 |
| Building Plans available This example is in much better condition than the one at Grandma's house. |
Following Halloween shenanigans, outhouse tipping continued. Every house built in late 1800 era sported an outhouse, a necessity for the pre-plumbing days. Some were quality, meant to last for many years. Others were built in haste and their construction showed rickety and rotting wood. Easy pickings, they were targets of gangs of boys treading through darkness and, with little effort, tipping those over.
My Grandmother Amy lived in one of those old houses and had one of the latter outhouses. This made her graying and rusting outhouse a frequent subject of the outhouse gang.
Each time Grandma Amy had to phone my father, who then drove through dusky hours to place the structure back over the pit. After almost every night's misadventures, Dad and Grandma devised a plan: move the outhouse over into wild roses, leaving the pit open under a dark moonless sky. While they waited in silence and darkness with an occasional smirk and giggle, these monsters approached through with giggles of their own.
Moments later screams and profanity were heard as surprised boys tumbled feet forward into the open pit, a not-too empty pit at that.
Grandma and Dad switched on the porch light, and armed with flashlights, they smiled down on faces of well-known-miscreant teenagers. What the.....get us outta here...damn you...
Grandma armed with a water hose and Dad with a rope managed to pull the three boys out. A casual stream of water dripped down over the excrement covered boys, leaving a healthy amount of odoriferous matter behind. Dad directed them to place the outhouse back over the pit, promising to inform the town's mayor about them.
Following the order of penance, grumbling in whispers, the boys settled every outhouse through out town, securing them safely and securely in place. They even assisted my father in building a new outhouse for my grandma; they also dug a new pit for her outhouse, refilling an old full pit in with soil.
This was a memory that gave Grandma a source of giggles the rest of her life. God Bless Her.
A few years later, an addition to her house included a toilet and sink.
My Grandmother Amy lived in one of those old houses and had one of the latter outhouses. This made her graying and rusting outhouse a frequent subject of the outhouse gang.
Each time Grandma Amy had to phone my father, who then drove through dusky hours to place the structure back over the pit. After almost every night's misadventures, Dad and Grandma devised a plan: move the outhouse over into wild roses, leaving the pit open under a dark moonless sky. While they waited in silence and darkness with an occasional smirk and giggle, these monsters approached through with giggles of their own.
Moments later screams and profanity were heard as surprised boys tumbled feet forward into the open pit, a not-too empty pit at that.
Grandma and Dad switched on the porch light, and armed with flashlights, they smiled down on faces of well-known-miscreant teenagers. What the.....get us outta here...damn you...
Grandma armed with a water hose and Dad with a rope managed to pull the three boys out. A casual stream of water dripped down over the excrement covered boys, leaving a healthy amount of odoriferous matter behind. Dad directed them to place the outhouse back over the pit, promising to inform the town's mayor about them.
Following the order of penance, grumbling in whispers, the boys settled every outhouse through out town, securing them safely and securely in place. They even assisted my father in building a new outhouse for my grandma; they also dug a new pit for her outhouse, refilling an old full pit in with soil.
This was a memory that gave Grandma a source of giggles the rest of her life. God Bless Her.
A few years later, an addition to her house included a toilet and sink.
 |
| Amy Lucy (Dolly) Nichols Peck July 1970 |
