Outhouse

[VJG1977]

<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><font size="2" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">How many remember the little house out back of the big house?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I grow up on a small tobacco farm in North Carolina and can remember when we got indoor plumbing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>It was the year after we got a tractor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The outhouse was a little ways from the chicken coop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>You wanted it far enough away that you could not smell it on a hot summer day but close enough that you did not get too cold walking to it in the winter.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span></font></font></p><p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>

 

[rvwandering]

&nbsp;I grew up in the city but my grandmother's house was in a semi-rural area of Pennsylvania. She had a hand pump in the kitchen sink and an outhouse out back. No chickens but a big garden , apple tree and homemade grape juice.She didn't get plumbing until the late 1960s.<br>

 

[VJG1977]

<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri"><font size="3"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">About 30 feet from the back door was the smokehouse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The chicken coop and pen was on the backside of that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>About 100 feet further back was the kitchen garden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Back by the woods was the hog pen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We raised just a few pigs up each year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>We would have a hog killing each fall with the neighbors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>We would salt cure and smoke the hams, shoulders and slab bacon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The rest got ground up for sausage.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></font></font></p><p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>

 

[VanTrekker]

<p style="margin: 0px;">We still have a lot of outhouses in Iowa.&nbsp; That's the only toilet facility at several of the campgrounds I go to...&nbsp; Peeeewww!</p><p style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin: 0px;">Iowa has quite a few Amish farms and most of them have the outdoor crapper.&nbsp; Beechy's Amish Bakery actually has a door directly connecting the kitchen to the two hole&nbsp;backhouse room.&nbsp; (They keep the "holes" covered)... Yuck...</p><p style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin: 0px;">When Dad was a kid (1940s), he and his friends used to tip over the wooden backhouses.&nbsp; The little old lady next door, Elsie, would't let her husband drink in the house.&nbsp; He'd get drunk in the outhouse.&nbsp; One Halloween the kids tipped over the backhouse while old Kyle was in it...&nbsp; Sounds like fun!</p><p style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin: 0px;">It is true about what was used to wipe.&nbsp; Dad said they were poor and in the depression days used to use the Sears catalog or newspaper pages.</p>

 

[SoulRaven]

Funny how life reverts for me instead... I grew up with full plumbing and electricity... Now I have my bucket outhouse, no plumbing, cook on a little propane stove and use DC power... Never have I been more satisfied and challenged in my life... <br>

 

[yesican]

<p style="margin: 0px;">Still have and use the outhouse.&nbsp; I am hoping to get the plumbing done enough this year to use the outhouse only when outside.&nbsp; I tell ya...that 20 below visit to the outhouse in the winter is a real pain.&nbsp; Honey bucket is used but for liquid only.&nbsp; Kitty litter and plastic bags taken daily to the dump for non-liquid.&nbsp; This way when in the house, a once or twice daily trip to the outhouse is all that's needed.&nbsp; I still want plumbing.&nbsp;&nbsp; It is missed especially since I work such long hours right now.&nbsp; </p><p style="margin: 0px;">Rae</p>

 

[Seraphim]

An interesting thread, being a suburbanite who has always taken indoor plumbing for granted.

 

[byeceeya]

Until I entered 1st grade in Connecticut, we live in Maine. An old tarpaper covered house, connected to the "garage" with a breezeway that housed the two-holer.&nbsp; Yep, a might cold in the winter.&nbsp; That was back in the early 50's.&nbsp; Like SoulRaven said, funny how life reverts, "cause pretty soon it'll be a bucket in a van for me as well.<br>

 

[Ricekila]

<P>Plumbing -- You guys had plumbing

<BR><BR>We had an old leaking pot --- and a hole in the neighbours back yard -

<BR><BR>I had to crawl to school in the snow - up hill - both ways and sometimes it was closed due to lack of interest

<BR><BR>And we had No tobacco on Long Island - let alone farms -- fresh food was only a dream

</P><br>The only time I heard the words "Out and House" used in the same sentence - was when my Mammy was screaming at my Pappy - as in --- "Get the hell OUT of the HOUSE - before I call the cops again" &nbsp;

<BR><br>

 

[dragonflyinthesky]

<P>@ricekela&nbsp; you're <IMG border=0 align=absMiddle src="https://vanlivingforum.com/images/boards/smilies/crazy.gif">&nbsp;and I <IMG border=0 align=absMiddle src="https://vanlivingforum.com/images/boards/smilies/love.gif">&nbsp; your kind of <IMG border=0 align=absMiddle src="https://vanlivingforum.com/images/boards/smilies/crazy.gif">&nbsp;so give me a <IMG border=0 align=absMiddle src="https://vanlivingforum.com/images/boards/smilies/kiss.gif"></P>