What did our forebearers do before tolietpaper or paper in general was available?

-- Dana Johnson (accentlc@aol.com), July 02, 2000

Answers

A corn cob -- on a string, hung on a nail.

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), July 02, 2000.

I think corn cobs are more of an urban myth than reality. I know old clothing which wasn't destined for quilts for cut up in pieces and used. They were probably washed for reuse. Hey, it's no different than cloth diapers. The Sears catalog was probably more for reading material than practicality. You need to remember personal hygienes weren't as important back in the outhouse days. Men may have taken a bath twice a year - when putting on a pair of long-johns for the winter and taking them off in the spring. Same pair for maybe six months. Women and kids may have bathed slightly more often. Compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. has almost an obsession with personal hygienes.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 02, 2000.

I truelly remember sitting in the out house, & haveing the catologs sitting between the 2 holes, as we had a 2 holer! I also remember fighting the yellow jackets in the summer time! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), July 02, 2000.

In some truely primitive situations (before the invention of paper), people were known to use a veriety of material that was on hand (& cheep). Some of these are, dried grass, animal skin scraps (before the invention of hay), hay, straw, dried mosses & liechins, & anything else that was handy, cheep, & if they could non scratchy). But, as was said above, that's when they did attempt to be clean.

animalfarms

-- animalfarms (jwlewis@indy.net), July 02, 2000.

Corn cobs or Sears and Roebuck catalog. This is one instance in which I really wouldn't want to go back to the 1800's. I like a clean, warm restroom with the light on and full assurance of what's in or what is not in the toilet bowl down there. Eagle

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), July 02, 2000.

I agree with eagle. Even squatting in the woods is better than sitting over a dark hole with no-telling=what down in it! In an emergency, leaves off a sycamore tree are nice. They are big and have a soft, fuzzy side!

-- Mona (jascamp@ipa.net), July 02, 2000.

In the Indian sub-continent, people use water. You pour the water over the appropriate part with your right hand and wash with your left. Afterwards you wash your hands well with soap. Most westerners freak out when they hear this. But it works great. And that is why you NEVER eat with your left hand, but always with your right. When you get the runs, it is lots better than chafing up your behind with toilet paper. Nowadays in modern bathrooms there, people have a flexible sprayer plumbed in, exactly like those flexible dishwashing sprayers many of us have in our kitchens. Then you don't even need to use your left hand.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), July 03, 2000.

When I was in the Air Force, I was on TDY (temporary duty) to Turkey. The spot I went to was so remote that we were able to walk around town in uniform (a big security risk elseware in the country). While there, we were put up in the NCO barracks. It was 3 of us in a room maybe 10'x 12'. The showers were little more than a bare pipe coming out of the wall and the toilets were what we affectionately referred to as a "bomb sight". It was kind of a cross between an outhouse and modern toilet. There was always a spigot in the wall next to the hole and a small bucket. First you filled the bucket-with water. Then you dropped trouw and sqauted, washed your behind and then your hand, and lastly used the remaining water to flush your wasted down the drain.

Fortunately for us we found out our officer's room had a modern toilet, so we acted like we enjoyed his company a lot.

-- Chris Stogdill (cstogdill@rmci.net), July 03, 2000.

Corncobs really were used. So were the husks. They are a long way from today's toilet tissue, but they work. There were leaves, and of course, cloth scraps that were washed, boiled and reused. The Sears and Roebuck was a common "tissue" in our area when I was growing up. We were always instructed to use the back sections of the catalog first, the ones without color pictures. The color pictures were saved for looking at until you got another catalog to move to the toilet.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), July 03, 2000.

Corn cobs sure were used-sweet corn cobs or the lightest of the field corn cobs were considered the best. Any sort of vegetation in the area that hopefully wasn't spiney or poisonous. Used to be the kids' job to gather and dry stuff for the winter. Leaves, grasses, inner bark from some trees. Stones or shells used in a scraping motion. Paper, especially the well-known Sears Roebuck catalog. Those who were interested in keeping up with the Joneses would pre-cut scrap paper and put a little box of paper squares in the outhouse.

