Two Holer

I remember well how grandpa enjoyed telling his outhouse tales.....
He and his cohorts would go and hide waiting for "farmer Brown" to come out to his outhouse . . . .then grandpa and "friends" would tip the out house over on its side.

Grandpa's eyes kinda misted over when he told about the "accomplishment" of putting "farmer Browns" out house up on his barn roof...........

Ahhhhh the days of old . . . . . . . . . . . .

Has been on my "too do" list for years . . to build a outhouse here . . . .wishing to give the middle finger salute to the overly friendly health dept.

I would have one if they were legal here.

I don't know what my grandparents used to prevent frozen stalagmites. I'll have to ask Mom next time I talk to her.

I have one here and use it ALOT when outside.
IF I couldn't use one outside, Id build one anyway, just so they would have to go out of there way to check it. It could hold hand garden tools.

When I was 7 we were in Missouri visting my mother's family and they lived on the farm "Down In The Holler". They had the one hole outhouse over next to the creek. Nobody but me seemed to notice. We visited down there at least five times a year and every single time there always was a brand new roll of TP on the stick. Yes it was either the Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Wards catalog there. Even while we were there Grandma and Uncle Lincoln were still using the catalog pages. Every time I was in there I was looking at what page they were on. I only used this one trip because it was right after my mother remarried and we did a side trip down to Lake of the Ozarks.
They had a lot of booths with people selling or making crafts there. I loved spending time with the wood carver. He was doing a lot of whittling cool critters and birds. On a shelf behind him was a 90% finished Last Supper wood carving that he told me he had been working on for about a month in the evenings. It was carved back into a 24 inch diameter log.

His booth also was near enough to the outhouses.
They had a speaker down in the ladies one and a micro switch was tripped when they sat on the seat. It said, "Hey lady, I am painting down here. Go use the other one."

There is a business there now but five miles from where I live here in Michigan there used to be a farm and they were using the old three hole outhouse as a tool shed. What drew me to look at is was the fact that it was built with cordwood construction.

Where I grew up twenty miles West of here my parents bought the place in 1944 with a large two story farmhouse on it. They lived in it for about ten years then started tearing it down and they built a smaller one story ranch type of home across the yard. They also tore down the three hole outhouse. When I was a kid I had a huge lumber pile to play with and I found the seat board with the three different size holes.

Years later after I had been married 20 years or so Mom was doing some cleaning and she found Dad's old camera. It was the old type where you open the front and pull the lens part out. It takes an obsolete film but I went to a dark corner and opened the camera. Yes they was a partially exposed film in it. I took it to an old established company in town where Dad would have bought the film in 1952 give or take a year.
They took it into their dark room and removed the film. They made me a set of contact prints, a set of 5x7 prints and they put them on a CD for me. Beside a much younger Mom and Dad's two Model A Fords the next best things were a shot of the old farm house and the old three hole out house. I knew it was just before they started tearing down the old farm house because of the piles of dirt where they had been digging the basement for the new house.

Jim, I really doubt that it is a Michigan thing but my own father and my step father grew up as friends. They had a very strict male teacher in a one room schoolhouse. Their last year they got him on April Fools night. Another friend lived next door and knew that between 12:30 and 1:30 every night the teacher would be making a trip out to the outhouse. So, Earlier than that they went and moved his outhouse back just past the hole.
They put some twigs across the hole and leaves that looked like the rest of the path and stood back and watched their teacher fall in.
The teacher was cussing mad and as he got cleaned up and got into the house the guys left and came back at 3AM and pushed the teacher's car three blocks to the school. Two other boys had the job of toting lumber to the school and one other boy was bringing the long hay rope.
Planks up to the roof and the rope over the roof they pulled the car so it was setting right over the ridge. Then they removed all of the evidence, went home and acted like they were just getting up.

Not sure why you would say it was not a Mich. thing . . . . . .????????

Grandpa had a country store in the Sodus area for years.
And that was the general area he grew up in.
Understand this was a very long time ago.

Properly dressed up your outhouse will only look like just another "shed"....
And I'll be darned if I will let any tax man or health Dept. idiot go inside that door.......

I've seen some pretty fancy outhouses up here. With tile floors, magazine racks , lights, heaters, curtains, potted plants, etc. Some people really like their outhouses I guess.

O.K. so I just got on to keep up with these post and someone removed the link I added. What's the deal? Did I do something wrong? I'm still kind of new here so someone clue me in. If I'm breaking some kind of rules I'd like to know about it and understand it.
Thanks


Wade

Absolutely Mrs Swirtz . . . .Let your imagination run wild.......
Who said that an outhouse has to be what most people picture it as . .????
Tho yes, that old time image sure does provoke smiles and memories.

At my grandpa in law's summer cabin up on Lake Huron in Canada they blasted a hole in solid rock and built the "toilet/bath room" over the top of the hole. It was all nicely trimmed and painted white. A stranger would never know what was under foot. Once a year the big deal was for the ***Honey Wagon*** to arrive and pump out that "rock holding tank".......

memories.........

No Wade, I just wanted to reply to the great comment you made but I did not think the site needed the picture again.

My cousin up there in Alaska lost her husband so she sold her place and is now living in Tennessee with her brother and SIL.
Her place up there had an outhouse at first like other folks but then they upgraded and had a well drilled. Then they had what I suppose would still be called an out-house. They built a building around the well and that is the only place the running water is. Yes they still went out to the outhouse but now it had a furnace, running water and a flush toilet.
They were getting water for their house from the nicer home across the road but then they started just getting there water from the outhouse.
Sounds strange but it is true,,,,,,, Only in Alaska,,,,,

What that meant was I am sure there were plenty outhouse pranks played in other states too.

My first wife and me was setting in the two holer with door open. She says to me, " Nothing no more romantic than setting in the Outhouse looking at a Full Moon and listening to the Coyotes ".



big rockpile

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These two fellas were done usin' the two holer and when one pulled up his overalls, a dime and quarter fell from his pocket into the darkness. He pulled out his wallet and threw in a ten dollar bill.
The other fella yelled, "Why did you do that?".
The first fella said, "Well, I'm not goin' in there for 35 cents!".

Especially the basement!

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Roger

Ole was in the out house and Gustoff was waiting. All of a sudden Ole started swearing and carrying on. Gustoff looked in just in time to see Ole throwing his watch and wallet down the hole. Gustoff said "Ole, what in the world are you doing?" Ole said "When I got up the change fell out of my pocket right down the hole". Gustoff said "But why are you throwing down your watch and wallet?" Ole says "You don't think I'm going to climb down there just for a pocket full of change do you?"

There are two story outhouses.

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Moms don't look at things like normal people.
-----DD

Would you care to provide some drawings as to the way a two story is suppose to work . .???

Yrs ago I was somewhere in N. Ga (I can't remember now where we were - it was a camp of sorts). Anyhow it had maybe 5-6 holes?! There were a LOT!!! And we all used it too because it was a long bus ride!