I went on a backpacking trip, back in my Boy Scout days, to Philmont. I remember a couple of the camp sites had outhouses that they called the Red Roof Inn, as most of them had at least 3 walls and a roof covering. Most of the Red Roof Inns were just a plywood box with two holes cut out. I remember settling down in one of them one day and not too terribly long after sitting down, the biggest centipede I have ever seen crawled up out of the hole I was sitting next to. Needless to say I hovered the rest of that backpacking trip.

On a pack in elk hunt in southwest Colorado the outfitter had built an outhouse at the base camp out of pine logs. I came out of there one day and told him I thought that was the finest outhouse I'd ever seen out in the middle of nowhere. He kind of grinned but I told him there was only one problem. What's that he asked? I said that talcum powder in there sure does burn.

Ouchers. Lime is some tough stuff.

I had a deer lease near Breckenridge in the 90's that didn't have a bathroom. The hunters all pitched in and built one about 100yrds from camp so we didn't have to deal with smell and flies. Shortly after completion the land owner complimented us on the new "blind" we'd built and said he'd killed the biggest buck ever on the ranch near that spot. I went back and cut a window into the out house and always took my rifle along after seeing the rack hanging in his barn.

Dad said they used corncobs. I always thought I misunderstood and he meant corn husks. Mentioned it one day and he said "not cornhusks....who would use those?" It was concobs". I'll be honest, I've thought about it many times and the only way I can figure you wipe your [censored] with a corncob is a way I wouldn't be comfortable trying..

I was recently told that they were now illegal in a lot of counties

My gramma lived on a farm along the bluffs of the Missouri River. Yes, she had an outhouse. Yes, she also had one of those wooden box type phones on a party line. When I was a youngster, I used to make sure as best I could that i emptied my pipes before I left the city and indoor plumbing behind. First time I got caught in a bind and had to use it, I remember thinking "if the Sears Catalog is in here to read, why are so many pages torn out." By the time I was done with my business, I immediately knew the answer. The required reading material were the postcards tacked all over to the walls. Some of the younger members here may not know what a postcard is. But they were pretty common back in the day. I'm 72 years old now and don't remember most of the postcards (they never changed). But there was one that read "Why are there so many more Orziz A$$es than there are Orziz?" Didn't understand what that meant at the time but as an adult, I remembered it vividly many times during my working years. That old hillbilly Gramma of mine was a pretty sharp gal.

Some great stories

The one at my uncle's had corncobs and a bucket of water to soak them in. They also had Sears & Roebucks along with Montgomery Wards catalogues. Later on they actually had real toilet paper in them. I remember seeing my cousins cleaning it out one day. They opened the bottom quarter of the back side and pulled out a box of some type and replace it with an empty one. The chickens came running and went wild eating the stuff in the box. I never thought about worms like Huntmaster said were in there.

In Canada we go out and fish remote lakes and all use out houses. One of the guys that went with us about 20 years ago was really spooked about the bear situation. It was after dark and he had to make a run to the out house, lets just say he was followed. About 2 minutes into his sit down he started hearing grunting and growling, then we started hearing screaming to get the cabins attention. When we hit the out house door it was more than he could take and his screaming went up a few octaves. We couldn't hold it anymore and busted out laughing, he never went with us again.

Damn that’s funny.....

I took a [censored] in an outhouse that had a chandelier. This was the guys only bathroom, attached to it was an outside shower, his only shower. This was only constructed a few years ago.

The only place to start is the beginning. Lease I grew up on from the age of 5, to 21 had an old school outhouse. Deep hole, wooden bench with a toilet seat over the hole and a bag of lime. Tin exterior siding. My parents instilled a nightmarish fear of rattle snakes in me, so the mental picture I formed was my bare a-- hanging over that open hole and a rattle snake latching on with fangs a foot long. I always got sick at the lease when I was a little kid because the food was good but no way I going to get bit on the a-- by a rattle snake. So I would hold the dump until we made it to Graham on the way home. KN Root Beer drive in was my savior.