Then there was the old scraping stick. It was shaped like a small hockey stick and you would hold on to the longer end and scrape with the shorter end. There was one kept in the outhouse for general use. Outhouses aren't usually well lit. You've heard the expression "Getting the short end of the stick"? That's where it came from. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), July 03, 2000.

Ok, I'll concede on cobs. However, they were used as kindling/fuel in the kitchen stove, so would be surprised many would end up in the outhouse. One of my earliest recollections is as a boy of maybe four or five on a small dairy farm near Milwaukee. I did something to make my older brother mad. He grabbed me, carried me into the outhouse and plunged me several times down to about eye level in the contents. To this day he can't figure out why I don't like him all that much.

There is actually an organized group called privy divers. They try to find old outhouse pits and then dig them out for contents. Often found are pocket contents (watches, knives and coins), eyeglasses, false teeth and drug bottles (which, at that time, included cocaine and other ingredients.)

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 03, 2000.

We used to have a Sears catalog in the outhouse for paper when I was little (and I'm only 43 now!). We were living on a homestead in Alaska, though, so didn't have access to corncobs -- thank goodness!!! I've used leaves and moss when caught in the woods without TP, but am careful what I grab!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), July 03, 2000.

Umm, Ken, the corncobs were burned as fuel after they were used in the outhouse. You didn't fill the pit with corncobs whe they could be used one more time as fuel.

Mine and my family's alternative preference is mullein leaves. Large, soft, fuzzy and a herbal remedy for hemroids.

I was terrified of outhouses as a kid after I saw a mountain lion come out from underneath my Grandma's outhouse one morning. There was no way I was going to drop MY pant and sit over that hole.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), July 05, 2000.

Yes, catalogs were popular, although the glossy pages didn't have much "bite." We always had a stack of old newspaper handy...more efficient, even with the telltale smudge of the ink. In boyscouts, we always dug latrines and used the largest leaves available,usually "elephant ears" (not sure what they really are)...oddly enough , these plants can usually be found nearby the old outhouses. (they resemble rubarb except the leaves are very soft and not as glossy).

I was told the pre-TP folks used rags AND corncobs in combination and not in that order...

-- Jim Roberts (jroberts1@cas.org), July 05, 2000.

Then the most premium material was unsalvagable sheep fleece.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), July 06, 2000.

I saw a program during this last new years celebration that presented historical trivia by renaissance reinactors and they described "clean and soft aniseptic moss for the bum" as one of the great technological advancements of the year 1000. Glad we got "tush cush by charmin" now.

-- J. Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 09, 2000.

I was always told that a flat rock was preferrable......at least that is what a boyfriend once told me years ago when i asked....

-- sharon lee (no1zen@hotmail.com), March 01, 2001.

Regarding corn cobs: There were varieties of corn that were grown primarily for the softness of the cob, for use in the outhouse. I have talked to farmers who regret not saving some of the seed after the introduction of cheep toilet paper.

Jim

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), March 01, 2001.

This ol' lady remembers Sears catalogs in the two-seater very well! I never saw toilet paper until I was 5 years old and we moved to Green Bay. What I remember best are the yellow jackets and spiders! Now,I wish this old homestead we've moved to had an outhouse! It would sure beat having to run to the house and take off our shoes to do to the bathroom! I have a portable commode upstairs that I was thinking of taking along to the garden, but could you imagine what the neighboring farmers would do when they came upon me sitting on my throne!

-- Ardie from WI (a6203@hotmail.com), March 01, 2001.

Mom always told me they used a red corn cob or two then they used a white corn cob to see if they needed another red corn cob. :)

-- debra in ks (solid-dkn@msn.com), March 01, 2001.

Ardie, our farm house had in indoor toilet (the 'bathroom' is the room with the bath in it, but that's another story :-) ). Special thing about the toilet was that it had a door to the indoors and another door to the outdoors. Just what you need.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), March 02, 2001.

At our place in WV, outside my great grandma's house, there WAS a basket of corn cobs in the outhouse.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@hotmail.com), March 02, 2001.