“I had no idea they liked corn so much back then.”
There’s still a functional outhouse out on the farm. It’s not a bad thing to have for backup when you’ve got your own pressure system - if the power goes out, there’s no water, no flushing. If the pump fails, there’s no water, no flushing. If the well goes dry because someone left the garden hose on and the pump loses prime, there’s…well, you get the idea. The old shitter isn’t reliant on any technology. Plus, with two holes, you could shit with a friend. Errr… 
You have a ready-made fertilizer factory going. Plant away!
Funny you should mention that, Dinsdale. When I was younger, in the area where the outhouse was at one time, which was many years and many moves backward from the spot it was in at that time, I found three buffalo nickels (Which I still have!). P
They had probably fallen from the pockets of shtter visitors over the years.
Gorsnak, the neighbors across the road used to have a two hole shitter! The thing was huge, and after many years of non-use, it was just sitting there, all lonely, so, we turned it into a clubhouse to play in! Of course, the outhouse, and particularly the two holes themselves, were perched over the side of a steep hill. We covered up the holes with some boards, so as not to fall through. It made a perfect clubhouse! For kids out in the sticks, anyway.
Yeah, The Mad Hermit, I want to place the outhouse closer to the back of the house, which is where it used to be many, many years ago.
It got moved back every so often, as the hole filled up, and they would dig a new one behind it and move the outhouse back over the fresh hole. Then, they’d backfill the old, used hole with the dirt they dug out from the new hole.
I don’t know if the soil retained any of the crap that was left there, but the grass sure grows real nice, even to this day, in those areas!
Funny you should mention that, Dinsdale. When I was younger, in the area where the outhouse was at one time, which was many years and many moves backward from the spot it was in at that time, I found three buffalo nickels (Which I still have!). P
They had probably fallen from the pockets of shtter visitors over the years.
Gorsnak, the neighbors across the road used to have a two hole shitter! The thing was huge, and after many years of non-use, it was just sitting there, all lonely, so, we turned it into a clubhouse to play in! Of course, the outhouse, and particularly the two holes themselves, were perched over the side of a steep hill. We covered up the holes with some boards, so as not to fall through. It made a perfect clubhouse! For kids out in the sticks, anyway.
Yeah, The Mad Hermit, I want to place the outhouse closer to the back of the house, which is where it used to be many, many years ago.
It got moved back every so often, as the hole filled up, and they would dig a new one behind it and move the outhouse back over the fresh hole. Then, they’d backfill the old, used hole with the dirt they dug out from the new hole.
I don’t know if the soil retained any of the crap that was left there, but the grass sure grows real nice, even to this day, in those areas!
Funny you should mention that, Dinsdale. When I was younger, in the area where the outhouse was at one time, which was many years and many moves backward from the spot it was in at that time, I found three buffalo nickels (Which I still have!). P
They had probably fallen from the pockets of shtter visitors over the years.
Gorsnak, the neighbors across the road used to have a two hole shitter! The thing was huge, and after many years of non-use, it was just sitting there, all lonely, so, we turned it into a clubhouse to play in! Of course, the outhouse, and particularly the two holes themselves, were perched over the side of a steep hill. We covered up the holes with some boards, so as not to fall through. It made a perfect clubhouse! For kids out in the sticks, anyway.
Yeah, The Mad Hermit, I want to place the outhouse closer to the back of the house, which is where it used to be many, many years ago.
It got moved back every so often, as the hole filled up, and they would dig a new one behind it and move the outhouse back over the fresh hole. Then, they’d backfill the old, used hole with the dirt they dug out from the new hole.
I don’t know if the soil retained any of the crap that was left there, but the grass sure grows real nice, even to this day, in those areas!
Crap. Sorry about the triple post! I thought it didn’t go through the other 2 times, since I kept getting an error message saying that it ‘could not connect!’
Again, my apologies.
There’s a guy who’s a consultant at the museum where I work who does outhouse excavations. Whenever he hears of an old outhouse which is going to be moved or torn down, he begs the homeowners for permission to dig.
He brings us his finds. Sometimes, people used the outhouse as an all-pupose garbage dump. You especially find a lot of old bottles. (Seems quite a few people hid their liquor in the outhouse or disposed of the bottle surrupticiously therein.) He’s found quite a few old coins, a pocket watch (I imagine its owner saying “No fuckin’ way am I looking for that!”) crockery, buttons and other odds and ends.
