As I sit here looking at my calendar, I see a serene picture of a wind-washed turquoise outhouse beside a huge tree that has dropped it’s leaves, sitting in a field with pine trees close by. I love Outhouses. Living in Montana I bought 2 pencil drawings of children in outhouses from an artist, one with a boy sitting in the outhouse with his toy wooden horse parked in the other double stall; and the other with a little boy standing in a wind-strewn rickety outhouse and they proudly hang in the bathroom. If you ever go to Fairbanks, Alaska the bathrooms have wonderful mural scenes of outhouses, each one different of course. And if in Fairbanks you cannot miss the outhouse races….what a gas!
My family thinks I am a bit twisted to want to feature pictures of outhouses. No actually they hate it. Well this year when I saw the calendar of outhouses I couldn’t resist. To me, the pictures are whispers of the past and the scenes are really phenomenal where one can find an outhouse. Some of the pictures also make me laugh really hard! And it reminds me of what not long ago, many people had to do.
outhouse (Photo credit: twofordssearchin)
I have to share a story of when I moved here 10 years ago. I went to visit an old homesteader who lived not quite in the bush but far in the country. I knew their home was rather simple. I was helping her pick strawberries and wouldn’t know it I had to go to the bathroom. This sweet lady said….well hurry and drive to your home and use the bathroom and come back! My mouth dropped and I said well I need to go now. I said to her don’t you have a bathroom? She said well it’s an outhouse. I told her that nothing could make me winse, I’ve sat on toilets that went sideways and I had to stablize myself by placing my legs astraddle to keep the toilet straight and I’ve used many an outhouse.
Reluctantly she said ok..it’s over there. So I went in and to my amazement it was an open hole with 2 wooden planks to stand on and a view down into the hole! So I must say now….NOTHING can surprise me. I found my way out of the outhouse just fine. But I thought this 70+ year old lady must be very adept at straddling wood planks!
Cute to have a picture of them in your bathroom… but I do really despise outhouses!
How hilarious! Thanks for a great blog! 🙂
I have always found outhouses to be intriguing..great post!
I like this blog post, it’s funny 🙂 I’ve always thought outhouse pictures were serene, so long as they’re not a picture of what is IN the outhouse 😛
Yes we can use our imaginations? Right?
My aunt has a collection of outhouse pictures. She has them on display all over her house. We have been on many trips where we have stopped to take pictures of outhouse. She has some beautiful pictures.
Wow…never heard of outhouse races. I Googled it and found several YouTube videos..funny!!
I have outhouse pictures in my bathroom too lol. I want to see those outhouse races!
The races are in dead of winter and they wear costumes and push outhouses on a track! REALLY funny 🙂
My mom has two photos of adorable outhouses framed in her bathroom. Very sweet, and Americana looking.
When I was about 10 years old we bought a piece of land and moved a house trailer onto it. The first thing that needed to be done was to put in the outhouse. This required a building permit. My Dad had to go to the town meeting to get it. He was told that it had to be 25′ by 25′! They quickly amended that when my Dad asked them if that’s where they were planing on holding their next meeting. Sometimes all you can do is shake your head.
Oh how funny Miranda..maybe they thought the whole family was going in! hahaha