Privvy

In June, when we were in Aberdeen, Washington State we visited the town's museum and it was there that this poem "The Passing of The Back House" caught my eye. it was probably but not certainly by James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916). Of course "the back house" is a polite euphemism for the outside lavatory, the privvy or what Australians call "the dunny". I know it's a pretty long poem but I think it's worth it if you have five minutes to spare:-

When memory keeps me company and moves to smiles or tears,
A weather-beaten object looms through the mist of years,
Behind the house and barn it stood, a half a mile or more,
And hurrying feet a path had made, straight to its swinging door.
Its architecture was a type of simple classic art.
But in the tragedy of life it played a leading part.
And oft the passing traveler drove slow, and heaved a sigh,
To see the modest hired girl slip out with glances shy.

We had our posey garden that the women loved so well,
I loved it, too, but better still I loved the stronger smell
That filled the evening breezes so full of homely cheer,
And told the night-o'ertaken tramp that human life was near,
On lazy August afternoons, it made a little bower
Delightful, where my grandsire sat and whiled away an hour.
For there the summer mornings, its very cares entwined,
And berry bushes reddened in the streaming soil behind.

All day fat spiders spun their webs to catch the buzzing flies
That flitted to and from the house, where Ma was baking pies,
And once a swarm of hornets bold had built a palace there,
And stung my unsuspecting Aunt--I must not tell you where.
Then father took a flaming pole--that was a happy day--
He nearly burned the building up, but the hornets left to stay.
When summer bloom began to fade and winter to carouse,
We bank the little building with a heap of hemlock boughs.

But when the crust was on the snow and the sullen skies were gray,
In sooth the building was no place where one could wish to stay.
We did our duties promptly, there one purpose swayed the mind;
We tarried not, nor lingered long on what we left behind.
The torture of the icy seat would make a Spartan sob,
For needs must scrape the flesh with a lacerating cob,
That from a frost-encrusted nail, was suspended by a string--
My father was a frugal man and wasted not a thing.

When grandpa had to "go out back" and make his morning call,
We'd bundle up the dear old man with a muffler and a shawl.
I knew the hole on which he sat--'twas padded all around,
And once I dared to sit there--'twas all too wide I found,
My loins were all too little, and I jack-knifed there to stay,
They had to come and get me out, or I'd have passed away,
Then father said ambition was a thing that boys should shun,
And I just used the children's hole 'til childhood days were done.

But still I marvel at the craft that cut those holes so true,
The baby hole, and the slender hole that fitted Sister Sue,
That dear old country landmark; I tramped around a bit,
And in the lap of luxury my lot has been to sit,
But ere I die I'll eat the fruit of trees I robbed of yore,
Then seek the shanty where my name is carved upon the door.
I ween the old familiar smell will soothe my jaded soul,
I'm now a man, but none the less I'll try the children's hole.

We are so lucky to live in homes where we enjoy the lavatorial convenience of porcelain flush toilets. For many years my grandmother Phyllis Morris (nee White) lived in a humble flat in a brick terrace on Canterbury Street in Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne. Her only toilet was down a flight of stone steps in the back yard. And when you got there there was no soft toilet paper - just squares cut from the local newspaper hanging on a string. And no outside lighting either. You had to take a torch or a candle if you needed to do business during the hours of darkness. Yes we are very lucky not to have such a "facility" as that. Imagine having to use it in the depths of winter!




Right - the version I acquired from Aberdeen Museum:-