Not growing up, but for about a year when I lived in Africa. There were a lot of cockroaches in there, and you had to kick the seating before use to make them run away.

Nope.

And no one in our family has, even my grandparents.

My mom did as a child. They even used the Sears Catalog as TP. The outhouse had to be moved around the backyard to a new location as needed. My grandmother got a job later and paid for indoor plumbing and electricity. My grandfather was a jerk, mean and useless.

My mom is now 96 and still lives in the beautiful house she and my father built. It has four full baths and a powder room!

I've been many places where the facilities were some version of a hole in the ground. I'm always thankful for clean, working, private WC's.

I did! As a youngster would go visit relatives in the country.

They had an outhouse, plus a well for water.

Remember heating the water in the kitchen and getting a bath in a round metal tub in the center of the kitchen.

No street lights at night and it was pitch black sitting on the porch.

I will be using one on the 27th of next month (craft show) - It is on the toip of a country hill/road and this will be my 8th show now... It has ashes to sprinkle after you finish and is lovely. There is a regular toilet placed on top so no splinters on the ole' keester... The show is in an old red barn and wouldn't miss it for the world!

Times were tough soon after the birth of our first baby. We had to move in with DH's parents. The house had no indoor plumbing, so of course no bathroom. It was January. Yes, that outhouse trip was one you delayed as long as possible. Can you imagine, bringing a newborn home to a house with no running water, a coal stove in the living room, also one in the kitchen for cooking. That was the only heat. Thankfully we were only there for 3 months.

I did, until I was about junior high age. My parents actually had a new porch built on our house when I was in kindergarden, and included a bathroom, but they did not hook up the water to it until I was junior high. I really have no idea why.

We also have two outhouses (porta potties) at our camp property in the woods. We pay someone to come clean them about once every 3-4 weeks (as needed) in the summer time. Winter they don't get used. We have a nice camper out there, but don't use the facilities in the bathroom in the camper. We could, if we choose, and the same people that clean the porta potties would pump that out as well.

I'll upload a photo shortly... We saw this while riding our 4-wheelers to the north end of the Keweenaw Peninsula (that's where I live in the Michigan U.P.) last week. It's pretty remote out there. And yes, I did use the facilities in the photo. Some of my friends tell me they've seen the same sort of thing in the Minnesota/Canada Boundary Waters canoeing area.

My mother had to use an outhouse on the farm in RI. (Early 1900's).. No running water; pump in the front yard. My grandmother was a terror about using too much water until her dying day.

I've used them -- at the old 'rest stops' along highways. Grandma would go in first, taking a stick to stir out the spider webs under the seat. EEEK!

Yes, I did use it :-)

Our vacations when we were kids were camping, and the facilities were not like they are today. Most of the state parks had horrible stinky outhouses and cold water from a pump. I remember being a vain teenager and washing my hair in an ice cold pump. Today, I would suffer with dirty hair. Camping has really changed.

We always had indoor plumbing where we lived, but I remember visiting with family in a very rural setting and they had an outhouse and a well from which they drew their water. I don't have any specific memories of the outhouse, but to this day I remember the taste of that well water, sipped from a metal ladle.

I only ever used an outhouse when I was camping with the girl scouts when I was a youngster. My family always had indoor facilities even my Grandparents.
Joann

We had one at my family home and at my grandparents farm. They had indoor plumbing and all the facilities when I was growing up but the outhouses were still there and in cases of emergency we still did use them. But they were all torn down and done away with probably sometime in the 50's.

We watch the Buying Alaska shows on tv and I tell you I just could not even imagine having to go to an out house in so much snow and with bears all over the place. You have to carry a gun with you to go to the outhouse and there were bear scratch marks all on the wood of the outhouse on one place. But many of them had a potty chair type thing they use inside at night and then it is emptied so they don't have to go out in 10 ft of snow in the freezing winter night.
I could not be one of those wilderness people!

Yep, mine sounds like Glenda's. Ours was out by the alley. I remember my dad always dumped lime in the hole to keep the small down. We always kept a flashlight by the back door. We built a new house when I was around 5th grade. We lived in a small town and they were often tipped over during Halloween.. We also had to warm up water and take baths in the big metal tubs!! I haven't thought of this in a very long time!!

This house had an outhouse when we moved in--a 2-seater!--but we never had to use it, fortunately. It had to come down when we put in the pool I hated to see it go, but we weren't permitted to move it. The outhouse had been grandfathered in, but once it came down, it could not be moved or replaced.

