Sears Wishbooks from the fifties

[kennypinkerton]

Oh, C'mon... Am I the only one in my mid to late thirties that actually used the sears catalog as outhouse paper while growing up? And nobody here remembers that the first half of it was all composed of scantilly clad women advertising the new panty fashions for that decade?

 

[angelfj1]

"Guns, guns guns! Daisy, Crossman, and Sheriden air rifles and pistols."

<span style="font-weight: bold">. . . you'll shoot your eye out . . . </span>

 

[angelfj1]

Oh, C'mon... Am I the only one in my mid to late thirties that actually used the sears catalog as outhouse paper while growing up? And nobody here remembers that the first half of it was all composed of scantilly clad women advertising the new panty fashions for that decade?

er, don't take this the wrong way, but after a little math. 2009-39 = 1970, now add maybe 5, so you weren't quite grade school age. and you had NO indoor plumbing in 1975? WOW :eeek:

P.S. unless you're giving us a bit of a leg pull!

 

[Banjo]

Well Kenny is from West Virginia..... I'm 32, but I've always had indoor plumbing. (well I have had instance of using primitive facilities, but never at my perminant dwelling)
Sooo.. I grew up in the 80s, Atari,then Nintendo, but that was really only a small part of my childhood. It was mainly Cap guns, BB guns, playing army with all the surplus equipment we bought with our allowance, camping, building model cars with toxic glue and paint (woo hoo!). building model boats, then sinking them with our BB guns (later on.22)and firecrackers. bottle rockets, clack cats, M-80s, cherry bombs... (sparklers were for babies) chem sets that made some pretty nasty stuff,with the burner. whittling with real jacknives, bows and arrows. how about "Jarts"?! the now illegal lawn darts. We had em. everyone survived. sharp pub darts. we "swiss cheesed" the back side of the door on the garage with those.
My grandfather gave me a model steam engine when I was little. it uses the heat tabs in a tray, but he showed me how to soak cotton with alchahol to make it work. I still have it...
Bikes... peadled everywhere. then got a beat up Honda XL100 and rode it into the gorund. nearly got caugt by the cops with a go-cart we were terrorizing our town with one weekend. the drive belt broke, and we put it away just before the patrol car came slowly cruising up our srteet.hehehehe. and sled riding. only bone I ever broke was trying to do a twisty trail down a near-cliff. I made it the first time. hit a rock and went off track over the edge of a gully the secont trip.
Ahhhh.. what fun. We flew under the radar of the emerging "rule of the laywers"
P.S. "radioactive screen" can still be had. Coleman lantern mantles. test one with a gieger counter some time. we made an "atomic bomb" at scout camp with one. proved it by passing the meter over it that the nature lodge had. Probably get thrown in federal prision for that hoax now. everyone knew it was just fun then.

 

[kennypinkerton]

Yes it's true, for a few years. I was maybe 3 or 4 when we got a shiny white toilet in the house up north. Until then we had a genuine outhouse. A 2 seater as I recall. I never understood the 2 seats though. Can't imagine 2 people wanting to sit beside each other in there. There was running water in the kitchen as long as we had power to run the well pump. But there was also a hand pump over the well too. I got in trouble a lot for not refilling the jug with priming water. Later on, we had Party-line phone service. And when the county water made it out to us, it was the worst smelling stuff ever.

 

[angelfj1]

Kenny: that's a great story. you would really have to be desperate to take care of business seated next to another person! Is it possible that one was for No.1 and the other for No. 2?

We had a party-line phone until high school, maybe 1961 or 62. I remember the party who shared our line, next door neighbor, was very long winded. At times my mother would have to pick up the phone and ask politely if she would finish. This had to be repeated two or three times. My mother (God bless her soul) was SO polite. It was really painful for her to do that.

 

[rick_ingram]

My grandparents had a party line.

Two longs and a short was for them.

 

[tomshobby]

When I was only 6 or 7 years old my grand parents had one of those old wall mounted phones with the separate ear piece for listening and the horn on the wooden box for talking. It was a party line too. I remember standing on a chair and talking to my uncle when he was in Korea during the war.

I also remember the out houses at both grandparents places. The outhouse was still "operational" when we bought the farm my dad's dad had in 1975. As we cleaned up the barn and other buildings that needed removal I pulled the outhouse, a two holer, down by the road where I had been burning. One day a guy stopped buy and wanted to buy it so it went to a new home and apparently continued it's useful life.

I could pull it because they were often made so they could be moved to new ground on occasion. Not sure about other areas of the country but many of the Amish around central Wisconsin still have outhouses and some have 4 holers.

 

[Brosky]

Tom,

Do the four holers have room for a card table as well? Looks like a good spot for a doubles bridge tournament or even partners or cut throat hi-lo jack game.

 

[tomshobby]

Paul,

Not sure what activities might transpire. :shocked:

 

[Banjo]

I remember when my friend in Frewsburg NY got a 2 holer to replace his ol 1 holer. he was so proud of it he had a big party. I guess it was a status symbol....... he's a weird fella anyway... has a nice house with indoor plumbing now.

 

[kennypinkerton]

Thank god.

 

[Brooklands]

Maybe this answers 1 holer vs. 2 holer...

 

[angelfj1]

Outstanding :lol:

 

[Brosky]

Was it a "bring your own cob" party?

Or did the guests have to bring a "house warming" gift?