Seems that most of our funny stories centered around the outhouse. I finally worked up the courage to actually use it by the age of about 7. It also made a great backstop for me to shoot my daisy BB gun. I had to learn to not do that early in the morning after Dad's coffee kicked in, he didn't think that was funny but I didn't know he was in there. Reading material was Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler & Field & Stream. One day it was noticed that all that was left was Field & Stream. We also noticed that one of the lease members two sons, ages about 14-15 were not around. As I remember they come back, and behold the good stuff was back in the crapper. They were forever known as the Jack Off brothers.

My personal favorite is my first real drunk. I was 15. Opening weekend and I killed the biggest buck and the $100.00 pot. I was feeling like Daniel Boone, Bruce Lee and Matt Dillon all rolled into one. My Dad had gone to bed, I stayed up with the rest of the grown men. One of them offered me a shot of Southern Comfort. I had drank my share of beer prior, but this was my first shot at throwing away the lid and passing the bottle. Looking back, every time the bottle made it's way back to me, it had the same amount in it as when I passed it. I was doing great until I decided to head to bed. I made it as far as the out house. I decided that was good enough and passed out in there. Maybe around 0200 or so, my Dad found me knew, what had happened and just let me sleep it off right there. Yeah, I spent the night in the outhouse.

I can see how the bucket of water would be a game changer.

So are they re-cyclable if you use water or just softer?

First got back ta MN twas driving down road, well traveled..

The corn twas over persons head. Roughly a part 20×20yrds was not in corn
In middle of it stood an outhouse...
A sign read :

Next rest area 20miles...

stopped & took a pic... it got lost whin phone went ka-put...

I had an uncle who passed away this last december from covid. He was one of the greatest story/joke tellers i have ever been around. His outhouse story went like this.................
"This traveling salesman was going door to door selling tonic,this couple invited him in the house, made his salespitch, visited with the couple for a few hours, ate supper then a god awful snowstorm blew in. The couple invited him to stay until morning. He said ok and slept on the couch. About 2:30 am the worst $hit pain hit him and he opened the front door, looked at the outhouse 30 yards away, looked at the snow and thought to himself, damn i dont want to walk in that snow. He looked around and saw this huge pumkin on the porch. He pulled out his knife cut the top out of it, Did his business in the pumpkin, put the top back on and went to sleep. Next morning he left at daylight.
One year later the salesman was back in the same neighborhood, he stopped at this cafe. He sat at the table with all the local guys and they were swapping stories. The salesman told his story about crapping in somebodys pumkin. Then all of a sudden this old guy jumps up runs over to the hand crank phone and says hello Vi this is Si. THAT WAS [censored] IN THAT PUMPKIN PIE!!!!


My uncle was 79 when he passed but he was for sure the life of the party and he could shoot any long gun as good as anyone i have ever seen. RIP BUDDY

Shotsie and Amygirl were down with me at the lease. They did not like the privy. Amygirl had to go in it and Shotsie and I were out in front of it for some reason. Heard an awful scream, the door flew open and here came Amygirl with her pants at her ankles hopping around to beat the band. Had about a 6 inch stick bug in her panties. That bug was hanging on for dear life.

I can see how the bucket of water would be a game changer.


So are they re-cyclable if you use water or just softer?

It just makes them softer. I got warned about double dipping in the bucket at an early age.

We were at our grandpas neighbor either hauling hay or picking corn I can’t remember.
We came up for lunch and me and my brother was outside my brother went in the outhouse and I latched the door from the outside. It had a pretty big gap so I thought he could stick his finger or something in the gap and just unlatch it. I went in the house and forgot about him. About 15 minutes later he comes in the house madder than a wet hen and started running me around the table. Unfortunately he couldn’t unlatch the door the neighbor herd him hollering and let him out. The old neighbor gave me that devil look.
LMAO!

Not an outhouse but in high school we were at a park in Garland and as we were loading back on to the bus, a lady went into one of the port a toilets so i ran over there and put a piece of wire in the outside lock / hasp, hopped on the bus and we were gone. still wonder how long she was locked in there

That's just WRONG