Every now and then he discovers an item which makes imagination take flight. Was the unbroken china doll’s head deposited by a spiteful brother? What possible reason could one have to take a stoneware gravy boat out to the outhouse? (And do we really want to know the answer to that?) Was that knife evidence of a crime? Did that key slip loose from someone’s belt and did they have to change the locks afterward?
While on the subject of outhouses, I must add a tale from my childhood. I grew up in a house built in the 1830s. It had an ancient outhouse out back which my grandparents left intact because it was sort of a neat old thing. It was modestly surrounded by trees on three sides, and it had that lovely silvery look that old, weathered wood gets.
My uncle pinned a painting of a bowl of fruit inside while he was in his late teens. He said with a grin that someday someone would find it and wonder why it was there. He was amused by imagining their puzzlement.
He died about five years later and a further few years later, the house was sold. The painting had been totally forgotten by my family until the new owner ran into my grandmother at a social event. She was talking about rennovations she was doing to the place (God help her, the woman modernized the whole property, completely destroying its historic charm.) She told grandma that she had torn down the outhouse. “You know, it’s the funniest thing . . . I looked in there before they tore it down and I found a painting in there. Of a bowl of apples! Can you imagine?”
My grandmother called me that afternoon to share the tale. We both laughed and cried a little, remembering my uncle. I was glad he had gotten his wish.
Who would have thought a shithouse thread would have dredged up (heh) so much nostalgia?
I lived in many places as a kid, and all the country places had outhouses. My favorite one required walking from the back of the house through an attached woodshed, on through an attached barn. The outhouse, a magnificant three-holer, was attached to the back barn wall, and jutted out over a large brook.
When I lifted a hole cover, a strong wind whipped up, cooling me in the summer and freezing me in the winter. In any case, I was fascinated that my turds dropped right into the water with a satisfying splash. Only privy (as they were called in Vermont, for some reason) that never had any smell.
Now, I can’t help but wonder how many people went swimming downstream?
I’m an archaeologist and have worked on several large urban projects and have excavated dozens of privies (here is a picture of one I had just finished in San Luis Obispo, California). They are treasure troves of information regarding the people who lived in the associated residence. As several other posters have mentioned, they were typically used as trash dumps, in addition to their more mundane use, and subsequently became filled with the remants of everyday life. Think about what your trash says about you and that is the kind of information we get. Class, ethnicity, changes over time, etc. Very cool stuff. Plus, it provides me an opportunity to have my favorite conversational exchange with the general public.
Passerby: “Wow, that’s really cool. What’d you find?”
Me: “It’s a privy.”
Passerby: “A privy? You mean like an outhouse?”
Me: “Yep.”
Passerby: (pause) “Does that mean you’re diggin in…?”
Me: “Yep.”
Maybe someday I’ll start an “Ask the outhouse digger” thread.
nonacetone, if you don’t mind having a bunch of students around, you could always call the local university and see if the Anthro department would be interested in coming out and excavating it. It doesn’t take long and we generally clean up after ourselves quite well.
Ol’ Gaffer, have you read “Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage?” (I assume that you probably would have, given your profession.)
For anyone else who has an interest in this topis, it’s a great book, both informative and readable. It’s about the University of Arizona’s project collecting demographic information from garbage dumps. What they found out about people’s habits was fascinating.
That sounds like a great idea, Ol’Gaffer! Wow! I will seriously consider calling the local university, which in my case is Indiana State University. It is only about 15 miles from here, and it would be a cool project, if they were interested, that isn’t too far from the university.
Lissa, that book sounds very interesting. Even though I’m not an archaeologist, I think I’d love to read it! I may even put it on my Christmas list! I’m sure my husband would really enjoy it, also.
Yeah, I’ve read it. Rathje’s fantastic. He has a great seriation study on discarded hot dogs and his conclusions on the relation between meat spoilage and price is brilliant. It really is a great read.
There is a constant discussion in archaeological circles about how we should communicate what we do to the public, as much of what we do is publicly funded (probably very similar to museum discussions!). Rathje’s book just shows that there is a public interest if you can figure out how to present it.
That my scoutmaster used to sing:
from That Little Old Shack Out Back
as performed by Billy Ed Wheeler
you can hear it here.
(lyrics copied fom this page)
You could always enter it into the Virginia City, NV Championship Outhouse Races.
I am not kidding - this event really does exist. Virginia City is an entire town that’s encompassed as a historical landmark, but there’s not much going on there.
~Tasha