Outhouses

Have you ever used a "real" outhouse, where it was the only toilet for the house?

  • Yes, I remember it well.

    Votes: 11 78.6%

  • No, did they really have them?

    Votes: 3 21.4%

  • What's a real outhouse? Do those at the track count?

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    14
buckaroo

buckaroo

Here kitty, kitty, kitty
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One of Magnet's posts brought to mind something that I thought might be interesting. The question here is have you ever used a "real" outhouse and when I say real, I mean one that was "the" place to go for a house. When I was a youngster back in Oklahoma back in the 50's, my great grandparents did have inside plumbing, but only in the kitchen. Thus they needed an outhouse. I remember it very well and it was a two holer.
 
It's a long walk when there is a chill in the air when all you have on are the BVDs...
 
Sure I have... in fact I have been in many of them! Only 2 weeks ago I was in a 2-holer near Comfort Texas. And no, they still don't have inside toilets where I was.
Betsy
 
All you need to do is keep in mind not to light up with one that is well used....
 

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Why because of the spiders around the hole? The smell? The maggots? Or, was it the fear that you might fall in...
 
Well after a bit of consideration I must get back into this.. The 2-holer I was in a few weeks ago was at an old country church. I will attempt to describe it.
This 2-holer has a concrete foundation! ( I have never seen one of these before!) It also has 2 vent pipes from the hole to the roof in the back of each hole.. They seemed to work rather well as there is not an oder in there.
All in all it is the nicest I have ever seen... If "nice" is a proper descriptive word for an outhouse.
Betsy :)
 
Betsy said:
This 2-holer has a concrete foundation! ( I have never seen one of these before!) It also has 2 vent pipes from the hole to the roof in the back of each hole.. They seemed to work rather well as there is not an oder in there.
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I have seen something like this before, it had been set up like that because they could not either afford a proper drain field or had been a temp to long term deal. In any case the tank was pumped on a regular basis...
 
I know what they are, and have seen many, but never used on. I have used a "moblie john" if that counts as an out house.
 
The church I went to as a kid had 2-holer, and have used countless since at various people's camp.

2-holers always scare me... I like my privacy at certain 'times' of the day...
 
Bucky Badger said:
I think anybody thats been to any kind of festival has used one of thoes. ;) http://www.buckysportabletoilets.com/
I have never used a real one.
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Trust me, all of us who have used an outhouse would have loved for the seat to be like the ones in the portable toilets. Imagine sitting on some boards with a hole in them.

Understand that they would dig a hole and place the outhouse over it. When it neared capacity they'd move the outhouse to a new hole and fill in the old one. I don't know how much dirt covered the old hole. As a small child I was always afraid of falling into a filled in pit since I never knew where the outhouse had been. Irrational sure but the only time I saw one was when we visited my uncle and he had one well past everyone else in the area. I'm guessing they didn't get an inside toilet until the early 70's.
 
Speaking of comfort, I thought of this experience when I was in the Air Force back in '68. I was stationed outside Topeka, Kansas at Forbes AFB, attached to a photo/mapping unit. For newcomers, the training was conducted at a nearby park and consisted of flying in with a helecopter and setting up the equipment in two huge tents. One was the equipment tent and the other one was used for housing. Anyway, when I was doing this training, it was over the Thanksgiving holiday and the temps became pretty raw with some high winds. The park had some nice toilets, which were made for nice days in the summer and weren't your closed in type of facilities. No, they had walls and all, but were open at the top and the walls didn't go all the way down to the concrete floor. About an eight inch gap was left I suppose to help in the airing out process. Anyway, the one and only time I used the facility, the temps were well below freezing and the winds were whipping up to over twenty five mph. I can tell you that I didn't sit there for very long and as I said, that was the last time I use it. :eek:
 
Kat, you can say that all of Americans are better off than most of the rest of the world. Even our lowest of low class people have oportunities that many, many people around the world don't have.
 
