Model This!

[jacon12]

In a town nearby the city has started collecting older buildings that were found beside the tracks years ago. An old station, a small .... what looks like a country store etc. At the rear of the store are two separate little rooms, attached to the building, and in each room is this..

ahhhh..... the memories. I barely remember the 2 seater but I think I'll try and work this little store into my layout.
Jarrell

[jacon12]

I've just realized that probably most of you are too young to have seen this before. It's a ... ahem.... bathroom.. :)
Jarrell

[Anonymous]

Not all of us are too young, jacon12. While I never had to deal with one of those <ahem> bathrooms growing up since I was raised in the city my wife, who grew up on a Northwest Kansas farm, lived with a "one holer" for most of her childhood. I'll bet the "kids" among us wonder about that kind of stuff.

Cheers,

Ed

[jacon12]

Ed, one must have had to been on good terms with the one sitting in the next "stall".
Jarrell

[Anonymous]

I hunt up in northern Wisconsin on some family land. We've had a one-seater up there for years and years. The shack is now leaning over and a significant angle, which makes for an interesting challenge. But I'm certainly happy to have that "leaning tower of ...." as opposed to nothing at all.

[ndbprr]

Up until very recently it was known as an Ohio rest stop on the Interstate system. They had the worst facilities I have ever seen.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ndbprr

Up until very recently it was known as an Ohio rest stop on the Interstate system. They had the worst facilities I have ever seen.

Hey hey hey, now... Ohio isn't that bad, is it??? I live there, but living here, I guess I never have to stop at our rest areas....

[orsonroy]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ndbprr

Up until very recently it was known as an Ohio rest stop on the Interstate system. They had the worst facilities I have ever seen.

Make that HAVE. I was chasing Ohio Central steam last summer, and had to stop at the Ohio roadside "rest areas" a few times. While the ones on the toll roads are fine, these looked like came out of a horror movie. NPS toilets are palaces by comparison!

[Anonymous]

If my state has lousy toilets, I may have to change the location in my profile to someplace reputed to have nicers potty's. :) I am ashamed.

[cwclark]

If you ever been to Boy Scout summer camp you should be real familiar with them...

[StillGrande]

The neighbors built one in my dad's front yard for his birthday one year. He let it sit there for a month to get back at them.

[Zandoz]

I remeber the ole 2-holer at our cottage when I was a kid in <insert drum roll> northern Ohio. My biggest memory was not someone in the other seat, it is of the wasps that always seem to infest the outhouse in the summer.

[cheese3]

I dont wonder. I am only 15. When i go camping some times we have to use those "ahem...bathrooms" like cwclark said and other times we do not even get that. I think that will be a cool building project. Have Fun!!!!

[selector]

Well, Canada has its share of them ***houses. One day, during a camping trip in northern Ontario about six years ago, my wife and I got to the far side of a four km loop hiking trail. "Look, Hon," I said, "someone's thoughtfully built a single-holer way out here." Now, if you are like me, just the thought of an outdoor cr*pper is enough to get the rumbling started down below...if ya know what I mean. So, I opened the door, and the bright sun revealed a nice, clean, newly built biffy. I smiled at Hon, and said I'd only be a minute.

Later, as I was sitting there, and my eyes grew accustomed to the dark interior, my vision adapted to the light inside. As my vision improved, it showed that the biffy was home to about 30 rather large, and bemused, wolf spiders. There is no water so cold as to shrink my gonads the way those spiders did. I could have sworn I heard two of them say, "Should we eat him here, or take him below?" "Are you kidding?" asked the other. "If we take him below, the big one's'll get him!"

"Hmm," I thought. "Do I just run like a fool, pants down around my ankles, or finish with what dignity I can, and tell my wife about it later?" Well, I chose the latter, but it took every ounce of will that I had to complete the 'job' the way I felt I should. [:-^]

[Anonymous]

Selector, I'm sure that at the time, it wasn't too funny, but I have been laughing for 5 minutes now. Thanks for sharing and making and boring part of the day enjoyable!

[Seamonster]

As if the side-by-side 2-holer isn't bad enough, how about a two story biffy? We came across one in an Old West ghost town somewhere in either Wyoming or Nevada almost 40 years ago. I know I've got a picture of it somewhere, but I can't find it. I gotta wonder who got to use the second floor and who had to use the first floor. When I was a youngster in the late 40's & 50's (there, now, I've shown my age!) we lived on the outskirts of the city and although we had running water, we had no sewer, but we did have a 2-holer in the back yard for many years. My parents' beach cottage had a biffy in the back of the yard. The whole community had neither running water nor sewer, and I doubt it ever will, although some cottages had wells and septic tanks. Now there's something else to model--the old hand pump down at the corner of the street. I built up some good arm muscles fetching water from that pump and bringing back blocks of ice from the local ice house. Ahhhh, the memories!

[pcarrell]

I remember going to my grandparents house out on Deer Isle in Maine and they had a one holer out back in the woods and a well out front that was nothing more then a 2 foot hole in the ground with a large flat rock that you moved to one side to access the well. Next to that there was a pole about 2 feet tall sticking out of the ground with a rope tied to it. On the other end of the rope was a bucket draped over the pole.

In the summertime the trick was to get water out of the well and get back before the mosquitos literally carried you away. In the wintertime the challenge was to break the ice 20 feet below you in the well without falling in.

Ahhh...the island...

