# Questions For Historical Re-enactors: Dirt and Flies **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-for-historical-re-enactors-dirt-and-flies/723234 "2015-06-23T13:30:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-for-historical-re-enactors-dirt-and-flies/723234/21 "2015-06-26T19:00:15Z")
Quote: What makes you say that? I’m not saying they had modern sanitation, but bucket loos, pit toilets and chamberpots are all period solutions to the problem. Plus they used shit and piss for all kinds of stuff, they didn’t generally leave it lying around. The chamber pots got emptied…by throwing the contents into the street. That is why colonial houses had a 2nd story overhang=so as not to drop the contents on to people waiting at the door. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-for-historical-re-enactors-dirt-and-flies/723234/22 "2015-06-26T19:12:53Z")
The “newest” re-enactment place I’ve been to is “Old Sturbridge Village” here in MA. It portrays life ca. 1845. This is about 70 years later than Williamsburg. Not too much difference, except that machine-made cloth was available. Slightly grubby; the houses were well kept though-I wonder how people made their own housepaint, or were houses unpainted (for the most part)? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-for-historical-re-enactors-dirt-and-flies/723234/23 "2015-06-26T20:43:06Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > The chamber pots got emptied…by throwing the contents into the street. It’s a pretty poor town that doesn’t at least have gutters if not actual cisterns for this kind of thing. The notion that people would just toss their shit in the street is ridiculous (and don’t bother bringing up the fake etymology of ‘loo’) > [@](#): > > That is why colonial houses had a 2nd story overhang=so as not to drop the contents on to people waiting at the door. No, colonial houses had jetties because that’s how timber framed houses were built in England - and you won’t see "for unloading your toilet"[given as a reason](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jettying#Structure) for them. That and[for defense](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McIntire_Garrison_House) - and why would you need the overhang over walls that don’t have doors in them? Or a trapdoor… ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-for-historical-re-enactors-dirt-and-flies/723234/24 "2015-06-26T20:56:37Z")
> [@Renee](#): > > Yeah, what \*\*Daylate \*\*said. I have horses. Good lord, they crap a lot. High fiber diets, you know. And flies breed in manure. With horses being the main transportation back then, the horse crap and flies must have made the streets quite unpleasant. The flies attracted birds… lots of them. Flies are good eating. all of that manure made surface wells contaminated. Which is why NYC built a water system 9to bring clean water from up North). The Croton Water reservoir was built in the early 19th century, i believe. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-for-historical-re-enactors-dirt-and-flies/723234.md?page=1)