We always had indoor plumbing. My mom grew up on a farm in Iowa in the early 1900s and they had an outhouse and used corn cobs for wiping. Yikes! I used outhouses when I was camping. I hated the smell and still do when I attending an event that has them. They have them set up in the tailgating areas for football games here. Once when I was a child, we visited friends at their mountain cabin and they had a very nice outhouse with a wooden seat attached. No smell there because he used proper chemicals on it. When I did an Outward Bound river rafting trip we had to pee in the river and just use the groover for poop. We put 1/2 cup of powdered Clorox 2 in the groover after we used it and it kept the smell away. The groover went on its own raft while we were in the water.

People -- the Port-a-Pottys you see (everywhere you go) are essentially 'out houses', so I'm sure most of us have used an 'outhouse'.

Yes, our family used had one when we lived in the country. My brothers would tell we girls there were snakes living in those holes - scared us every time we went out there! LOL

Kay, one difference between a Port-a-Potty and an outhouse is that with a Port-a-Potty you don't usually have to leave your warm bed and stumble outside in the cold dark to use it. :-)

Also, today's P-a-P's often have hand sanitizing stations, etc. And they're not 2-holers (thank goodness)!

Yes. And I and my cousin owe our fear of spiders to said outhouses - we were both covered with Daddy Long Legs Spiders. I don't like anything with multiple legs to this day and it has been almost 60 years.

We had indoor plumbing but we also had a his and hers outhouse - pretty spiffy. It was great when I was a kid, busy running around outside as it was much more convenient than going in the house. We had old catalogs for TP too. I guess our house must not have had indoor plumbing at some point but I never thought to ask about that as a kid.

yes, and it was my job to scrub it with hot soapy water and disinfectant every Saturday. We had picture s from magazines decorating the walls and small cut out windows on the top sides for fresh air! Even in our one room country schools we had them. Sure made us appreciate our homes when we got the water and sewer put in. It was like that down on the farm.

Alisa, your P & P's are fancier than ours - ours are a small building with one or two holes - period, end of story.

Yes, we had an outhouse. We lived in a 4 family rent house, top floor. Each family had their own outhouse.

Moved in to our brand new house when I was 9. We now had indoor plumbing including two bathrooms!

Prior, just cold running water in the kitchen.

Life is good. :) I have indoor plumbing and electricity and gas!

Moni

Yes, lived various places and used an outhouse up until about 1957, The one in MN was the worst one in the winter, brrrrrrr.

My neighbors still had outhouses back in the 70's. They didn't have running water either. There was an old lady that lived next door to us. My mom would sometimes invite her over to take a bath at our place.

"People -- the Port-a-Pottys you see (everywhere you go) are essentially 'out houses', "

Not in my area!
Porta-potties have toilet paper, skylights and hand sanitizer. And as previously said... no going out at night or during a blizzard.

"Alisa, your P & P's are fancier than ours - ours are a small building with one or two holes - period, end of story."
Here they are built for one person, are portable, and are plastic cubicles. I never saw a two hole porta-potty building!

This post was edited by LuAnn_in_PA on Mon, Sep 30, 13 at 16:14

We never had one but I knew country relatives or country people who did.///so I have used them many times....it is the epitome of friendship when you and your girlfriend go at the same time I guess.....When we moved to Arkansas the house had an outhouse and a bathroom that hadn't been connected..mama said no way...for once she stood her ground...

Yep...been there and done that! But only in the summer time. Grandparents farm in Ohio had no running water or 'facilities' and it was "just the way it was", live with it. Bathing in the summer was under/in the grape arbor under the stars in that big ole; galvanized tub.... swimming in the icy cold water in the water trough (is that how it would be spelled?) . The cement thing attached to the wind mill that pumped water from a wonderful 'irony' tasting well. My goodness, it was fun ..... but did not spend a winter there after I was 3 years old. Thanks for the memories! I don't remember when they got indoor plumming.... most likely very late '50's.

todays port a pottie are a far cry from the original outhouses I think were asked about. An outhouse first had a deep hole dug in the ground and a layer of lime was put in, then the outhouse shed was placed over the hole in the ground, some had just a flat board with a hole that you sat on some were nicer and had a bench with a toilet seat attached, some were multiple seaters. No insulation, no chemicals, no place to clean your hands , nicer ones had a coat hanger with toilet paper or a telephone book hanging from it.
There was not much of a smell if you kept it limed down.
When the hole got filled to close to ground level they picked up the out house, dug a new hole and put the outhouse over the new hole and filled over the old one, good place to plant a tree! Many a fruit tree were planted there.

