Long drops

Until I was about the age of four, we used a "long drop".  You had to go out of the front door and onto the verandah, which ran the length of the house, down the steps, up the pathway, past the rondavel, through the little gate at the side and up to the corrugated iron structure standing next to the garage.

We only installed a flushing toilet after my mother saw a snake slither out of the open door one day.  It was then that my father decided it was high time to do a few alterations and additions.  He renovated the old bathroom, putting in a new bath and basin and building on a flushing toilet at the end.

My middle sister who was also very good at inventing interesting things for us to do, thought that instead of washing our feet in the bath, it might be fun to wash them in the toilet.  It was a really good game and we spent a lot of time pushing the lever down and enjoying the water rushing all over our feet.  It must have been the constant flushing noise, which alerted my mother to our game.  This got us into more trouble than we bargained for and we both got a jolly good hiding once again.

I always had a bit of a fascination for long drops.  Our next door neighbours not only had an adult long drop, but also a special seat for children, made out of cutting a hole in the one side of a tomato box.  Whenever we visited our neighbours Mr. and Mrs. B who were an elderly couple, and their spinster daughter Violet, I always made a bee-line for the loo, just so I could sit on top of the tomato box.  Somehow, it made me feel very special, like I was sitting on a throne.  There was no toilet paper, instead there were torn up bits of newspaper and magazines stacked in a box at the side.  This served a dual purpose.  One could spend time reading snippits of news in the process!

To my knowledge our next door neighbours never installed a flushing toilet, although Violet did tell my mother once that she didn't want any la-de-dah pig stys, so my guess is, that that might have included la-de-dah toilets as well!