OMG those things stink so bad... My grandparents lived in rural area and always had to use that...

Also had a well they had to draw buckets of water out of

Reply

I think those outhouses are going to see a comeback. With drought abundant in some areas and people abusing water like crazy we should think about how much water we would save. Yes they stink and they are an eyesore but there are some who still use them.

Reply

So did my grandparents use the outhouse, but everyday they also used to pour Roman Cleanser or Clorox to remove the smell. They put out large buckets whenever it rained to have more water. My grandmother thought rain water was best for her hair. I think of those days too and find them pretty smart for the people to figure how to do those things to live a good healthy life, including having a large garden and a chicken coop full of chickens for food and eggs, plus their apple orchard for their fruit. I loved going there each summer even though we lived in a large city.

Reply

The area I grew up in was pretty rural (then, anyway) and nearly every house had a "pit toilet" (we called them "outhouses" and other more, um, graphic names). Our house was one of the first with indoor plumbing. Over time, every house eventually "converted". My late, beloved grandmother had an outhouse up until she passed on in the late 1980s. She never felt she needed to "modernize". She got her water out of a pump, too. I didn't mind the "outhouse" (except in really cold weather or the summer (those wasps and mud-daubers liked to make their nests in the eaves and yellow jackets were attracted by the smell)). I loved pumping water by hand (although she did eventually get an electric pump). That well water was the best water you could ever imagine to drink.

Reply

other things on the extinction list:

AOL
Common sense
Manners
Gasoline engines in cars
California -- due to fires, quakes, global warming & water shortage
Good command and usage of English language and grammar, replaced by sprinkling "like", "you know," and "whatever" throughout phrases (inasmuch as complete sentences are also going extinct)
the George W. Bush/Dick Cheney administration -- hallelujah!

Reply

i grew up in northern montana with an out house and remember using it when the winter weather dipped to 40 below.the only running water came into the kitchen sink unheated and drained into a 5 gallon bucket and was carried outside.we bathed once a week in a tub in the kitchen with water heated on a wood cooking stove.this was in the 50s.and we think we have it bad now.i lived through it and could go back to it again if i had to.can also remember the eggs from the chicken house and the large garden.sometimes i think we had it better growing up then as the majority of the farm kids grew up the same way.

Reply

exSTINKtion #1 - G.W. Bush/Cheney

Reply

We didn't have ANY public water problems until people started pissing indoors.

Reply

remember the outhouse very well. grew up with one and was so proud of myself when i moved to the third hole. (we were fancy. we had a three hole seat). never could get the hang of the corn cobs. had a bag of white corn cobs and a bag of red corn cobs. (you used the red cob first, then the white cob to see if you need another red cob) was really upset when they came out with the color pages in Sears, Allen and JC Pennys catalogs. old black and white pages worked great. color pages just didn't work as well.

Reply

I do not want to see ( Out - Door - Toilets ) go out of style !!!
So I'm building a double decker in my front yard !!!!!!!!!

Reply

I think some of the comments are in jest....red vs white corncobs, for example, but my dad built an outhouse for the garage shell cottage we had in michigan. It never really smelled bad, but my mom sprinkled lime on it frequently. And yes, the spiders and the wasps liked it a lot.....kind of scary for a little kid.

Reply

I lived in Eastern Kentucky, born in Manchester, raised just North of London, we had a one hole on one side of the barn and a two holer on the other! That's because we had a garden planted on each side, so we didn't have to waste time going around the barn if we were working in either field...
We got water from a well, washed outside, cooked on a 'Warm Morning' wood stove, heated with a coal stove, raised everthing we ate..
I wouldn't trade that life for anything... I've been working like a man since I was 8 years old... I am now the handy man of handy men..., nothing I can't or won't do, not for the pay exactly, I just love to be working...
Today, we are raising a bunch of cry babies that can't work, or won't, sad...

Reply

The outhouse is probably the most efficient and natural way to dispose of bodily discharge. Yes it smells, but you are not living in there. We are spoiled.

Reply

Born and brought up in Kenya, Africa, in the mid-sixties to parents who worked and lived in the city, I thought everyone had plumbing in the house until I was old enough to visit my grandparents in the village. I was so afraid to use the pit latrines and it took a while to get used to them. What I found incredulous about this article is that there are people in America today, who not only remember, but actually still use those toilets. I thought that was so only in developing nations.

Reply

i remember those days and loved them but people now days are to lazy to get out of bed must less work in a field and walk to a out house

Reply

Way back when I was about 10, my parents would do the summer visit to my grandfather's farm in Ohio. I thought it was fun to "Go down to the outhouse". But, on one visit, things changed... While I was inside, I decided to light firecrackers & push them through a knothole on the side of the outhouse. It wasn't long before I smelled smoke. Somehow, I set the weeds on fire, & the flames were going up the side of the building. When I ran outside, I saw my father & grandfather running with buckets of water. I wish my dad would have kept some of the water for my rear end when he got through with me !

Reply

Beats a litterbox...

Reply