hilarous, especially when Jones, really having to shit, took a shower instead to hide from the poor fella in the unknown stall.

Rarely..very Rarely will i have a shitter convo...if I say anything it usually is deserving..like a Truck Stop old man prune juice blowout about 10am...I'll say something wise-cracker'ish...somntimes too if it's anybody who has a continous free flowing water bomb...that always gives me achuckle to hear that..poor soul!

Today I walked into the bathroom and spotted my CEO at the urinal. I had to crap, so I hurried behind him to the stall, thinking "please don't see me, please don't see me" but just as i got into the stall, he said "is that Dave?" Sure is, buddy. So he talked to me for a few minutes about stupid work stuff while i sat on the toilet with my pants down, waiting for him to leave so i could start my business. Unacceptable!

he should be ashamed of himself, but I guess to become a successful businessman you gotta be a little bold !!

Was this Todd from Marion, Illinois?

u do not really need to b naked to poo. some ppl said they did in the above letters like about the man with his op on his balls etc., but some folk poo thorugh a hole in their boxers like a pee through a fly. talking to someone in the bathroom doesnt mean they r naked really

There's been two thing that I've never been able to understand. First, WHY DO PEOPLE READ WHILE THEY SHIT. Shitting does NOT take very long. 2-3 minutes for me and 4 when I take a long shit. There's no point in reading. Just focus on the task at hand, and no problem... What the hell are you gonna read in a bathroom stall or in the bathroom in your house?

Secondly, why do those (few?) and disgusting people run the faucet when they shit. Is the quiet noise of shitting so embarrassing to the rest of your family or friends that you have to cover up that noise. A faucet left on for 3 min will cause more suspicion than a normal, nice shit. Seriously, it's not that bad!

I like to read when i shit... i eat alot of rice, and absorbant carbs, so my shits are HUGE and take a while to work out. Its nice to have something to do in there other than push.

However, I love it when you have those five second turds that just fall out and when you reach down with the TP you find you didnt even have to wipe.

But that is so rare for me. I always find myself in the shitter for long periods of time. I like to talk with people in the next stall about what I am reading. Its kind of funny to talk about a food article while a big juicy crap is working its way through my o-hole! :)

I never thought people turned on the water to cover up the non-existant (almost) noise of a pinched loaf sliding into the bowl, but rather thought they did it for relaxation - running water tends to untighten an uptight asshole....so they say. When I was around twelve, I was taking a leak in the john by the school nurses office, and when I was done, a classmate told me 'jeezus apeshit krist, ralf, didn't your parents ever teach you to piss on the side of the bowl above the water-line so that nobody could hear you?' to which I replied 'fuck no, that's the stupiedest thing I've ever heard', but every goddamm piss I took for the next 30 years was on the side of the bowl above the waterline. After thirty years of usually pissing on the floor instead (the bowl is hard enough to hit if you piss right in the goddamm middle!) I finally decided that people would rather hear the sound of me pissing than to have me pissing all over their walls or floor. Some shit takes me a while to figure out.

Me and my two friends, Paul and Elliot, poop together about every other day in school. The noises we generate are hilarious. We all go during the same period and sit in three stalls beside eachother. If no one else is in there, we'll talk to eachother in between noise and laughter. There is definitely nothing wrong with some inter-stall talking. Makes things go easier and allows for a fun time in the middle of the boring school day.

hey! if im poopin i like to read

sometimes i get so engrossed with the material i forget whats goin on and before i know it im done

and i dont even break a sweat

I would say it is fine, until you try to cross-stall-communicate with a complete stranger.

me and my girlfriend like to watch the shat come out of each other its kind of gross butt it makes us closer and more comfrtable w/ each other if we show the most uncomfortable things we do in front of each other.

The TLA is in the process of proposing the construction of glass stalls. This will eradicate the curiosity as to whom you are s(h)itting with. It is just one step closer to the inevitable existance of stall-less restrooms.

Todd you were a great guy....may you rest in peace.
Todd commited suicide in 2003. He has alot of drug and alcohol problems and was battling cancer.
I saw him at work early in the day that he blew his fucking brains out and he seemed normal; life fucking sucks.

I know what you mean, doniker. The first friend I ever made in my life killed himself four years ago. I just found out about it a few weeks ago and I'm still down. Just know that Todd's not in pain anymore.
Not that that's really helped me.

Going back 'bout reading while pooping. I'll grab a magazine once in a while even though it only takes me a minute or two to squeeze one out. This isn't necessarily to catch up on some reading material, but rather it facilitates the pooping experience. Much like how a cup of warm jave and a smoke will open the gates, the mere habit of having a mag. in the hand will zone one out, almost zen-like. I suppose it's similar to the situation where if you think 'bout it too much when urinating in public, then you can get a mental block that can leave you just standing with a useless dick in hand.

When I go into a stall, I never say a word, and even try to hold back any coughing sounds and such, to try to hide my Identity. Also I never try to say anything if im at the sink and somebodys pooping on the potty.

