# In the dustbin of our cultural history **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 10, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703 "2020-12-10T00:57:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 38
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/745 "2021-03-02T16:58:10Z")
> [@GaryM](#): > > Why? Because it’s common to find old whisky and “medicine” bottles in the pit where they were deposited rather than in the trash where they might be seen by “wimmin folk”. They might also have been deposited there because that’s where the trash was deposited. Modern trash disposal is in many areas a pretty recent thing. (Most of the rest of the trash would have been organic, and is probably not at this point distinguishable by the average house demolisher from the other organic contents of the pit. ETA: and there wouldn’t have been anywhere near as much of it as most modern households produce.) ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/746 "2021-03-02T19:10:46Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > …living in my parents’ first house, I used to play in the yard where there was an outside toilet… > [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > > [@enipla](#): > > > > A fully plumbed outside toilet? Like in it’s own little room away from your house? > > See the second and last paragraphs of this article for one example: > > [Byelaw terraced house - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byelaw_terraced_house) Wow - [this is the street](https://www.google.com/maps/@54.6397652,-3.5503677,3a,75y,14.23h,93.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sszaFNiAFrfWE7RFvo4PBvQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656) where my parents bought their first house: Snap! j ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/747 "2021-03-02T19:54:36Z")
And you probably wore a hat, ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/748 "2021-03-02T19:55:51Z")
There was a news story recently about a woman in Alaska who was bitten by a bear while she was using the outhouse. The bear was under her. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/749 "2021-03-02T19:58:56Z")
I probably didn’t, as I was a child (and hated the things); but my mother certainly did. She kept wearing hats (she liked them.). Somewhere in the late 1990’s I came up behind a woman in the grocery store and called her ‘Mother’, which startled her as she wasn’t my mother. She was, however, wearing a similar hat; and hat wearing had gotten uncommon enough by then that I’d pretty much assumed that the woman wearing a hat in warm weather to do the grocery shopping was my mother. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/750 "2021-03-02T20:31:07Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > huh. I can see that. Working in the yard or whatever if would be nice to not muddy up the house. Yeah, there’s an even simpler reason for them though. All the outside (flush) toilets I’ve ever known were in the places where the outhouse _used_ to be. Because when you’re putting plumbing in an existing house, just putting the new toilet in the old toilet’s place is way easier than trying to find a space in the house for it, especially if it’s not a big house in the first place ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/751 "2021-03-02T20:40:48Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Hey, I’ve helped build one in the 1970’s. Did you electrify one on the reservation? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/752 "2021-03-02T20:41:52Z")
Yeah, my buddy had two, one was connected to the garage, one was next to the pool. ---
**Author:** ![mtnmatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@mtnmatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtnmatt)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/753 "2021-03-02T20:52:39Z")
As a boy I loved “The Great Brain” series of books about life in Utah in the 1890s. One of the escapades involved the family installing the town’s first indoor toilet and the boys charging admission to see “The Magic Water Closet that Doesn’t Stink” I think they ordered it from Sears, like everything else back then. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/754 "2021-03-02T20:54:40Z")
You mean wire a head for a a reservation? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/755 "2021-03-02T20:57:51Z")
😛 😄 😁 😆 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/756 "2021-03-03T00:16:38Z")
My father told me that joke (about Thomas Edison giving a speech for Native Americans and helping them out by putting lights in their bathroom) when I was a lad. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/757 "2021-03-03T02:47:32Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Did you electrify one on the reservation? Huh? And why are you claiming this had anything to do with reservations? ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/758 "2021-03-03T04:10:07Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > > There is such a thing as a coal hod, though. And [you can still buy them](https://www.acehardware.com/departments/heating-and-cooling/fireplaces/fireplace-accessories/4500328?x429=true&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuo7am-rd7QIVCK-GCh2pFw9sEAQYASABEgLMb_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds). > > Personally, I would call that a coal scuttle. And if you turn that picture upside down, you’ll understand old references to the German army’s “coal-scuttle helmets”. I remember going with my sister’s first husband to buy coal in the ‘60s. He’d back up to one of the piles of coal and start shovelling it into the back of the pickup, then drive to his parents’ house and start shovelling it into the coal chute. (Don’t know what kind of coal it was, though it definintely wasn’t lignite.) > [@Procrustus](#): > > We started having a shower requirement in 5th grade. (late 1960s). I was uncomfortable about it at first, but you get used it. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > For all 7 years I spent at my public junior high and public high school, every Monday included bringing your clean gym uniform to school, every Friday involved taking it home to be laundered, and all 5 days included changing 100% of your street clothes for your uniform, then going out to exercise somehow (team sports, swimming, calisthenics, weight room, track running, distance running). Then afterwards getting naked, taking a communal hot shower, and changing back into your street clothes. Don’t recall showering in junior high, but they were required in high school (late '60s-early '70s) no matter what the class was doing. Don’t remember about regular classes, but guys who took swimming in summer school had to shower before going into the pool. Boys swam in the nude; girls were given what I understand were very ugly green suits. (I never saw one – in fact, it wasn’t until it was being discussed on Facebook 5-70 years ago that I realised they had had suits.) > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > My high school gym uniform was a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, except the t-shirt was double-layered, with each layer being one of the school colors. That let you reverse it so we could be on different teams Ditto, though we called it a “gym suit”. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/759 "2021-03-03T04:36:05Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’d thought the last outhouse disappeared from the USA in 1900, not 1970+. In the mid '60s we lived in a house that had no plumbing – the well was maybe 25 feet from the back door, and the outhouse was fifty feet or so down the hill. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/760 "2021-03-03T04:48:24Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > the well was maybe 25 feet from the back door, and the outhouse was fifty feet or so down the hill At least they had them the right way around! ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/761 "2021-03-03T04:50:36Z")
😃 But that fifty feet or so was really something, in a Michigan winter. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/762 "2021-03-03T05:14:27Z")
It is a joke, see above. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/763 "2021-03-03T06:27:33Z")
I found one of those in college. Used it as a wastebasket. ---
**Author:** ![its\_the\_daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@its\_the\_daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/its_the_daddy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/764 "2021-03-03T08:50:24Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > But that fifty feet or so was really something, in a Michigan winter. That fifty feet or so was really something in a Derbyshire UK (‘The High Peak’) winter in 1957. I had to carry a little paraffin (kerosene) lamp in the dark. The shack was made of wiggly tin, with a gap under the door. The bucket had ‘Elsan’ fluid in it, and twice a week my Dad had to carry it down the field to bury the contents. You kids don’t know you’re born! > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > There is such a thing as a coal hod, though. In the late '60’s I carried [one of these](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264625164290?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=264625164290&targetid=1140014332782&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9045610&poi=&campaignid=12126078219&mkgroupid=117045670259&rlsatarget=pla-140014332782&abcId=9300480&merchantid=6995734&gclid=Cj0KCQiAhP2BBhDdARIsAJEzXlHssibsNI6knPW2di8B4ZN76Ni9ypNPWqGYBy1oACpN0YqXj6FpD8caAtAFEALw_wcB) for a short time.Eight bricks at a time. You kids, etc… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703.md?page=37) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703.md?page=39)