[AT] Campsite

[Dudley Rupert]

This thread on well-built outhouses has got me to thinking (Okay
reminiscing) ...

In rural Southern Illinois where I grew up after the war at least half of
the farms up and down our road did not yet have indoor plumbing. I well
remember the farmer about a quarter mile down the road from us deciding that
his family was going to have a "real outhouse."  So he built one complete
with a concrete hole in the ground, concrete floor and sides like a house
which were bolted to the concrete floor.  I remember it always having a bag
of lime and this farmer and his family referred to it as an "indoor toilet."

This whole episode really peeved my oldest brother and it galled him to no
end whenever he heard these folks talk about their "indoor toilet."  Our
outhouse had a wooden floor with vertical board sides with gaps almost as
big as the boards.  We were further down the economic ladder than our
neighbors and there was no way we could compete with them and build one of
these for ourselves.  As I recall it now it was only a short time later that
my brother came up with the bright idea to run an electric wire from the
barn to our outhouse and hang an electric light.  Now, we had bragging
rights ... maybe we didn't have a concrete floor but we had an electric
light!  Shortly after adding the light my brother started taking his super
heterodyne with him on those "special occasions" and infrequently he'd let
me take it with me.  Now all you guys raised on indoor plumbing are probably
scratching your' heads but we thought then we'd arrived at the Promised
Land.  Sitting in an outhouse after dark underneath an electric bulb
listening to Harry Carrey call a night time Cardinal game and all the while
looking at the pictures in the Sears catalogue ... it didn't get much better
than that.

Dudley
Snohomish, Washington

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com]On Behalf Of Phil Auten
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 4:31 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Campsite

I would think not! I've never actually seen a brick outhouse, but it would
seem to make a lot of sense in areas where wood would not be the best
construction material.

Phil

At 11:42 AM 1/11/05, you wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: <pga2 at hot1.net>
>To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 8:06 AM
>Subject: Re: [AT] Campsite
>
>Phil, speaking of brick outhouses, would you believe that my grandparents
>actually had such a thing? When they retired to town and had a new house
>built about 1950 using cincercrete blocks, the builders also constructed an
>outhouse from the same material. It was a very sturdy structure and I can
>garantee that the halloween pranksters never pushed that one over.
>
>Ralph in Sask.


_______________________________________________
AT mailing list
http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at