Out Houses

[JOERM]

I grew up using part time out houses and so did my wife. I'm from Wa she's from LA. My family before me only had Out houses. We all have stories to tell for sure starting with the old timers....Sears Robock Catalog, before TP came on board. When I first got married that's all I had to offer my new wife but she took. Cold at times and spiders play a small roll too.

I've dug many OH's and buried several. My wife just brought this on,,,,sorry. She said her grandma back in 1966 in LA was so excited that her son, my wifes dad, hooked a "flush toilet" up and they all were so excited for the first.."flush". Which they all did. Then grandma said.."ya all leave...I gots to use it"!

Anyone have a few stories to tell about out houses? Got to keep it clean of course.

 

[redlevel]

There is none other like it in the country or the town.
Ode To The Little Brown Shack Out Back - YouTube

 

[kcode]

When I was in high school, one of the Halloween pranks that was done every year was to go out and dump out houses. One of the favorites was that of an obese History teacher. Every year someone always got his. When it was our turn, he actually moved it back about 6 feet exposing the pit, of course you all know what happens when its dark and you are in hurry, two of my buddies ending up in the pit. I made them ride in the open trunk on the way back. The following school day, the History teacher made some snide comments about a stench in the room.

 

[snowman]

Great song, redlevel. I got a book for Christmas years ago called Backyard Classic. Loaded with pictures of outhouses of all stripes, written by a fellow who had made a study of them. He traveled all over the country to find them; most were in western ghost towns. Funny and informative.

Andy

 

[feralmerril]

When I took my army physical 50 + years ago, there was a guy from the sticks that was trying to take a dump in the urinal!

 

[Kelly Green]

When I was a kid in the 50's we didn't have an indoor toilet. Heck, we lived so far out in the country that we didn't get rural electricity until 1953. After we got electricity, my dad built a pump-house and installed indoor plumbing. When he constructed a septic system and built an indoor bathroom we thought we'd died and gone to heaven. At least my brother thought so, it was his chore to keep the outhouse clean and burn the contents. You didn't want to be downwind of that fire. I still live in the same house today but it has seen a lot of updates.

 

[ogilvyspecial]

Here's mine, which took place at a friend's house, not
cabin, up in northern Michigan back in the 1970's.

I was sittin' there "thinkin'" with my drawers down around my knees
when a mouse came in, looked up, and I swear you could see the
look of surprise on it's tiny face when it seen me there thinkin'.

I don't know if it always responded this way when "surprised",
but it instantly ran right up my pants & jumped at my chest.

I went flyin' out that door & about broke my darn fool neck tryin' to run
with my pants down around my knees! I will say this, that mouse was a
lot more graceful when surprised than I was!

 

[rimfired]

My grandfather used to recite this to me from memory in the 50's.
He always attributed it to James Whitcolmb Reilly. Origin aside, it's one of my favorite poems.
The Specialist (A Famous Illustrated Poem about Outhouses)
My last outhouse survived the hunting camp forest fire of '85. Camp members made a bucket brigade surrounding it, we tossed in a coffee can of gasoline followed by an M-80. It was a sight to behold!

 

[keith44spl]

They Shoot outhouses Don't They?

I'd posted this before...Here's a repeat,


I was about 12 or thirteen the summer that the rural electric company ran the power line near the old place and Dad paid them extra to get a line run to the main house. Someone in the family help put in the service and a 60 amp fuse box. We had electric lights and pretty soon someone gave us a big old multi-channel radio. It was in a cabinet about five feet high with about a dozen knobs on it and one big dial that turned a needle under a bezel for a bunch of different bands. We could pick up ship to shore radio traffic, aircraft transmissions in flight somewhere. But, the best was on the A.M. clear channel 650 WSM or maybe WLS in Chicago.

With all these modern conveniences, the folks thought it was time for us to join the 20th century…So, we got indoor plumbing! Yes sirree no more drawing water from the well, no more ice in the water bucket on cold winter mornings. With the wonder of the jet pump and electricity, water will run right out of a spicket. I mean right there in the kitchen.

Progressive folks ain't never satisfied. Next came the bathroom, an outhouse in the house…No more wasper stings nor black widows to squish. No more barefooted mid-nite strolls on muddy or frozen path. We were in tall cotton as they say.

So, one Saturday morning after breakfast, my older brother and I were fixin' to go to town to the feed store. As we were mountin' up the pickup truck I saw Billy Lee had aquired a pretty good lookin' rifle, it was laying on the truck seat with the muzzle in the floorboard.

I says,"Whatcha got there?"
Billy Lee, "Ought Six."
Me, "What kind is it?"
BL, "Winchester 95."
Me, "Betcha a dollar you can't even hit that outhouse with it!"
BL, "Kid, get your dollar out!"

Well he loads 'er up and is fixin' to cut loose, "A dollar and a half says you can't hit the hinges!" I gig him.

Five shots later, the top hinge is cut loose and the bottom one is about to let go…

Just about that time our Dad came charging out of the back door of the house, "Boys, what in the cat hair y'all shooting at?"

I said, "Nothing much, just that old outhouse. Besides it was Bill doing the shooting."

Well the old man takes one look at the thing with the door just a barely a hanging, his face is getting' redder by the second.

I don't think he was all that mad, just really aggregated. He says," Boys, y'all done shot the 'mierda casa' to rag dolls, somebody might have wanted to use that just for old time sake!"

Billy Lee tried to state his defense,"Dave bet me a buck and a half I couldn't hit it!"

