Remembering the outhouse

I find that I enjoy living with few luxuries around me. So I love visiting the wilderness. Somehow, it brings back memories of when I was younger and living up north. There is much peace in not having access to a blaring television. I enjoy not having a phone and knowing there is peace and quiet because no one can contact me.

Often when I am out on the land I end up using outhouses. Most outhouses I have seen in the south are very sophisticated compared to so many I have used back up in Attawapiskat. Here in the south outhouses exist mainly at recreational cottages or in nature parks. Most are very well kept, painted up and not used to such a great extent.
This is a great contrast to the old outhouses we built outside our homes in the north. Our outhouses were buildings that were constantly in use and they had to be maintained on a regular basis. We had a honey bucket indoors and mom and dad instructed us to use it as little as possible. As children we were exempt from this rule but after a certain age, we were expected to use the outhouse often no matter how cold it was.

Only a couple of decades ago we had no indoor plumbing and we all had to help in some way to deal with our daily waste. In the evenings, the older members of our family were called to empty the honey bucket. During the day we were encouraged to use the outhouse when we could. However, the outhouse was less than well built. There has never been easy access to building materials in the north. Outhouses were more or less an afterthought when constructing a new home. People used scrap wood for the construction and paint was seldom used. The outhouse was usually built very quickly.

Most outhouses I remember were dark and dingy places that I feared going into as a young boy. The unpainted wood turned grey in a matter of days in the sun, wind and elements. The interiors were usually made of rough cut plywood and two by fours that were recycled from other building projects. Nothing fit right and no one ever bothered with a seat for the hole. Most of the time there were simply two openings. One for sitting on and the other was much larger for use when dumping the honey bucket. When I was a youngster I always dreaded the visit to the outhouse. It was actually a scary experience.

Summers were terrible due to the fact that these outhouses reeked in the warm hot weather. However, the freezing temperatures of winter froze the waste solid inside these outhouses. Our trips to the bathroom were not as difficult but it was a lot colder inside an unheated and uninsulated wooden building. Still we preferred the cold at 40 below zero to the smell at 25 above.

These conditions were less than sanitary or healthy for us young children. Our backyards became cesspools in the summer heat and our drainage ditches harboured all sorts of bacteria and disease. We seldom stayed around the house or the yard to play with our friends. Instead we headed over to the riverbank to play in the small fields by the church. When we were out playing on the land it was much easier and more enjoyable to simply go in the tall grass or in the nearby woods.

It was a relief to everyone in our community when we received running water and sewer hookups in each of our homes in Attawapiskat during the early 1990s. It was a surprise to me to find out that a good part of the rest of North America had been enjoying this luxury for almost a hundred years.

These days I have more respect for the lowly outhouse. It taught me that we human beings have to be responsible for our own waste. It is good to stay in touch with this realization. After all, if you think about it all that needs to happen is that our water sources turn off and bingo ... we have a huge problem with the toilet. We take for granted these luxuries such as toilets and showers. With the way things are going in regards to water and water quality we should really try to remember that we might have to survive at some point without all of these services. It wouldn't be a big shock for me or for most First Nation people in this country.  

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