Lizzie Borden Society Forum

How does one gain admission into Lizzie's private privy? Any information would be appreciated. Thanks.

Joe, admission to the Privy requires a minimum of 126 posts.

The Privy is a place where us members can talk without the world listening in. The Administrator set that provision to prevent "fly-byers" from snooping and stealing our nuclear secrets. After 126 meaningful post you will have access. So Joe keep those posts coming and we will see you in the Privy.

-1bigsteve (o:

Oh, that's good to know! Although I've wandered around here since 2006, I haven't attained the proper number of posts... guess I'm more of a "lurk-byer" than a "fly-byer" ;)

Hope to see you all in the Privy someday (why does that sound so wrong? )

I had better get busy ! I want to be there, too. I will bring the Sears Catalogue, and we can all look at the congress boots, and Lizzie dresses from that era.

Andrea....have you always felt this need to see people in the privy? LOL I am still laughing at that one.

I decline to answer, SteveS

But I will say that I'm glad stargazer offered to bring the Sears Catalogue along - we can also look at hatchets, axes, flatirons, and "slop jars"

Here's to having Privy aspirations!

OK......see you in the privy....where we can "bare" all. ROFL

That is weird you guys brought up this: I talked to a 90 year old woman from Georgia this week and she said they had had a privy/outhouse and used Sears catalogue pages as TP!
At our website:
lizzieandrewborden.com
--there are some pages from Sears- shoes and hatchets and axes!

Kat @ Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:00 pm wrote:... I talked to a 90 year old woman from Georgia this week and she said they had had a privy/outhouse and used Sears catalogue pages as TP! ...

Actually, Kat, I grew up on a dairy farm. We did not have indoor plumbing until I was a Junior in high school. We had a two-seater outhouse and used Montgomery Ward Catalogs, and the daily Newspaper, as TP. We also used a chamber pot at night, which had to be emptied every morning; the contents were dumped down one of the seat holes in the outhouse. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Andrew throw the contents of the chamber pot out on the lawn? How gross, is that?

BTW, I'm no where near 90 years old!!!

The water closet in the cellar contained newspapers. This is Officer Desmond's testimony at the Trial about how he wrapped the handleless hatchet head (p740+).

Q. Are you certain about your taking it up?
A. Positive. I got the paper from the water-closet there to do it up with .
Q. (Handing witness the handleless hatchet.) Well, won't you wrap it up in about as large a piece of paper?
A. I shall have to get a full-sized newspaper to do it, much larger than that, sir. (Referring to a piece of paper handed witness by counsel.)
Q. You got a piece out of the water-closet?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Brown paper?
A. No, sir, regular newspaper, but a larger paper than that.
Q. You wrapped it in a newspaper?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. You are sure about that?
A. Positive.
Q. A very large newspaper?
A. Yes, quite a big newspaper."

Most likely the Providence Journal.

Catalogs were a mainstay in outhouses for decades. My dad remembered the neighbors looking forward to the seasonal catalogs, not so much by what you order out of them but by what they were good for afterward. The catalogs fell out of favor when they started using slick paper.

-1bigsteve (o:

I think corn cobs were another item for the Privy as well. Yes, my aunt who married a farmer lived out in the sticks of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and I would go stay there in the summer. No bathroom. Everyone washed up in the huge kitchen sink, chamber pots upstairs at night and the wooden one-seater out behind the barn. I hated that part of it. Big black snakes used to like to get into the Privy and it was so hot and dark in there in the summer! Once a week a zinc hipbath would come out into the kitchen and be filled with hot water for a good scrub and we would lock the kitchen doors and put a towel over the kitchen window. I can still see my aunt doing up her hair in the mirror over the sink in tiny round "pin curls" which were done with bobbypins. Then she would put a net turban over it-next morning, a headful of curls. We did our own home permanents too. But- there was toilet paper! Scott single ply- white!

Kat @ Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:00 am wrote:That is weird you guys brought up this: I talked to a 90 year old woman from Georgia this week and she said they had had a privy/outhouse and used Sears catalogue pages as TP!
At our website:
lizzieandrewborden.com
--there are some pages from Sears- shoes and hatchets and axes!

I left Georgia in 2007 and remember seeing some houses in the rural areas that had outhouses. I guess they were still in use.

A neighbor told us an old story about a man who owned a service station. Tired of people stopping by only to use the outhouse, he had it wired for sound. A woman came by and asked to use it. He gave her time to get settled and then:

"Hey, lady! Do you mind moving over to the other hole? We're painting down here!"

Now that's funny!

Oh those hatchets are wicked ! The blunt ends have so many variables, and shapes. I used an outhouse twice in Maryland growing up in the early 50's. The creepiest part : Wondering if a spider was going to bite us on the rump. My grandmom had an enamel white and red chamber pot under her bed. It was her tinkle pot. We thought older people had some strange ways. I wonder how many children think that we have strange ways ?