This outhouse, sitting in the court yard of my parents’ old house, caught my eye the other day. I had been sitting across from it, on the stairs leading to the house door, when I noticed a beautiful spider web in its window.

This tiny window had served as a vent, but was never of much use anyway. Main street  farms were built in the shape of a horseshoe, therefore not much wind would be coming through. Usually one lacked privacy anyway as  one had hundreds of flies buzzing by for company. We had no toilet paper then and had to use newspaper. Then came in-door plumbing in 1963 and a proper flush toilet was installed inside our home. But with nine people sharing one toilet, the older family members occasionally still used the outhouse at times, during all four seasons.

Outhouse on a German farm

spider heaven

It has been said 80% of the world’s population still lives in such substandard housing conditions.

Tags: 60s, in-door, newspaper, obsolete, outhouse, plumbing, toilet

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