Before Indoor plumbing

Anyone know how expulsions were handled in the days of outhouses? Seems the "retention run" would not be very feasible?

Bedpans and chamber pots.

Not very friendly (I had a hospital enema while confined to bed, and the expulsion was not fun) but at least inside during a snowstorm!

I remember chamber pots under the beds at my gandparents house...scolded if we used them when we could go to the outhouse!

I have a "thing" about chamber pots. On the day when this all started, nigh on fifty years ago, the school matron, having given me my enema, produced a large china pot and told me to call her when I'd finished. Cold china against my backside still gives me goose bumps. I must admit that modern plumbing, toilet and bidet, does make the whole thing much more clean and easy.

Many years ago just after we were first married my husband and I spent some time at a remote fishing camp in Ontario. It had a cook stove, a well with a hand pump, and an outhouse. I did whatever I could to avoid using that stinky outhouse, but after several days was seriously constipated. In those days I never went anywhere without my folding syringe and while my husband was off fishing made myself an enema. Not only did I have to heat water on the stove, but then take it out on the porch lying on a bench. The really interesting part was making my way up a muddy path to that outhouse to expel it. I often think about the mess if I had slipped and fallen.

Chamber pots or thunder mugs as they were called was the standard way. Most hotels of the time only had one bath each for men and women per floor. One of the most undesired jobs was the chamber pot cleaner. Motels or tourist courts as they were known then had signs proclaiming them to be "modern" if they had indoor plumbing.

LisaK:

"Seems the "retention run" would not be very feasible?"

My aunt and uncle lived in a place with an outhouse. My aunt would prepare the enema bag and take it and the intended receiver to the outhouse where the bag was hung from a nail, the lid to the hole shut, and the receiver placed over her lap. There was no retention run because everything was done right there.

I grew up in south Florida in the 1950's. We lived on a farm in a very rual area. We got weekly enemas and they were done on a bench next to the outhouse so it wasnt far to go. it was really nice laying there getting and enema and feeling the warm breeze over your body.

I am of the generation that lived through the change from pit loos to flush toilets. All homes had potties under the beds when I was a child. They were called by all sorts of creative names: chamber chalice, gazunder (= goes under) and plain 'po' (short for the French pot de chambre) which led to the insulting description 'po-faced' being applied to someone wearing a sour expression. The rule was always that gentlemen were expected to pee on the lawn after dark, and to use the outhouse by day. If there was indoor plumbing, it was reserved for ladies.

Being a boy, full of enema or not, I braved the outhouse. But there was this to be said for it: an enema expulsion couldn't possibly make it stink any worse! And if you didn't quite make it, the path was usually nowhere near any other facility: no one would notice. That is one of the reasons why this generation of men is much less offended by using the great outdoors to relieve themselves. And if you have never expelled an enema outdoors. you have missed something - especially if you can do so in the nude!

Johnny

I grew up on a farm in the Midwest, and remember we got indoor plumbing installed when I was about ten or so. Up to that time, we had an outhouse out back and a chamber pot in each bedroom. The rules were that you used the outhouse whenever possible, but it was OK to use the pot if you were sick, had to go in the middle of the night, or in extreme bad weather.

But I never got an enema and had to use the outhouse. Enemas were given in the bedroom and I was allowed to use the pot. Mom emptied it later. I guess that was the proof the enema was effective.

We were struggling grade B dairy producers for Carnation. We had cold water into the kitchen sink. Enema time was a huge ordeal and us 3 kids all got ours consecutively, Oldest to youngest. I was the oldest and had learned to make it look favorable for those that followed. My job became my ambition in my earliest remembrances. I helped spread news paper over the serving area. I dumped waste from the catch can or bucket. It definitely distorted my thinking. When we were warned not to swallow water melon seeds, I was very careful! I just new we were full of "it". The parents self administered in the out house. But kids could not be trusted with necessary sanitary precautions, of course. The only sort of disgraceful punishment enema, came from making an unreasonable mess of things. We had smaller buckets used for feeding calves. These were very handy and could hold it all, but we always helped one another, because there was no support adapter for them to be sat upon. Large coffee cans, and peach cans, etc. were the typical for after dark. I was the first to go to school and had no clue to what it was I was there for. The first year was a complete mystery to me. If I told you all the things that went wrong, you would think no one could be that ignorant. I wasn't ignorant, but none of it made any sense. Perhaps the one that fits best here was mom telling me to be sure and wash my hands when I used the lavatory. Very important! So not wanting to look ignorant, I always washed my hands as soon as I entered that room. But one day I had put things off for too long, so that when the cool water hit my hands, I lost complete control and just had to wear it the rest of the day. At least I got the order of things figured out after that. This was in Northern California. Cows are smarter than dogs, when they want to be. Because we eat them, we discount their mental capacity. I guess a feed lot cow, without opportunity to learn is dumb. But our cows had huge souls, every one.