Dad just gave us one of those looks and said,"Well, I'd say you sure nuff got that done there Son." Now turning his attention to yours truly, "David, give your brother his dollar and a half, so he can pay for some new hinges at the hardware in town. Your gonna stay here and get that door ready to go back up."

That kinda put a stop to us shootin' at any of the 'stuff' around the house…

Su Amigo,
Dave

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

When I was a kid we would visit my aunt and uncle in Oregon. They had 4 kids and what was known as a "Two Holer" . It kept waiting to a minimum and made those private times a bit less private. Trying to time it so that I was the only one using it never seemed to work. When someone flung open the door and said "Hi, how's it going" always helped speed things up....

 

[P&R Fan]

A fine topic, if you ask me.
I grew up in town, but we had friends who owned a farm that we always went to on holidays. I also bailed hay for them when I was a teenager in the late '70s early '80s and have hunted there since I was about 10. They had indoor plumbing, but still had the outhouse until about 20 years ago. I would always use it. One of my goals is to own an acreage with an outhouse on it. We live on one now, with a two story 103 year old house, but it's just inside the city limits. That means no (legal) shooting, and no outhouse.
My Wife thinks I'm crazy for wanting one. I can live with that.
Jim

 

[jimmyj]

I grew up in an rural area of Florida.
negative electricity, running water, or telephones.
Kerosene lamps for lighting, pitcher pump for water, tin tub on the back porch for bathing, wood store for cooking, fireplace for heating, and a outhouse for a toilet. During the "Depression" the CCC built the outhouses, installed pitcher pumps, and built bridges.
Twice a week a ice truck from the nearest town delivered ice for the residents' ice boxes.
After WWII power lines came into the area and the homes had electricity that wanted it.

 

[Iggy]

We moved into a brand new house on the ranch back in '49. Had indoor plumbin and all that stuff.
Sure beat walkin' 25 yard to the two holer out back. Them Sears and Roebuck catalog pages warn't much for traction when it come to wipin'.

The guy that built the house was a sheepherder that got too old to keep up with a band of sheep. He warn't much of a plumber and we had troubles for quite some time until my Pappy got a real plumber out there and recalibrated things.

Before we got it all workin' just right, my Grandad stopped by for supper one night and my Mom was grumblin' about the plumbing being plugged up.

Ol Gramps said, "That's what you git for crappin' in the house."

Now you got to keep in mind that he had moved to town in '47 and had all of them "facilities" but he din't see no need for us havin' them outchere in the country.

 

[rimfired]

Ol Gramps said, "That's what you git for crappin' in the house."
Now that made me laugh! Thanks Iggy!

 

[gaf]

I have a deer camp in rural Owen County Ky. Many years ago, when I first built my cabin, my close buddy decided that the walk to a neighbor's outhouse (1/2 mile) was too long and a bucket was just unsuitable.
While I was finishing the inside he started building the outhouse. He took the exact measurements of his throne at home and constructed the outhouse with the cabin scraps.
When he completed his work of art we were all standing around admiring it. The elderly farmer that I had purchased the land from and his older brother stopped over. The two old farmers stood and admired the work. One turned to the other and said " Robert, that is the best damn $#!%house in Owen County." There is now a cedar plaque on the wall with that quote.
gaf

 

[CajunBass]

We had an outhouse when I was a kid, but I don't remember much about it. Except this one story.

My Dad won a turkey at a turkey shoot. A live turkey in those days you understand.

He came home with that turkey in the back of the car, and got it out leading it on a string like a dog on a leash. It was a couple of days before Thanksgiving, and since he had just put indoor plumbing in the house, he locked the turkey up in the old outhouse.

Well, my sister and I made a pet of it. Even my mother got into the act, feeding that silly bird through cracks in the boards and the door.

Thanksgiving day came, Dad wacked the turkey, Mom cooked it, and nobody would eat it. That was "Tom" on the table, not some old turkey.

 

[tops]

I very well remember outhouses and no electricity. There were old days but they were not good old days. I would not take a million dollars for how I grew up but I am not tough enough to do it again. Larry

 

[Shooting Padre]

We live next door to my Father in Law, and their outhouse is still standing, and sometimes used. Old habits are hard to break, and when that shack is more convenient than heading inside, well... It is now stocked with real TP instead of other paper products. When I grew up on my Grandfathers farm, we also had an outhouse. I often wondered why only the glossy stiffer pages of the catalogs were all that were left in there after the softer pages had gone. I also wonder how many huge spiders were lurking just below the hole to bite me in the bum. Or bees nests down there. Or.... man, there was a lot of trauma just taking care of business in those days.

 

[kevmansc]

We had an illegal outhouse growing up in the 80's - by that I mean it was installed after the township stopped allowing them. Just a seat/hole in our garden shed. I also remember my high school homecoming always featured at least one outhouse on top of the bonfire pile. My senior year I found one (with permission of the owners) to put up there. I think there were three up there then. Just high school kids helping to clean up the county I guess!

 

[red14]

We had one when I was a kid. Spiders and snakes in the summer, cold wind blasting through the cracks in the wall during the winter.

The worst times were when "nature called" during cold rainy winter nights. Flash lights were expensive so you had to use the "brail" method to find you way.

The only other alternative was to use the "slop jar", what porcelain commodes were called in the Deep South.

It had two down sides; 1. Ya had to be able to score a direct hit on #2, and 2. Come sunrise, you had to properly dump it and clean it.

Kids being lazy, we'd rather take out changes stumbling to the Out House in the middle of the night.

My grandmother had a two-seater out-house, and I still have two 'slop-jars'. One is a deluxe, it has a lid.