ROCKDOCKERS- boonypoopin' and whizzdockin'

[Foiled Again]

How much has changed in how short a time.

A friend of mine lives in Nags Head NC, and his soil won't perk, so he has a propane toilet that burns the waste products - like the advice, "never squat when you're wearing spurs" this one contains severe warnings about not flushing until one is standing clear. No gopher holes allowed in this day and age.

I grew up in a small town in N.E. Ohio - and everyone had flush toilets in the "city". Once you got out in the township, the story differed. Many middle class people were JUST getting septic tanks and indoor facilities. During the War, rationing made it difficult to add those things even though there was plenty of money. Poorer people were saving up for the day that their facilities could be moved indoors. I remember taking a tour of Stan Hyatt - a Tudor mansion rebuilt in Akron Ohio by the Seiberling family - I was astounded by the huge bathroom that contained tubs, sitz baths, and two pedastal sinks, and perhaps even a bidet? Even the swimming pool in the basement didn't impress me as much as that bathroom.

The campground I went to as a Brownie and Girl Scout had a 5 hole outhouse, and many of the rural state parks had multiple "unflushables" too. Modesty - oddly we accepted it as just normal for country living.

I distinctly remember my aunt and uncle having a party to show off their new bathroom and kitchen remodel. They had a hand pump in the kitchen by the sink until then, the electric pump and the upstairs bath replaced the "four rooms and a path" description of their cottage house. They had a fun ribbon cutting ceremony too for the "throne room".

Aunt Martha had a real flare for decorating. Ralph Lauren could have taken a few cues from her. My favorite as a small child? The use of a lawn jockey as a hand towel holder in her bathroom. Today it would be so politically incorrect - but in the little town where I grew up, cast iron hitching posts and sandstone mounting blocks were leftovers from the horse drawn era - which actually didn't end until about 1920. The things weighed a ton, were normally set in cement, and didn't get removed until after they were hit by a car or truck. Her lawn jockey had seen regular service in the yard for decades before she incorporated it into the bathroom.

Paula

[doug&maggie]

Call me a wimp but I like a real potty with toilet paper, and don't care much for trying to squat in the bushes. Just plain wouldn't do it, but for an emergency.

Aside from my bad knees that don't take well to such actions, trying to squat in the bushes gives me fits of giggles that cause other problems. :blush

I would have thought the wiping-with-a-corncob reference had to be some kind of joke, but for my Iowa-raised husband who remembers hearing the old folks talk about this! He never had this experience. One of the advantages of living in corn country.

Hubby also remembers the well behind the Grace Hill Moravian church, drawing buckets of water, and the community bucket with dipper that all used when they needed a drink.

I have digressed just a bit. Good for you folks who can boonypoop and whizzdock!


Maggie

[Gringo]

I absolutely was not joking about the corn cobs. The sears catalog was 'for the ladies'. In the summer, wasps and 'dirt daubers' loved building nests in that outhouse. All kinds of bugs lived in there, of course. It was not a place to linger over a novel.

We pulled water up from a brick lined well on a bucket, and drank from the bucket with a long handled dipper. The old farm burned this summer in the Texas fires, but I'm told the well is still there.

A bath for us kids was sitting in a big round galvanized wash tub on the ground next to the well, with water that had been heated in a kettle poured over us. There is no privacy in this situation.

As for squatting, I spent three months working on the Tarbela Dam resovoir in the NW frontier province of Pakistan. Had to accomodate to their style of bathroom. I ain't never going to squat again if I can help it.

My new titanium knee might let me, but the other,original one wouldn't, anyhow. I'd turn into the leaning tower of........well.....never mind.

[mello mike]

This thread has been very educational. Corn cobs? Who whuda thunk it.

Paula,
Didn't know you were from NE Ohio. I grew up in Kent. How about you?

[kposey]

I remember playing in the Georgia clay all day then our parents would strip all us cousins and hose us down with the water hose (at my grandmother's house that had running water). THEN we could take a bath in the galvanized tubs that had set out with water in them all day to warm at my great grandmother's house. There were a lot of us and we had to switch out with the galvanized tubs and the real bath tub. Luckily they lived next door to each other.

I also remember the outhouse with the Sears catalog and the well water with the dipper. Man, that well water was the best I have ever tasted!

But the besest childhood memory is waking up at my great grandmother's house in the morning and smelling the coffee, sausage and biscuits cooking downstairs. That was the best memory of all.

Ah, the good ole days!

[whitsend]

Originally Posted by BigAl

OK! I gotta ask. What's with the corn cobs?
Al

Al - Two brown cobs, if used properly, usually got most of the job done. One white'ish cob answered any questions if you needed to use another darker cob .

Apologies to any what might have offended by our country ways a while back in rural Texas . Country folks were a much tougher breed back then. You used what you had & complaining didn't accomplish much.

[w7ts]

I have often wondered why Texans grew up to so ornery. Now I understand.

Ken

[Gringo]

my grandfather gave me my first rifle as a Christmas present when I was 4. My father took the tube magazine Savage semi-auto .22 away from me....and replaced it with a little single shot Ithaca saddle gun. It looked like a half size version of a Marlin 30.-30, with a lever action and everything. I got the tube magazine semi-auto back in a few years. I eventually converted it to full auto. Would go thru every round in the mag if you pulled the trigger once. I think it was something like 17. No way to stop it, at first. Eventually I converted it back.

I was digging post holes and stretchin' "bob wahr" when I was 10. Drinking beer by 12.

[Airstream631]

I enjoyed reading all. Thanks. I'm there !

[Ray Eklund]

Tools of the boonypooper. Total cost: Garage sale shovel- $3.00. Costco paper- 50 cents. No need for reading material as you have no time to pause and flip through any dull text...