The Crapper - Story #1 of 52

Fun fact: In 1891 Thomas Crapper (really!) patented his valve-and-siphon design, updating the modern toilet in the process. His work revolutionized the modern concept of plumbing.

Grandma and Grandpa Bailey had an outhouse behind their home in Bjorkdale, Sask that we actually had to use before they got indoor plumbing. This would have been in the 1960’s. As “city kids” from B.C., we thought it was cool but the novelty wore off pretty quickly.

A typical outhouse was a small, wooden structure - probably about 4 ft x 4 ft - that sat on top of a deep hole dug into the ground. Inside the “house”, there was a narrow floor and a raised area with a hole cut into it, just the size of a bum. Often, outhouses had two such holes - one cut a bit smaller for kids so they would fit comfortably on them without fear of falling in. The door would lock from the inside with a simple latch and the toilet paper, if there was any, hung on the wall near the hole, usually on a piece of wire. In grandma and grandpa’s outhouse there was toilet paper but there was also a couple of old catalogues too, just in case the toilet paper ran out. You’d tear a page or two out of the catalogue and, to make it “kinder” to your bum, would crinkle it up and rub it between your hands to soften it up a bit before using.

Most outhouses had a crescent moon shape (or stars) cut into the top of the door and I always wondered why but some research shows that it was because it was so dark in there (no windows) that these small cutouts allowed a bit of light to come in. Also, in the 19th century, the moon signified that an outhouse was for Men while the stars symbol meant it was for Women but, any outhouse I’ve ever been in have been unisex.

I never used the outhouse at night as I was terrified of spiders and other insects that liked to live in the corners and, unless I had a flashlight and someone to come with me there was no way I was going out there by myself. Grandma and grandpa kept a chamber pot under the beds in the house and that’s what we’d have to use if we had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

The other thing I remember about the outhouse was the god-awful smell! You didn’t waste much time doing your “business” because you could only hold your breath for so long. These days there are porta-potties at outdoor events such as concerts, etc and, while you might think they smell bad, they don't compare to an outhouse. Because many homes at that time still used wood stoves, the cold ashes from the stove would be put down the hole where the alkalinity of the ash helped decompose the waste (although that didn’t do much for the smell).

It’s hard to believe that, in my lifetime, we’ve gone from having no indoor plumbing to having bathrooms that are often some of the fanciest rooms in the house complete with soaker tubs and tiled steam showers. Today we couldn’t survive without our washing machines, dishwashers, and twenty-minute hot showers. Guess it’s easy to see how water has become a disappearing commodity with the amount we waste.

Memories like this bring to mind the simpler times and, even though it might seem that we were roughing it, it was just the way things were at the time. We may not have had all of the conveniences that are available today but we sure had a lot of fun.