So what we see today at games and such, port a potties are smelly and gross and I personally prefer the old fashion kind that were kept clean and did not smell. Mom always went out in ours at home with a mop and a bucket of hot water and bleach and would bleach it from top to bottom even after we had indoor plumbing it was just part of the chores. There was always a fly swatter on a nail and a can of bug spray in side.
Never found a snake in one but we would find mahogany wasp nests and those things are mean.
I hope to not need either kind any time in my future lol.

I just recently saw a show on tv where they visited a two story outhouse! It is still functional.

LuAnn, at Lake Jacomo, in Lee's Summit, Mo., the PP's have two holes.

One of the 'modern improvements' in the 700-year old Ightham Mote House in Kent, England is a little closet with a bench seat and hole that is built out over the moat.

We've stayed in period houses in England that belong to the National Trust. They are authentic down to the chamber pots under the beds -- but also have modern bathrooms! (I wonder if the housekeeper has ever come in and found a pot had been *used*?)

Yes..... When we were married in 1960, money was scarce and we rented a house for $15.00 a month (and sometimes, we did not know how we could afford that)....and lived there for a year until a "modern" house became available. My parents did not have indoor plumbing until after I married....but my mom kept that out-house spic and span....scrubbed it regularly, put lime in the holes, and kept it painted all white inside and out. We had a "pot" (or white owl, as we called it) for use in the night time. I am so glad to have been able to move on from those days.

Oh, yes. I only had that kind as long as I lived with my parents. When I married in late 1953 I moved away and did not use one after that. They continued to use one till 1957 and they moved. I wish I had one out back by my garden area as it is away from the house quite a bit.

Sue

Many times. My paternal grandparents lived in a 3 room house - living room, kitchen and bedroom and the outhouse was out past the barn. They didn't get modern amenities until we got new fixtures in our bathroom at home so my Dad walled off a part of Grandpa's living room and made them a bathroom with a toilet, sink and bathtub. I emptied many a chamber pot haha

Even when my friends and I would go camping as teenaers there were always outhouses. I am terrified of spiders so they were never my favourite place to spend any time in
.

I spent several weeks every summer of my pre-college life in the Adirondacks, staying at the first of the "great camps " built on Raquette Lake. It was originally named Camp Pine Knot but renamed Huntington Memorial Camp when willed to Cortland State (SUNY) in the late 40s. I was nearly born there!

It was a magnificent place, and a couple of the many buildings still had an outhouse. Indoor plumbing was the norm, though. I loved the huge, claw foot bathtubs! C.P. Huntington, when he purchased it from Durant, made a few upgrades and more were made in the sixties.

The outhouses were as ornate as the rest of the camp (designed and built by W. W. Durant), with a covered wooden walkway from the building. There were even fancy, old kerosene lamps on the posts. But only ONE seat!

That didn't keep the fear of spiders and bears away, though. I was only tooooo thrilled when we were able to move to one of the buildings with an indoor toilet.

So, my only experience with a real outhouse was pretty deluxe, compared to others', lol. But spiders are spiders!

"LuAnn, at Lake Jacomo, in Lee's Summit, Mo., the PP's have two holes."

Really? That sounds more like an outhouse to me.

Maybe you don't know what a porta potty is?... they are definitely NOT two-holed buildings!

Here is a link that might be useful: Porta-potty wiki

I've always had indoor plumbing and that is just the way I like it. We have been to Alaska 3 times and I've used an outhouse or PAP many times in public areas. Their's are not so bad and kept clean, as such can be!

We had a guide when we were there last month, she was from New Jersey and she said that herself, her husband and 1 and 4 year old daughters lived in a house without running water, they hauled all their water (as many do in Alaska,) didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing. But last year they got a compostable toilet.

Last year we had a guide from Arizona who moved to Alaska and married an Alaskan man four years ago. She was great and so much fun. I called her this year and she met us again. That afternoon she said, "I'm going to show you how much of Alaska lives, by choice, I'm going to show you my home." It was 300 square feet, it did have indoor plumbing and electricity. Well it was a large extension cord with a metal clamp on shop light. She was not to happy about it, but she said to her husband it was great. It was home and paid for. I wouldn't be happy either. I have a storage building bigger than that.

Sorry, I kind of got away from the original post.

Yes I did at Girl Scout Camp. Disgusting but the only thing available. This was in the 50s outside of Glendale/LaCrescenta California.

Did someone say Sears?