[pcarrell]

Oh and lets not forget the stick (the one you took with you to the "house out back", wink, wink)

[Zandoz]

And carrying back a bucket of water in each hand was a lot of fun to...by the end of the trp those bucket bales were murder on the hands. I also remember dad having to climb the pole out by the road to turn on/off the electricity....once we got it in the mid to late 60s

[Anonymous]

Jarell,

Woodland scenics (and others) makes a model of this...Perhaps it could be put in a model neighbor's lawn just to get even....

[ham99]

ebriley: What part of northwest Kansas? I grew up near Plainville, and we had an outhouse until 1954. But we had some "rich" neighbors who had 32-volt electricity and indoor plumbing. As a little kid, I used to play in the bathtub there when my parents visited and played cards. It was quite a treat.

[Anonymous]

When I was 5 (1962) we moved from Cincinnati to a farm about 40 miles east of the city. It was a very well to do farm - it had a 3 seater. Two were the normal height and one was only half as tall so the entire family could be accomidated at one time. Shortly after moving in my parents walled off one end of the larges room and installed indoor facilities.

The rest areas in the state are the worst.

[espeefoamer]

Way back in the early 70s when I was about 19-20,we took a family trip out to the desert,somewhere between Barstow and Trona,in the middle of nowhere.We stopped at a little gas station to use the "facilities".All they had was a tiny wood building out back[;)].We all used this,and my brother and I were amused at seeing what was probably the first real outouse either one of us had ever seen.

[jacon12]

And all the younger folks are goin'
"I don't believe a word of this! They gotta be kiddin' us"[:O]
Jarrell

[rrinker]

Oh, no, I completely believe it all. Every house I've lived in has had indoor plubing, I'm not all that old yet. But fromt he time I was a few months old, our favorite place to go camping (really camping - no runnign water and electricity!) had nothing but a bunch of his and hers single-holers (basically, a two-holer split in half, with entrances on opposite sides). In later years they expanded with a new camping area that had water and electric hookups, but we never went to that side. Last time I was there was with some friends while I was in college, first time we all went, I TRIED to tell them to go to the 'primitive' side but they wouldn't listen, they all knew better - even though they had never been there before. So off to the 'new' side we go - did I mention that to make this are 30 some years ago, they lowered the lake level slightly and used some of the now exposed ground - can you say 'swampy' and 'skeeters'. Second time we all went camping - they listened to me and we had a great experience, just like the ones I rememebr from being a kid. Hmm, even that was 20 years ago, I need to go back there again sometime.

--Randy

[Seamonster]

In my original post I forgot to mention that when our kids were young, we used to travel with a tent trailer and camp a lot. As anyone who has travelled with young children knows, that involves a lot of rest stops. Our daughter simply refused to use the facilities at any place that didn't have flu***oilets. Whenever we'd stop at a roadside rest stop, she'd ask someone to check out the toilets. Since the non-flush ones were usually referred to as "pit toilets", if that was what was there, we'd report back to her that "they were the pits" and she'd stay in the car. I swear that kid was capable of waiting all day for a flu***oilet. Her brother called her a camel.

[jacon12]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rrinker

Oh, no, I completely believe it all. Every house I've lived in has had indoor plubing, I'm not all that old yet. But fromt he time I was a few months old, our favorite place to go camping (really camping - no runnign water and electricity!) had nothing but a bunch of his and hers single-holers (basically, a two-holer split in half, with entrances on opposite sides). In later years they expanded with a new camping area that had water and electric hookups, but we never went to that side. Last time I was there was with some friends while I was in college, first time we all went, I TRIED to tell them to go to the 'primitive' side but they wouldn't listen, they all knew better - even though they had never been there before. So off to the 'new' side we go - did I mention that to make this are 30 some years ago, they lowered the lake level slightly and used some of the now exposed ground - can you say 'swampy' and 'skeeters'. Second time we all went camping - they listened to me and we had a great experience, just like the ones I rememebr from being a kid. Hmm, even that was 20 years ago, I need to go back there again sometime.

--Randy

Randy, I don't know about you but... isn't it strange how when you go back to places you haven't seen since you were a kid, they're not nearly as BIG as you thought they were!
Jarrell

[rrinker]

I don't know, I pretty much had the run of the palce when I was a kid - back in those days you didn't have to worry that the guy 3 sites down was a child molester and your kids might not come back. So when I was last there 20 years ago, that was the first time I had been back since I was 10 or so, and it seemed pretty much the same as I remembered. What seemed a lot shorter was the ride to get there. I missed the lady blaring Johnny ca***hough - one time on the way home, our trailer got a flat, so my Dad pulled over to change the tire, there's like ONE house by the road, and from the opposite side f the road (4 lanes worth) we could hear the music as if we were playing it. While my Dad's working on the tire, a lady comes out of the house and yells across asking if we need any help. hehe people are bit bit off up in that part of the state.

--Randy

[RedLeader]

I've always wondered what the conversation will be about for two guys sitting shoulder to shoulder doing their thing. I wonder the purpose of making them with two holes, maybe couples will sit there holding hands while, you know....

[Anonymous]

Oh, come on.. you guys have got it easy!

When I was a kid (in Broken Hill), we had a dunny down on the back fence. There was a bloody great bucket under the hole, and once a week, yep, once a week, the bucket was slid out of a trapdoor at the back and emptied into a waiting truck!!!

That bucket sure was sweet after a week of one hundred degree days.

I can remember one morning when I rolled out of bed and just had to go. I met a goanna (lizard) half way. The goanna was as tall as I was, standing on its back feet, and I was not going to win a fight. So I had to wait. OK, I was only seven years old, but that was a big goanna.