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Inside toilets? Disgusting!
By Arthur Webster of Ask Old Coot
I wonder hom many readers have lived in homes that did not have an inside toilet. Anybody over 40 years of age from England is almost certain to have done so or know somebody who did. Inside toilets were something that ordinary folks looked upon as the province of the very rich but also as something that was unnatural. I remember my dad saying more than once, "It's disgusting to do your business inside the house". The very first toilet I remember was a communal '4 holer' where it was not unusual to sit with others and enjoy a chat and an 'empty'. Modesty was something that did not come in to the picture. When we moved to a house with its own 'privvy', to make up for the lack of conversation, we would often take a newspaper or magazine to read (or read the toilet paper which was often the 'Radio Times'). Winter was the time of year when we all tried to use the privvy one after the other so that we didn't all have to smash the ice in order for our 'business' to be flushed away. Winter was also the time of year that visits were very, very short. There is nothing quite so ennervating as a freezing wind around your bare nether regions while trying to perform. I well remember the feeling of luxury that we all enjoyed when the privvy was fitted with a wooden seat. Not only did it feel warm but you didn't freeze to it after two minutes. In the winter nights when temperatures could fall well below freezing, we had to use a 'po'. Being a rather large family and po's being rather small, each of us had their own and was responsible for emptying it and cleaning it. Looking back on those days and considering the dire warnings we are receiving from health nuts of all types, I am still wondering why we all didn't die of disentry. Washing hands was a rare event and I can't remember that it was ever considered as a part of normal hygiene. Our hands got washed on bath nights - once a week - when we all used the same bath water and tried to ensure everybody bathed as quickly as possible so that the water was still warm if we were the last. Believe me, the water was really dirty after the whole family had used it and I was never in any doubt as to the origin of the phrase 'throwing out the baby with the bath water'. I suppose that we built up such a tolerance of all the bugs that floated around that there had to be something really bad before any of us got ill. Certainly, most of today's illnesses seem to be related to excess hygiene - I doubt if any five year old today could survive what we saw as normal. |
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