:)

This was offered in the 1924 Sears Modern Homes catalog. The 12,000-piece kit homes sold by Sears were called "modern homes" because they had indoor plumbing, but just in case your city didn't have a municipal water supply and sewer system and/or you didn't want to build a septic system, you could always order one of these:

Here is a link that might be useful: The reason they were called

Oh yes, we did. My dad lost his job in the early 70's and we had to move in with his parents. They had an outhouse -a REAL outhouse of wood and a dirt path leading to it, out behind the hen house. We lived there for 6 months - I was 15.

The only water in the house was a hand pump in the kitchen sink. Cold, of course. Spit baths for everybody!

I had a coworker one time who refused to use an outhouse at a state park because of the smell. I thought she was being ridiculous. If that's all you have, you make do!

This thread is getting kind of comical with the discussion of what an outhouse is versus a porta potty.

If you go to www.dictionary.com, here's the definition of OUTHOUSE: an outbuilding with one or more seats and a pit serving as a toilet; privy.

dictionary.com doesn't have a definition for porta potty, so I checked the associated encyclopedia, which is reference.com. For porta potty, they suggested Portable Toilet. Here's the definition of Portable toilet: A portable toilet , also known as a 'porta-potty', is a modern, portable, self-contained outhouse manufactured of molded plastic in a variety of colors and are often used as a temporary toilet for construction sites and large social gatherings.

So, right there in virtual print, at reference.com, it says that a Porta Potty is a portable toilet, which is..... a modern, portable, self-contained outhouse!

And, an outhouse is an outbuilding with one or more seats and a pit serving as a toilet; Granted, the 'pit' in a porta potty is shallow and self contained (not dug in the ground) but it is certainly a pit.

And, so far as having hand sanitizer and real toilet paper, those are often included in traditional wooden outhouses as well as the plastic modern outhouse porta potty!

The only outhouse I remember was at girl scout day camp in the 1960s-early 70s. I will do almost anything to avoid a porta-potty today because my gag reflex kicks in immediately when I enter one, whether or not it is clean or non-smelly. All I can say is thank God for modern times!

I remember using one as a child. It was like the picture rosemaryt posted. Always had to be on the lookout for spiders! I remember seeing one in a magazine once that was at an island vacation home. Don't remember where it was but it was the fanciest outhouse I had ever seen. It had wallpaper, pictures, and fancy sconces. They must have had money! lol!

We had one until I was 18 and moved from there,a few years later they finally got plumbing,bathrooms,and running water.Until I left there at 18 we also had to go up the hill everyday and get our water,ice box was on the back porch,and our dad was the ice man for many years.

Our dad built all our outhouses and since we had a big family,12 of us we had a 3 holer.Mom had curtains on the window,and linoleum on the floor,and dad had sanded those seats babybutt smooth.He also built our grandfathers who lived next door,but they only had a 2 holer.

Funny you should bring this up as my sister and I were talking about this just the other day.

People think of it as a hard life,but we didn't as we didn't know anything else.
Kathi

For the first 17 years of my life (on the farm), I used an outhouse as did several of our neighbors. I left home shortly before my 18th birthday and have not made regular use of one since. On rare occasion, I have been exposed to an outhouse, for example, while camping with the Boy Scouts (as an adult leader) or camping in a national forest.

Our farm did not get electricity until 1947. I recall cold winter nights when I'd light a kerosene lantern to light the way and act as a hand warmer in that cold, drafty privy.

And yes, outdated Sears & Roebuck catalogs were put to use along with magazines and other paper goods.

We had one as a backup for when the indoor toilet backed up. My brothers had to use it, but when I came along, the folks got indoor plumbing.

Thankfully we didn't have to use it too much. I was always afraid of the bugs that lived in there.

I can remember having to have the septic tank dug up and cleaned out many times as a kid growing up. Not a fun job.

When I was growing up in 1950's Buffalo NY we had indoor plumbing (two bthrooms) but we often visited an Uncle and Aunt in "the country" about 20 miles away. They had a house with a well you had to operate with a pump-handle and an outhouse. The outhouse had the traditional half-moon cutout. They used torn up newspapers as toilet paper. Fun memory but I didn't enjoy it at the time!

Sure, but thankfully not on a regular basis. What colorful stories you all have.

I can remember also, like socks, using many different and interesting 'facilities' in third world countries I have visited, and even some of the roadside places in Europe back in the 60's.

I've often thought I might write an book entitled "Toilets I Have Known", but it's probably been done already.

Went on a camping trip to a boy scout camp with my sons when they
were kids. Yes,there were outhouses you had to use I I came
home so constipated needless to say!! We were just there for
the w/e.....I never went back!!! Getting sick feeling just thinking
about it.