Outhhouse Nostalgia

When I recall my growing up days in the country, I occasionally end up thinking about outhouses, something commonly found at the end of many a country mile in a certain era.  Not that I have many firm memories of outhouses; I think I was too young when we lived in an older little house in the 1950s and had an outhouse in the yard.  Mom has told me that I used to wake up from dreams of falling down the hole; I’m so glad I don’t remember those dreams any more.

I do have one memory that involves a visiting boy throwing my younger sister’s favourite doll down the outhouse hole.  I clearly remember my sister’s horrified tears.  I also remember that Mom retrieved the doll; what I don’t recall is how she did it.   Certainly, I’d call that going above and beyond the call of parenting duty.  Of course, in those days it might have been a standard challenge faced by many parents.

I got curious about outhouses once and Googled the topic.  An outhouse was defined as a small, freestanding, enclosed structure having one or two holes cut into a seat over a pit and serving as an outdoor toilet.  It doesn’t flush and is not connected to a sewer.  The article went on to discuss the hardships experienced when people used the outdoor facility at night or in the cold of winter and the possibility, in more remote settings, of encountering wildlife on the path to the bathroom.

I found several explanations for why many outhouses had a crescent moon shape carved into the door.  One site said that the moon was the symbol for women and a sun or starburst was the symbol for men, necessary in times when not everyone could read.  The reason we see mostly moon symbols on old outhouses that have survived to the present is that men were apparently much harder on their bathrooms than women were, so very few men’s outhouses lasted as long.

But the explanation that made the best sense to me is that the crescent shape was carved into the door for two purposes; the first because some sort of opening was necessary to provide a little light, and the second, because the crescent shape was perfect in the days before fancy hardware options for slipping one’s curved fingers into when opening or closing the door.

I found out that there are people in this day and age who still use outhouses, mostly in remote areas such as parts of the Yukon, or at their cottages.  Many of these people use a chamber pot in the house at night to avoid frosty winter dashes outside.  I remember that we had a chamber pot in our house when I was very young, though I can’t recall ever using it.  I do have a memory of my youngest brother sitting on it when he was two or so, as part of his “potty” training.

Finally, I also found an Internet reference to outhouse diggers, people who dig at the sites of old, covered-over outhouses because so many interesting items went down those holes in the past, inadvertently or deliberately.  Eeeuww!  Although the article I read said that everything unpleasant had long been converted to soil, just the thought is enough to make me shy away.  I love a good treasure hunt but I’d say “no thanks” to this one.

Does any one have any outhouse memories to share?  Feel free to comment.