Spitting

I haven’t seen anyone spit in public for many a long year. Where do you live?

Never seen anyone spit on a pavement only on a football field.

I find this habit abhorrent. I saw a neighbour doing this as he got out of his car, and it's coloured my attitude to him. It's horrible.

It's very grim. I've seen runner and cyclists do this.
Even worse I've seen them blow their nose as they go along the street without a hanky.
I've only ever seen men do this.

Hi I agree the pavements in both small towns and large cities seem full of it in places. It's absolutely disgusting but marginally less disgusting than the even more revolting nose blowing on the pavement action. Maybe the same folk do both.

I think it’s become more common after footballers started doing it. I’ve even seen young girls spitting. There is nothing more stomach churning than to walk up some steps and having to avoid the phlegm on them?
I thought it was one way that TB was spread, or isn’t that the case anymore?

I remember our buses used to have signs inside saying spitting was prohibited. At least we seem to have evolved from there. Thank goodness, can you imagine??

I hate it, when I worked in a school I raised the matter with the senior leadership team.
I was told it was access long as they were not spitting at a member of staff.
Disgusting!

A related thing is people licking their fingers when handling documents.

Some people say that they have to do it.

But I have always managed to turn pages of a newspaper, or hand out sheets of paper to people without licking my fingers.

One time in a supermarket, back in the days of plastic bags in abundance, a lady member of staff at a check out, grabbed some bags and licked her fingers to open them out.

Ooh, shudder!

checkout people used to have a damp sponge they could finger to open plastic bags as they are quite difficult to open

btw I've not seen anyone spit for a long time

I’m old enough to remember a spittoon in the working mens pubs, women weren’t supposed to go into the bar, there was actually sawdust on the floor too, pretty gross.

Maybe 10 yrs ago a group of schoolboys in uniform were loiters on the pavement on the high street, they thought “hawking and spitting” was cool. I didn’t, and took a photo of them and sent it to the headmaster, it was a prestigious school too. I’ll bet their feet didn’t touch the ground

I’ve read, and witnessed, that spitting is second nature to some Indian men.

I've seen it too. And nose-blowing onto the pavement (or road - from cyclists).

Always men.

It's revolting (it turns my stomach) - and it's bloody anti-social.

I mentioned it once to some people I know (can't remember how it came up in the conversation) and was told by one 'chap' that it was perfectly natural and to "get over it". I told him there were other bodily functions that were also "perfectly natural" but that consideration for others and social awareness stopped us from performing them in the street.

When I was about 8 I was taught that the way to serve a drink to someone is to hold the glass by the base, not by the rim as the rim was where someone would put their lip, so holding the glass by the rim would be unhygienic.

I notice that quite often in movies and television dramas that some people playing the role of a waiter or barperson hold glasses by the rim.

I wonder if that is just them, the actor, or if they are consciously playing the role as it exists in real life.

Do readers here notice such things, in dramas and in real life?

I have noticed people in bars doing this and I have seen men spit in the street, recently. One was delivering leaflets so I telephoned the firm and made a complaint, but they weren't the slightest bit interested. Another was in a shopping precinct so I expressed my disgust loudly whereupon he turned round an made a v sign. Children who did it at school were made to clean it up, scrub the surface, and miss their next playtime while they were given facts about the spread of infectious diseases to copy out.

I feel spitting is a dirty habit....When I was a child my old grandfather used smoke a pipe and spit into the coal fire....It made me boak.....I hated when my mum said we were visiting him...

I lived in Portugal in the early 2000's. Many of the men do it there. You have to dodge the snot!

It’s the most disgusting thing ever in my opinion vile thing to do. When lock down was in full swing I was appalled at the amount of people lifting their masks to spit out on the street.

I too find it disgusting, and I agree with you StarDreamer about people who lick their fingers when handling documents. Both quite unnecessary IMO.

I struggled to even look at the OP and I can't bring myself to read the comments because...

I can't handle spitting and it makes me want to be physically ill and I have been at times. It's basically a phobia

So disgusting

In some countries, blowing your nose into the street is - or was - a fairly normal thing. A friend of ours who is married to someone from a SE Asian country where he worked for a long time, said he saw it a lot and he partly got used to it, but it still revolted him.
TBH it’s no wonder ‘shoes off’ is the norm in countries where this is a Thing - if it still is.

IMO it’s wretched footballers who’ve apparently made spitting ‘acceptable’ by doing it on the pitch. It was a rare thing to see spitting some years ago, and I still remember the ‘Defense de cracher!’ (No Spitting!) signs on the Paris metro in the 60s - I wondered why on earth people needed to be told!

What? Things are going backwards. Next they'll be bringing back spitoons. I haven't seen anyone do that I have to say.

I’m not squeamish over much but spitting & snot are the one thing I cannot stand. I was in the swimming pool once and saw a man release a load of snot down his nose into the water, I was almost sick & had to get out