The Outhouse

[Ozz]

Last night we were watching an old Public Broadcasting program about a group of people reenacting life on a ranch, back in the early 1900’s.
The Cook family had a cattle ranch in Southwest Texas, I think over in the Big Bend area. No refrigeration, no indoor plumbing, no trips to the grocery store, doctor, dentist, pretty rough living.
I remember having to use an outhouse myself. My family moved from our home of 7 years in the Colorado mountains back to Kansas City Missouri to care for my elderly grandmother. No indoor plumbing at all, it took my Plumber father a few month’s to get one installed.
I didn’t like bathing in a tub on the back porch, or the miserable trips to the outhouse out in the weather.
People have made so many advancements in my lifetime.
Yesterday, I was taking the trash to the curb, the young neighbor girl was walking up the hill towards me to her bus stop. I said “Man, it’s cold this morning”, She politely smiled and pointed to her ear buds in her hair and put her hands up in the air. So much for small talk.
I was working on a refrigeration job over town. I was unloading my truck, had a vacuum pump, tool bag, drill bag, extension cord and so on, laying on the sidewalk. This businessman was walking towards me, I asked if he could get around my mess, he looked at me, shook his head back and forth quickly and was muttering something. I thought, he can get by, but I drug my pile closer to the truck so he could get by easier. He was still muttering as he got close, I thought now what? This guy is nuts. As he passed, I could tell he was talking to someone on his invisible phone, had one of those things in one ear.
My phone rings a funny ring every once and a while, I open it up and see there is no call on it and put it away. One of my young friends told me one day he has been ‘Texting’ me, did I get the messages? I have no clue how to get any ‘Texting’ and don’t want to learn, I have to maneuver around drivers daily that are punching their cell phones with a finger instead of driving safely.
The bartender at the Wanna Wanna down at Padre Island and I, scurried down to the surf one day to see a Shark that had washed up on the beach. I had him take a picture of it with my cell phone, I tell people about it, but don’t know how to show them the actual picture. It’s in there somewhere, probably with the ‘Texting’ stuff.

[ARJ]

Well, at least folks like us have a descriptive name-DINOSAUR.

[Leaseit]

A Self-important college freshman wandering along the beach took it upon himself to explain to a senior citizen why it was impossable for the older generation to understand the younger generation. "You grew up in a almost primative era without such things as cell phones, television, nuclear power, men on the moon, jet planes,cars and computers with high speed internet, blue tooth and text messaging to comunicate with.
After thinking about it the senior citizen thought about it and replyed, your right son, we didn't have all of that stuff when we were young so we invented it....now you arrogant little sh*t, what are you doing for the next generation.
The college freshman was left speechless.

[brenkco]

Ozz,
Your story brings up an old memory of a high school buddy who's grandfather had built a log cabin in the high Sierra at Kirkwood Lake. It was at the far side of the lake with no road, so you could walk or take a row boat. No electricity, no phones except to a few of the neighbors (we were 3 rings) no indoor plumbing. One of the times I was there, it was time to move the outhouse and dig a new hole. Covering up the old hole and moving the outhouse was the worst of it. Looking back, I am really glad to have had the experience, although very limited, of life as it was for our predecessors.

Thanks for bring this back to me...a nice reflection!
Ken

[jpkelpe]

we had only an outhouse and the washhouse until I was 6 years old and that is when we moved out of the sod house to a stick house. I remember my Dad moving it once in a while--in fact the thing is still standing on the place and is used once in a while. Mostly a novelty to visitors. by the way the sod house is still standing and we do give private tours to special people.

[Parrothead]

The first 7 seven years of my life I lived in a house with no plumbing in rural southeastern Kansas. My Daddy built our outhouse, it had 2 holes, one for the adult and a small short one for my sister and I.
Happy trails.....................

[Waynem]

I remember the outhouse at the farm, about 2 or 3 houndred feet out there. Winter was a bummer, especially if a path had not been cleared yet when the snow fell. even though the seet was made of wood with a hole cut in it, it sure was cold.

Then we moved into town, and the outhouse was a walk through the barn and was attached. Not as cold getting there, but the seat was still cold. I also remember my grandfather, every once in a while, pulling the board off the back side of the outhouse and with shovel and wheelbarrow, well, you can get your own picture.

The happy day of plumbing, there was a party at the house, and everyone had to try "flushing." What a wonderful invention. Oh! And running water, instead of having to pump it into a bucket. It was nice though, they made a little prong on the pump to hang the bucket. I did wet my feet many a time. I had an uncle who was quite the guy. He'd ask us young ones if we wanted a drink from the spout. Not knowing he had already primed it we would stick your little heads down there to get a drink from the dribble when he would push down hard on the pump handle and we would get drenched.

Ah! The good old days before inventions.

[deerrahn]

Taking a bath in the old wash tub and going out to the "Throne-as my Dad called it" was life up through the mid 50's. My most memorable time was when one day I stopped by to visit my Grandparents. My Grandpa was watching the TV. In our conversation he said "Can you imagine in my lifetime of growing up in the "Horse and Buggy Days" for transportation to sitting in your living room and watching this box with a picture on it of a "A Man walking on the Moon"? That was just hard for him to accept in his mind. I guess the same is today with us and the computer and "all them other fang-dangled things. Have a Good Day

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

Some of you may remember that last year, during one of southwest Montana's coldest winters on records, we lived in our Montana and had to bring in two Porta-Potties (His and Hers) to use for 13 months. We didn't have a well drilled then, and we didn't have a place to dump the black tank, so the Porta-Potties were needed the moment we were snowed in for the duration.

Wayne hated that sprint to and from them, especially when the snow was 3 or more feet deep. I never minded it too much, except that after the coyotes got so brazen and when one of the "lost packs" of the Yellowstone wolves started moving through our property, I did hate to go out there at night. No heat, no light, but we were thankful that we had the potties since we couldn't use the toilet in the RV.

OK--I'll admit it--it was kind of fun to live that way because we knew it was just for a year or so, not forever. Just think--no bathroom cleaning for a year!
Carolyn

[Champ_49]

Oh man..........brings back a lot of memories. How about I walked to school every day 3 miles, and it was uphill both ways, LOL

[NCFischers]

In bare feet in the snow ( I think my Dad was exagerating a bit, he grew up in Brooklyn, NY).
In 1900, the government was going to shut down the patent office because it was thought that everything that could be invented was already invented.