My Grandmother explained to me that in those day they had nice enamel bed pans and "Chamber Pots" that I imagine were like a commode of today. These "Implements" were used at night and for "special Occasions" such as sickness, enemas, etc

Outhouses and Chamber Pots? Boy, am I ever glad I am a Pampered Princess of the 21st Century with my toilet and bidet!

Yes, life with out my bidet would not be nice. I have a friend, a semi-retired RN, who is very jealous. It is SO nice to be able to wash after I've finished on the toilet.

Yes, life with out my bidet would not be nice. I have a friend, a semi-retired RN, who is very jealous. It is SO nice to be able to wash after I've finished on the toilet.

A bidet isn't necessary for personal hygiene, water and soap do the job just fine.

What about the term of the wealthy "chamber maid"? In the movie "Meet me in St. Louis" somebody says "I have to visit Mrs. Murphy". I know there were "chairs" that had a bowl underneath the seat for whatever.

My first wife & sisters , Brother were given there enemas in the house by there mother , they only had an outhouse the girls less pantie but left there dress on so when they ran with a full belly to the out house to let the enema out there bottom were cover . The one brother i was toled that his pant were pull down to put the pipe in & he pull them up for that run to the outhouse .

In one early summer, the cabin we stayed in had an outhouse. When Mum decided that it was enema time for the little guy (me), I got to expel them into a chamber pot. I don't think I could have made it to the outhouse on my own, and Mum wasn't interested in carrying me... oh, the memories.. 😄

Yes, but it is oh so nice. Like the princess I like my pampering and would never want to live in a house without one!

I was visting cousins i ark . and yes they had a out house as i well knew .and abided by .

i hade to sleep with cous, roger ,,, that night he climbed out of bed and knelt down and put his hands up as in prayer .

i thought "oh crap" i didnt do night prayer's so i climbed out and did the same ........

Rodger said what the hell are you doing ??

I said the same as you .. Rodger said THE POT IS ON MY SIDE GRANNY IS GONNA WHIP YOU'RE ass

I noticed several people have the notion that chamber pots were really typical with homes having no indoor commode. At the end of the out-house era in the 50's, large coffee and fruit cans were more prevalent. The master bed might have such a special receptacle, but the other beds usually had nothing or maybe a pee-can if the weather was bad. Spill that thing and get ready for an experience you will remember for weeks and it has nothing to do with the spillage, but more to do with the typical Zity areas of specialty. So It only happened once.

In good weather they were all considered a lazy man's filth. People were really hep on cleanliness, and those were nasty. City dwellers might be another story. About them, I have no clue. Farmers sell food don't forget. Pride was top most.

Even today there are many millions of our brothers and sisters around the world that do not have indoor plumbing or what we consider suitable sanitary facilities.

Even in the US, there are many villages in Alaska that don't have indoor plumbing. They use what are called "honey pots" or "honey buckets". I don't believe they have anything to do with honey. Instead the name comes from the expectation that the man of the house will dispose of the contents, as in "Honey don't forget to empty that bucket." And you really don't want to be around when the spring thaw comes.

Most outside expelling was done in the outdoor toilet if it was being used u did it in a hole dug for it,peeing was done almost anywhere boys stood ,girls squatted,sometimes together at night we were scared of the dark.

I did not know why my Mother always had me sit on an enameled chamber pot after she had given me an enema until today. Mother did not let me sit on the toilet. I guess that was the way her Mom had done her. I just assumed it was because she wanted to see how much waste I had expelled into the pot which would determine whether she gave me another enema. Thanks for reminding me of the old white enameled chamber pot that Mom used.

When we were first married we lived in an old, one-room school house with no indoor plumbing and outhouses 50' or more from the back door. We had a bucket with a seat on it and took turns emptying it into the outhouse when it got full. You can be quite sure that you were the one who emptied it when it was your turn and there was no way to get out of it.

Partridge's Dictionary of Slang says a honey bucket is "a latrine-receptical for excreta: Canadian military: from 1914" and a honey pot is "The female pudend: C. 18-19"

hankb

That is a good question. I may find out this summer. I have a friend who wants to do it while camping.

Our ancestors were a lot tougher than we are. Technology has seen to that. What we see as unacceptable or inconvenient, was routine for Grandparents and great Grandparents. I spent many a summer at My uncles' ranch in east Texas. I slept in the bunk house, and the out house was about 100 feet away, down wind, most of the time

At first I thought this was ridiculous, but as with everything else, you get used to it. I remember after complaining about it once, my Grandmother told me she received enemas every week, all year long, hot, cold, in between, and she had to walk about 200 feet to unload her burden. ( I had forgotten about that story) Any way, our ancestors lived their whole lives that way; it may seem harsh to us, but it was everyday normal to them.