How many of you?

Question

have had the luxury of using an outhouse? Any funny stories?

I've never lived in a home without plumbing but have visited many friends who had an outhouse. In the winter we did use chamber pots.

Years ago when my uncle was a teenager he and some friends were checking out an old burned house. My uncle accidently (of course, I hope) fell into the hole where the outhouse was.
That was a mess LOL

lil abner, ROFLOL! That was cute.

Smiley, I didn't know you were a cowpoke.
And OF COURSE you didn't rope an outhouse...did you.....no waaay! :)

Answer 1

Have lived in several places with no indoor plumbing and an outhouse - and twice where there was a pump house for water.

I hated it!!!!

In the mountains of Southern Oregon, where I was raised from about 1943 (when my family moved there from Oklahoma) through the mid 1950's, we lived in lots of "primitive" places.

On Halloween, we kids, looking for mischief, would go out late at night across the farmlands "tipping outhouses"....which we thought was pretty funny actually. My cousin and I were caught one year and our punishment was to fill in the "hole", dig a new one and reset the "house". That put an end to that, fer sure.

Answer 2

Yes, when I was 7 years old, we moved into an old house which had a barn and many outbuildings, including an outhouse. When we first moved in, we found quite a stack of papers from the early 1900s in the outhouse which had been set aside to be used as "toilet paper". Since the bathroom in the house required extensive work, I well remember using that outhouse as a child - I especially remember checking around for spiders each time before I sat down. And I just know my mom was really fond of escorting us out on midnight trips with the flashlight - good times.

Later on I did a lot of camping with my scout troop and most of the campsites had outhouses, quite a few of which are still in existence and in use!

Answer 3

Helped my dad put in the plumbing in as a teen, even brought the pitcher pump into the house so we were completely plumb modern. Trips to the outhouse were always interesting, just the wildlife that you put up was enough to loosen the bowels.
We had snakes, raccoons, skunks and chipmunks invade us
on different occasions, the the things always had more than a small number of spiders and webs. Think it's where girls got the idea of hand-in-hand-in-the-can -- they were usually two seaters. In the winter, there was never a waiting line 'cause no body wasting time to freeze their butt to the seat.

Answer 4

My close friend's family bought a farm in the late '60s, and we frequently spent weekends at the farm. Behind the old farm house was an outhouse with a tin roof. My first trip to the farm, my friend and I needed to visit the outhouse during the night (in keeping with all of our stayovers, we had drank too much soda). About the time I went into the outhouse, and she waited outside, a ferocious hail storm started. She ran back into the house for cover. I don't know how long the hail lasted, but it seemed an eternity. I couldn't hear myself think with all the racket on that tin roof. I was *so* thankful to get back to the house, once the hail subsided!

Answer 5

I have used an outhouse many times, growing up. Our family lives in the mountains of West Va. and plumbing was a luxury. They did have a "two holer". So my cousins and I would go together, and keep a sharp eye out for snakes and bears and panthers and skunks...pretty much anything that our imagination thought might be out there.
There was always a "MonkeyWards" catalog in there, some pages missing! I still have the paper roll holder, hanging in my bathroom today.
Inscribed on it is a man saying, "Handle this with special care, it seems we have no more to spare. If you all are paper hawgs, we will have to go back to catalogs."


On a new outhouse, porta potty story.... When I went to Sturgis S.D. for bike week some years ago, I embarrassed myself quite nicely.
We had waited in line for quite a while and finally it was our turn. There are so many people in Sturgis... I went in and used the porta potty, for the first time ever in my life....I was a bit stumped... I called out to my husband... Honey where are the faucets for the SINK ???? He said OH my Gosh- don't stick your hands in that..... I was so embarrassed when I realized it was a urinal... I did get a nice round of applause from all the bikers in line to use it....

Be blessed, vick

Answer 6

No funny tales, but true ones. The absolute worst thing about outhouses is spiders.

My grandma in Harrogate, Tenn., had a two-holer, and I vaguely remember my grandparents in Independence, Va., having a one-holer. My aunt and her husband helped to get them indoor plumbing, but they still had no hot water except what was heated on the wood stove.

I do know that grandma's five maiden sisters had a one-holer.

And I was brought up in a family with two parents and five siblings and one bathroom. We had a chamberpot for the "I just can't waits."

Has anyone heard Garrison Keillor's tale about the outhouse at the bus station? Someone wired it for sound, and when the bus passengers went to use it, a voice said, "Hey! I'm trying to paint down here! You're blocking my light! Can you move over to the other one?"

Answer 7

In the mountains of Pennsylvania, my grandfather and grandmother had an outhouse which is all they ever had. They had no running water but had a spring in the back yard enclosed in a small shed and kept a metal bucket and ladle to get a drink, and also had a wood stove to cook on with the old metal plates with handles to lift to put the wood in the stove. My grandmother was the best cook i've ever seen, and miss going there but they passed away about 25 years ago.

Answer 8

Yes, my great grandma raised my mom and we went there every Sunday and often stayed the night. They never had indoor plumbing. We got water from a pump you primed and we used the outhouse in the day and the 'slop jar' as they called it at night. It was in WV, so let me tell you, there was some cold, but quick trips to that outhouse in the winter.

Answer 9

We had a deluxe two stall outhouse right up until my father put in our first bathroom, the year I turned 12. The outhouse was built with a raised floor, insulated with thick packings of straw underneath the floor boards for warmth. The woman's stall was inside out of the wind. You would step up into the area used as a shed, then go into the stall on the side. The men's stall was accessible from outside, with a barely raised floor, and facing north. IT was super cold in the winter.

Answer 10

We kept one at the cottage, in fact it is still there but hasn't been used for years. I think my dad was the last one to use it.

OK, the story! I was in H.S. We went up to the cottage in the winter, the snow was up to my knees. That sugary snow. I had to go #2 bad. I ran back to the outhouse and found my dad had put a lock on it. No real problem, there was a fence post right along side so I dropped'em and leaned up against the post. It broke! Enough said.