I enjoy reading in the stall. Since recently discovering PR here, I have been cut and Pasting multiple stories into word and printing them to read inthe stall. Normally I read the paper and an occasional book (I get caught up and have read a book all day at work blowing off everything there, but I digress). This PR reading almost cost me my job though. Recently, I had a huge 12 pager printed and read the whole thing! I spent 35 minutes reading andf when I came out, I had forgotten about our weekly staff status meeting and one of the guys saw me coming out and said our boss was looking for me. I told him I was on a telecon with Design Engineering as he hates that Dept and blames all our problems on them. So we actually bonded some on reaming DE anew As (pun intended). I also love to talk, but you have to be careful at work. But when I was in the Army, we would talk about evberything while shitting. In stalls, in the woods, anywhere we went, we shit...C-rations make huge turds.

baby did a boom boom

That's where I learned talking while shitting. Our boot camp toilets didn't have doors and shitters faced each other. So you can stare a a dude taking a shit in silence, or start up a converstation.

Not only is talking ok, I routinly try to stall the exit of a buddy/coworker while i try to brew a nastfart with bowl reverb!

I read at home, and play video poker at work. But my favorite thing todo in a public bathroom is if I let out a good fart pipe up to the guy in the stall next to me "That wasnt me, that was you".
This did however backfire once when the guy in the stall next to me turned out to be a co-worker who went and told his boss, who told the big boss who called me into the office. Although the big boss found it funny he requested I stop playing that game. So now every day I keep an eye out for tattle tales shoes and keep quiet.

Cross-stall conversation is a no no for any guy. Almost all guys, regardeless of your background, social status, creed, nationality have a built in code which is almost atabic about not talking to strangers in the bathroom and talking to someone in a stall is banned without a question. The only acceptable situation would be between buddies who entered the bathroom at the same time and one or both of them need to shit. However, even in this situation they should not take the conversation too far. Of course some guys do talk from the stalls or to someone in a stall but they are a minority, and they are perceived like weirdos or at the best as if they are nuts.

I think pooping should be a private experience and anonymity should always remain there. I mean really, there has to be SOME decorum left within our society.

Fernando, two good friends talking between the stalls shouldn't be viewed as weird if it's not forced. For instance, if they work in the same office and walked to the crapper together talking about some subject of interest, and it was still of interest to them when they took their seats, I see no reason why they shouldn't continue.

I agree that talking to a stranger out of the blue in a nearby stall is inappropriate, but there are some natural circumstances in which people of both genders talk between the stalls.

I'm told women do it all the time.

One time I was in the bathroom at my workplace taking a poop, and halfway through, to my dismay, someone decided to hop in the stall next to me in order to do the deed. I was put-off that someone would choose the one stall next to me when there were so many others available, but I looked at his shoes and recognized them as my good friend and coworker's Converses. Immediately I said, "Ethan?"
"Uh... Yeah..."
"Hey, sucks about that project our boss gave us huh?"
"Um... yeah..."
I didn't think I was really crossing the line here, we were pretty good buddies, but I sensed he was a pretty shameful shitter so I piped up, wiped up, and exited quickly, for his sake. Afterwards I couldn't help but noticed things were strange between us for a few days. He probably thought I was a big weirdo.

I do think it's a matter of timing, as well as familiarity. If it's a close friend and you knew their identity before they went into their stall, and they knew it was you next to them, I don't think it would seem strange.

ButI can see how starting up a conversation, even among friends, might be a bit strained, especially if no one had been talking about anything before.

As for spotting someone's shoes, I think you'd have to be awfully sure of yourself there. Some shoes look alike, and you could find yourself carrying on with a relative stranger who would be sitting there the entire time thinking: WTF?

I don't like talking to someone I know if I'm doing my business, because I am a noisy shitter. But I like listening to the other guy, and if a total stranger in the next stall started up a conversation about shitting, I think I would join in. But it has never happened to me.

I always feel vulnerable when shitting. No idea why having one's pants down, extruding foul smelling excrement from a hole between their lower cheeks, and making undignified sounds would make one feel that way, but it does. I've always suspected that the one who initiates the conversation knows it embarrasses the hell out of the other person, and does it to gain a feeling of power. "I can make you feel uncomfortable, and you can't do anything about it." That's another form of terrorism - a jihad of the toilet.

I don't mind talking to other guys in the restroom while either one of us is crapping. I sometimes take a crap in a nearby public park that has no doors on the 2 stalls. A few times, I've had guys talk to me. Sometimes they may be transients who are cleaning up at the sink in front of the stalls. Once was a guy from another state who asked me for paper because the other stall had none. Another time, there was a guy who was waiting for a stall and he just leaned against the wall in front of my stall just making small talk. He didn't even flinch when farted or when I stood up to wipe. If someone wants to talk to me, go for it.

I try not to initiate conversation while doing the deed. But I have been in the stall when someone has entered the restroom and, recognizing my shoes, called out to me and began conversation while urinating. He felt no shame even after he finished and washed up, he remained in the room to casually converse while other people came and went. I started using the second floor bathroom soon after that.

My co-worker and I are on the same break schedule at work. We go out to lunch about every day together, he's one of the cool people there cause everyone else sucks ass and is boring. I don't know what it is but about 4 hours later I have to take a dump. And he does too, it's like were on the same shit schedule lol. We always have cross-stall conversation, and it tends to turn into "listen to this one" as we see who can pinch the loudest fart, rate its strenght and talk about the new hot temps with big tits since we normally get a lot. I have no problem at all talking to guys I know in the bathroom, but if its a stranger I won't spark up a conversation, you never know if that person isn't comfortable with it. It also has a lot to do with age. We're both young guys in our 20s and don't give a shit. Older guys tend to be more serious about the whole thing.

^^^you gotta cool friend! Sounds like you guys play battle shits together.