I remember reading an article about the last person to have an outhouse in my hometown of La Crosse, Wisc. This was about twenty years ago. I remember being stunned to read that there were still people in the northern U.S. who preferred walking out into subzero winter weather rather than staying indoors to do their business.
I believe the city had to wait until the guy died (he was pretty old at the time the story was printed) before they could get rid of the outhouse.
It used to irritate me to turn on C-span and find Robert Byrd going on and on about being a "Po white boy in the hills who had to struggle up from negative nuthin without even the small luxuries of indoor plumbin and an indoor privy".
I remember thinking, even if every word were true his life was no tougher than most Americans who grew up at the same time. My mother was born in 47 and my grandparents didn't have indoor plumbing till about 1963. Fortunately the local doctor who lived next door saw a problem and dealt with it on his own. He laid a concrete pad and built 2 concrete shower stalls outside with hot and cold running water that locals could use anytime they wanted. During the winter he let them use the shower in the small bathroom off his doctor's office.