Calvin Johnson, the wide receiver @ Georgia Tech, will soon have his name on a patent for solar latrine, or outhouse, to be used in 3rd world countries. It uses solar power to transform the bacteria laden waste to useful fertilizer. He will be traveling to Bolivia to oversee the building of these latrines, which can be built with common materials for $78. They will greatly add to the quality of life where there is a lack potable water and a lot of disease carrying insects.

Oh, and traditionally the outhouses with 2 holes were generally of different size holes. 1 for adults and 1 for children.
 
buckaroo said:
Kat, you can say that all of Americans are better off than most of the rest of the world. Even our lowest of low class people have oportunities that many, many people around the world don't have.
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I agree Buckster, so will YOU pay my taxes for me please?:D ;)
 
KAt I was born in the ONLY bedroom in my Grandmother's house! Born to what we all think of as extreme poverty. I grabbed my shoe laces and pulled myself up... without federal or any other help. I have worked hard all my life, found time to have six children, and in my best year I happily wrote a check to the IRS for $460K! Nowhere else on earth would this have been possible. Nowhere else! MAybe today China would be a place where poor barely educated folks can live "the American dream"... But the Countries that it is possible are few others if any.
Yes I have to write the government a check every year...but that check buys me more than it would anywhere else on this earth.
I figure we have the greatest place to live and prosper in the history of mankind... I can only rejoice and wonder at how lucky WE are...all of us.
Betsy :)
 
Betsy said:
....... and in my best year I happily wrote a check to the IRS for $460K! Nowhere else on earth would this have been possible. Nowhere else! :)
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$460k Wow I nearly had to run to the outhouse when I read that . I make a nice living but I have never even come close to having to pay that much .

There was a time when I thought rags to riches stories were the domain of America but as I have travelled more , I have met people that have the same story from the UK Can Aus NZ Hong Kong and through out the Pacific Rim .
 
 
I don't mind a view while leaving a dump....

outhouse.jpg



This one you don't need to wory about moving after the hole is full...

outhouse.jpg
 
kat2220 said:
I agree Buckster, so will YOU pay my taxes for me please?:D ;)
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Sure, I'm always glad to help a friend. BTW, when you get a notice of a certifed letter from the IRS, just ignore it. It's only a thank you note.

Seriously, our way of life is much superior to most of the rest of the world. Even in countries that seemingly have modern day conviences. There are still places in the civilized orient where sewer is an open ditch and where people do their duty right there. Still, there are others that don't even have that. When you take into consideration those people who aren't really civilized, we are even more of a minority. I guess we call all count ourselves as being very lucky that we were born here in a country that is above the rest.

Oh yeah, Kat, do you really think that I'll pay your taxes? I have enough problems paying my own taxes and those in the power now are known tax hikers. :eek: Hang onto your pocketbook. They are looking for more money.
 
Yes, I remember outhouses very well. Many people had them when I was a kid. My grandparents had one that I remember using. In the winter you would freeze your Balls off, in the summer they would stink something awful. And yes, it is indeed fact, we used the Sears catalog along with the Monkey Wards. Also, stories that you have probably heard were actually true. At Halloween some of the older kids would push someone's outhouse over.
 
I figure we have the greatest place to live and prosper in the history of mankind... I can only rejoice and wonder at how lucky WE are...all of us.
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And thru the Grace of God our kids and their kids will be able to enjoy the luxuries we have had in life.
 
Betsy said:
The grace of which god BP? The Muslim god? Or another one?
Betsy
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Aw Betsy, please don't start! Nobody is trying to cram their beliefs down your throat, so being reactive to a word is out of line.
 
Trials and tribulations come with both a purpose and a reward. "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him" (James 1:2-4,12).
 
TexasRaceLady said:
The last one I was in was a real, back-of-the-yard, dark as the inside of a cow, nightmare.
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Hell yes , out at Huntin Camp that all we use...properly vented and treated not all that bad. Even have styrofoam
cushy seats..keeps you behind warm in the cooler weather
..Eh !
 
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