4JimSawyer & others - Classic American literature. A must read post!!

[jim_mex]

In my last post http://www.scrollsawer.com/forum/off...htm#post397485 I somehow managed to weave the subject of lavatorial humour and specifically a type of toilet unfamiliar to my good pal JimSawyer - the humble squat or squatting pan.

Being a ceramic engineer and having worked with companies that manufacture toilets I guess you could say that these essential pieces of modern day furniture hold a special attraction for me. However, before ceramic toilets appeared on the scene many folks used wooden plank ones with holes cut in the wood through which to pee and defecate.

Where am I going with this thread??

This forum is to do with woodworking and being as I'm a guy that loves to dabble in culture and research things I want to share a classic of American Literature I found many years ago which is a piece of literary genius close to my heart - or rather, lower portions of my anatomy! A book which talks eloquently about the wooden plank toilets of yesteryear!

Check out the full 29 quarter-size page masterpiece by Charles Sales - The Specialist which is a free public domain read

The Specialist, by Charles Sale

I'm sure that many older members of this forum from the USA and Canada will know of this book but for those who don't take 30 mins to read it. It's fantastic.

Well worth having an illustrated copy of this to place on a shelf in that special 'wee room' in your home

Enjoy!

[JimSawyer]

That was hilarious Jim... Thanks..heheh
Definitely worth having a copy in the loo..

By the way,
People don't squat over those pee-holes do they...I thought they were just for men standing...

[sappy]

Interesting read, Jim. I grew up with outhouses, living in small mining towns throughout Idaho and Washington state. Most of them built by my dad. I was interested in the door opening in, I wonder if that is a region thing? Where we always lived there were a lot of wild life and you made the doors open out so if a bear went in he could come out. I can't imagine trying to get a bear out of an outhouse with the door opening in! No, I don't know why animals would go in, but believe me they do!

[JimSawyer]

By the way...Where in the High Hills did you find this...lol???

[jim_mex]

People don't squat over those pee-holes do they...I thought they were just for men standing...

Hey Jim - your education is sadly lacking in the basic necessities of life pal - LOL!

Squat pans or squatting pans are aptly named because they are unisex toilets over which folks of both sexes squat - preferably not at the same time!

Apart from the fact that individuals of the modern generation, particularly from westernized societies such as yours, would probably turn their nose up at having such a basic WC in their home - even if the drain was kept well clean and didn't smell! - they have been proven by modern health specialists to be very beneficial to the human posture. Squatting when correctly carried out is a great toner of the legs and abdominal muscles plus it encourages good bowel movement when defecating. It also teaches you a great deal about spacial awareness because if you don't get the technique right when using one of these pans you literally do end up in the sh*t!

Throughout Europe, and in most second or third world countries, you will find these pans still in use, even in the smartest of establishments although curiously I've never seen one in the UK. As you rightly said in the other post, they are easy to keep clean plus they are usually very economic in price and easy to install. I guess you Americans are maybe too spoilt in creature comforts and in the past have preferred to perch your bums on a nicely contoured wooden plank! Each to their own....

Where in the High Hills did you find this...lol???

Glad you enjoyed the read pal. That book really is a classic and for a long time was at the top of the list of American Literature best sellers.

How did I find it? Well lets just say that apart from being fairly well read from a very early age, lavatorial humour rarely escapes me! Honestly though, when I started work as a trainee ceramist more than 45 years back my first boss had was an incredibly well/self educated guy with an amazingly black sense of humour. I think when he realised I might actually have some potential to train under his wing he gave me a copy to read to improve my education! Some things just stick in your brain for decades afterwards!

[jim_mex]

I was interested in the door opening in, I wonder if that is a region thing?

Hi sappy - I remember as a kid in the UK visiting the home of my grandparents who had a privy in the garden and I'm pretty sure that the door opened outwards, however, the reasoning for having one opening inwards as mentioned in the book. makes a lot of sense. Its a bit like using public toilets where the door security lock or bolt is missing. Sometimes a well positioned foot and heel makes an essential door wedge.

