These made me laugh

Rusty

eld -- that was the most fun -- I can't stop laughing! Thanks for the day-brightener.

Rusty,

eld, one of those reminded me of my old sec'y who always used to say, "nip it in the butt."

YES

^YES...not exactly pleasant!

Glenda - my grandparents had no indoor plumbing in their house (a small town in northern Indiana) and when I was a child using the outhouse was a real adventure. They had chamber pots to use in the winter in our upstairs bedrooms.

seagrass, I remember the chamber pots!

I grew up, early 1950's, in very rural New England. I hated outhouses, stunk to high heaven and there were snakes. I went behind some bushes.

Yes, I have memories of ours at home even tho I was born in 1953 and we got indoor plumbing in 1959. Most people in our neighborhood had an outhouse, and the buildings stood in plain sight, not hidden. Ours was at the foot of our front driveway! I think they were vines tho. Not sure if I remember that or just saw photos later.

Yes and we still use ours....ours doesn't smell...except for a slight fragrance of cinnamon. It even has a lace curtain. 2 1/2 holer.

"2 1/2 holer", huh? Are you sure that's the hole truth?

Just what is a half of a hole - does one cut only half way through the board?

Perhaps we should sit down to contemplate this.

Yes, I've used 'em - away from home, though my first experience of a bathrooom with running water was when at 18 I went to the University of Saskatchewan - in 1947.

Not that I (and the whole fam damily) had saved up through those years!

In summer we'd go from kitchen/dining room through summer kitchen, into a narrow porch/lean-to with a door at the far end leading to 2-holer, over 2 large buckets that Dad or hired man hauled occasionally to add the the pile of manure by the 5 - 6 horse barn.

Would one call that "half way to an 'outhouse' "?

In winter there was a metal can with a holey seat and lid in one of the six bedrooms upstairs, with a vent to one of the five chimnies, most of which unused after furnace installed a number of years earlier, 4 of which chimnies Dad had removed a few years later, before bricks fell off to break some slates on the roof.

Cistern in basement with pump on sink in pantry offered soft water for washing and well in back yard offered water in a bucket via a hand-operated pump for drinking and cooking. The well needed cleaning, but Dad feared to go down to clean lest rocks and bricks in the wall fall on his head.

In the midst of the Dirty Thirties, Depression, Dad had a well drilled by the house and a cold water tap installed on the other end of the sink. Also water lines to three barns to serve the horses, cows (and bull), pigs and chickens.

Sorry, I lied. Soon after the end of World War II we moved from our farm in Ontario to a rented one in Saskatchewan and we used an outhouse there. In summer - but it gets down to 40 below (same in both Fahrenheit and Centigrade) in winter - so there was an alternative in the basement (only two bedrooms in second storey).

At 17 when we moved, I spent only a couple years on that farm. After only a few years, Dad bought one.

ole joyful

What an extraordinary life you have led ole joyful.

That outhouse has a crescent moon cutout. When I was a boy, that denoted it was for females. The male privy would have a sun cutout, however, I've seen a star used in place of a sun. Its much easier to cut.

And note the cleverness of the colonialists who built it...the door opens in, so no matter how deep the snow is, you can always get in in a hurry!

This reminds me...time to head to the craft store to buy a cinnamon broom again...they knock the socks out of any fragrance!