Opinion by Matt Marquardt –
I quit going to the YMCA a long, long time ago due to the weird behavior in the YMCA men’s locker room.
Then, as most all of us know, a group of men were caught in 2012 performing what you might call “intimate behavior” in that locker room, and it was said that young eyes may have witnessed it. The YMCA leadership promised that the locker room would be policed and cleaned up and made safe for children – since, you know, they go in there just like adults do.
Well, now it’s come to my attention that the men’s locker room is basically just like it has always been. No, I didn’t go in there. I don’t own a physohex so I didn’t feel like it was a safe move. Then how do I know? Because it continues to be a running joke all over town, talked about here and there. It’s still going on, and it’s being talked about right now, today.
What’s still going on at the YMCA, you ask?
Apparently, the old man naked jumping jacks. The old man 100% naked shaving in front of the sinks. The old man walking around stark naked for no good reason other than to show off his junk. The close-talkers who get in your personal space – stark naked, no towel, no anything. If you’ve been in the Mason City YMCA locker rooms, you know what I’m talking about.
Seriously, no one wants to write about this nonsense, but after all these years, it’s still going on, and there are kids in these locker rooms? Not to mention adults who find it pretty much gross.
I did call the YMCA this morning and asked director Liz Conley about it. She was more or less clueless about the situation and claimed she hadn’t heard the stories that still whisper all over town. She said “we put-up signs” apparently to remind men to … use discretion, or something along those lines.
Well, Liz, I heard about your locker rooms last week sitting in a restaurant, when a gentleman brought it up to my buddy, who said the last time he saw my friend was at the Y. I won’t repeat the words this man used because they are offensive to some people. That got my radar up about this on-going situation. Then I read all about it today on social media, and boy, did people chime in.
It’s too much to ignore.
Please, Mason City YMCA, get your locker room under control. If you can’t, simply shut it down. You are embarrassing to a town that is getting full of embarrassments.
