Showing posts with label outhouses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label outhouses. Show all posts

Sunday, July 8, 2018

That time of year

July 6, 2018.

When I see vendor canopies waiting to be unfolded and a lineup of portable toilets in the park, that is a sure sign the McCleary Bear Festival is about to begin.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Buck Street

July 21, 2016.

McCleary's northernmost street within city limits currently hosts a portable toilet, but there will probably be real people in real houses on this street in the near future.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Relay for Life Outhouse

Apr. 19, 2012. It appeared in various places around town for a few months.

New Home for the Outhouse

The roving outhouse was temporarily in front of Helen Lake's McCleary Real Estate/Side Door Antiques. Apr. 19, 2012

Saturday, July 16, 2016

The Wandering Outhouse

This outhouse showed up in various places around town. The only way to get rid of it was to pay tribute to some nonprofit cause. Here it is on Oak St., Feb. 19, 2012.

This scene brings to mind the poem "Old Privy" by our own Walt Tornquist, which was included in his 1976 collection in a monograph entitled Sunshine and Shadows:

Old Privy

Have you grown up

Since modern plumbing came to stay?

If this is the case

You have missed the dear old privy days.



The privy in the old days

Was quite awkward at its best,

But the end product and satisfaction

Took care of all the rest.



A three-holer in the old days

Was a swanky exclusive retreat

And the old Sears Roebuck catalogue

Handled its part of the job real neat.



There was a large supply of drawbacks,

In the summer when the flies were thick

And in the winter when the ice and snow

Made the trail to the outhouse slick.



But this was pioneering,

And a trip when the wind blew hard and cold

Was a record breaking performance

Whether you were young, middle-aged or old.



I miss the dear old out house

Half hidden behind the old apple tree

Where old fashioned red and white roses

Were as fragrant as they could be.



But this is what they call progress

And sanitation thrown in to boot,

I still have a soft spot for the old privy,

I guess I’m sort of a coot!