For the Love of Outhouses

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.

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!