PS - We don't get many bears coming visiting back home!

[Tom J.]

The ones we had as a kid were only about 4' x4' with the door opening out. Not enough room to get in and close the door if it opened in.

Tom

[mtnman]

Fun read!

For some of my childhood in Colorado, we had 2 rooms and a path. The school I started at had two 4 holers -- one for boys and one for girls. When I got married, I was surprised at how much time my spouse spent sitting on the throne. I'd been conditioned to spend as little time as possible in the outhouse. In the winter, you wiped away the snow before taking a seat and you didn't want to expose your more delicate parts to the cold any longer than absolutely necessary. And in the summer, the smell and the wasps encouraged a quick exit.

When I was teaching, I told a few outhouse stories which led to one class presenting me with a poster of a 2 story outhouse. The door on top was labeled teachers while the one directly below was marked for students. That funny poster hung in my office for many years.

BTW our doors always opened out too.

[JimSawyer]

So a bear and a rabbit were squatting in the woods, and the bear asked the rabbit, "hey, do you have a problem with cr*p sticking to your fur?"... The rabbit said , "no", so the bear grabbed the rabbit and wiped his butt with him......

Ok Jim - that joke is fur enough!

[jim_mex]

Hey Jim (Mtnman)
A nice trip down your Memory Lane, thanks pal.

A reoccurring theme in the Off Topic section is how things have changed for the present day generation compared to the way the older ones of us experienced life. I'm no Luddite entrenched in the past but recounting real life tales of items such as privvies shows that we did have some innocent fun and games in what the present generation would probably class as being 'hardship living' conditions. I often wonder what amusing real life situations our kids with be able to recall when they reach old age.

As for that poster, I must see if I can adapt it to produce a 'management and workers toilets' poster for the factory!!

[Wood Dog]

Oh Jim the rabbit and bear story sent me into muscle pain from laughing so hard.
See what you started Jim Mex, you are going to get us all expelled from the site once the powers that be read this stuff.........

[jim_mex]

See what you started Jim Mex, you are going to get us all expelled from the site once the powers that be read this stuff........

Hey Gloria - don't blame me. I started this thread to introduce the member base to a wonderful piece of America literary culture and to try to educate a little our heathen inlay master. Bear in mind though it was that Jim that dragged it down to the bottom, of the barrel, and then he just kept rabbiting on

Some added info on the book and its author

Charles 'Chic' Sales was a well known vaudeville artist and comedy actor performing around the mid 1920's and The Specialist was originally a stage monologue. It was so popular that many of his contemporaries blatantly copied it so Chic decided to commit it to print. The book was published in 1929 and was an immediate success, Over the next 4 - 5 years it sold over a million copies! It's still in print (check out Amazon) and has been translated into 9 languages plus a braille edition (so that blind folk don't confuse it with the Sears Roebuck catalog hanging on the hook in their privy!).

Its now in its 25th print and has sold over 2.5 million copies! - an amazing achievement but also true recognition of the fact that lavatorial humor never dies!

[Carl E Jacobs]

In or out regional,as well as location location location

In snow country,drifts ,can block entrance to the necessity vacility,if possitioned incorrectly ,You haven't lived till you have to dig out the drift to get IN it ,while clamping down on natures urges ,course thats after you find the shovel ,thats how snow fence came to be. ALL BECAUSE THE DOOR OPENED OUT!
Carl

[irish]

Ode To The Little Brown Shack Out Back - YouTube

[Carl E Jacobs]

Injection molded ceramic jet fin molds

ceramic engr.That explains a lot ,L.O.L.You don't run in to many,interesting field ,diverse to say the least ,extreamly abrasive ,very complex formulas ,kind of like phenolic 's ,injection molded both ,really tough on equipment ,what kind you working on in Italy.M.V.B. Carl