Trash Barrels

[W. Gray]

Speaking of barrels--as suggested by another Category.

Remember when each property had a barrel on the back of the property that was used to burn trash? No one believed they were polluting anything and it was an easy method of getting rid of everyday house hold trash.

Everything went in to be burned--paper, tin cans, bottles, etc. It seems there was a trash pick up company that came around on a regularly scheduled basis of two or three months, or so, and emptied the ash contents of the barrels and they may also have picked up larger items, such as old stoves, etc. 

After so much use the barrel tended to rust at the bottom and fall apart. A new barrel would have to be replaced and holes would have to be cut into the bottom to provide for adequate air flow. 

I don't recall where my dad or anyone else got their barrels--maybe it was from the trash company.

[jarhead]

Waldo,
When I was a pup my Dad had a Farmall Cub tractor. My brother Steve and me would dump trash barrels into a 4 wheel wagon(steel wheels) and for a small fee haul it to the Elk Falls junk yard. because Steve couldn't back the 4 wheel trailer we usually ended up unhooking it and backing it in by hand. A lot of people in Elk Falls  used old rock screens from the Moline rock quarry and wired 4 of them together to make a burn "barrel". Back in the 1800's and a little after most city folks burnt paper  but most bottles went into the privy hole. When the hole got full, dig one beside it and scoot the outhouse over the new hole. Most bottle diggers dig in old privy holes.

[Diane Amberg]

My parents, living way out in the country as they did, had a burning barrel right up until we sold the place in 2001.

[W. Gray]

Jarhead,

Interesting about throwing bottles in the outhouse.

In 1948, we moved from a house that had an outdoor privy to one that had indoor plumbing.

I do recall a relative somewhere in Elk County, digging a new hole and moving the structure over.

I also recall that Monkey Ward, Sears, and Spiegel catalogs found their way into the outhouses as a cost cutting measure. I hated that.

I also seem to recall that pushing someone's outhouse over was a sport enjoyed by a few.

I doubt if there is any older man on this forum who ever did that when he was a kid, though.

[srkruzich]

I still use a burn barrel.

[jarhead]

Quote from Waldo
I doubt if there is any older man on this forum who ever did that when he was a kid, though.

Don't be betting a lot of money on that Waldo. Elk Falls still had lots of outhouses  when I was a little demon. I bet Frank can tell a few stories too.
Johnnie Fletcher from Mustang ,Ok( the man who wrote the "Kansas Bottles" book )  ,told me he dug a privy hole looking for bottles and the hole was 17 feet deep. Just this summer a digger from Illinois told me he dug one that was over 20 ft. Fletcher said he suspects a lot of the holes started out to be wells but were dry or too much hard rock so they just built an outhouse over the hole. I guess country folks didn't bother digging much of a hole. They just left the little back door open and let the chickens scratch it clean.

[W. Gray]

This reminds me of the outhouses in Viet Nam that had no hole dug underneath.

They were nice airy screened in structures that sat at ground level. In the back was a long door that opened up and a hired mama san would place a barrel cut in half under each opening.

Every day, or so, the mama san would come around and lift that door up, pull the full half barrels out away from the structure, pour diesel on the stuff in each and then set it on fire.

When I walked off the airplane at Cam Ranh Bay coming in country, I thought the place was under attack because of the many streaks of billowing black smoke that was going into the air.

[Ms Bear]

When I was in Massachusetts a few years ago we went to an old CCC camp that is now on State Forest property and you could still see the trenches where the latrines had been.  My husband had grown up next door to it and had hunted on it a teenager and remember where a lot of things had been.  There were still three large fireplaces where they cooked the meals at.

I am 19 feet outside the city limits and I still have a burn barrel but just use it for limbs and leaves now, take the food and things that won't burn to a friends dumpster.

[jarhead]

Quote from Waldo:
Every day, or so, the mama san would come around and lift that door up, pull the full half barrels out away from the structure, pour diesel on the stuff in each and then set it on fire.

DO WHAT ?? Mama sans burning the crap ? You gotta be kidding me Waldo !! Guess that's another difference between the Army and my beloved Corps.
When I first got in-country all FNGY's burned crappers and filled sand bags for a few days until you got outfitted and "sorta" used to the climate.
We remember strange things huh ? Spent a couple weeks on a hill running patrols and such. The hill was hill 1103, also known as FSB Nevilles. High enough we were socked in by clouds half the time
One morning I decided to go sit and" contemplate " The crapper was two poles tied over a slit trench. As I sit there looking out over the landscape it seemed like I could see forever. It was like I was on top the world. Damn near peaceful until I got this vision of a NVA sniper taking aim at the highest, most prominent, thing on that mountain. Decided I didn't need to go near as bad as I thought I did.

[larryJ]

As disgusting as this is going to sound...............the mamasans in Korea did the same task, except it wasn't burned.  They hauled it in wagons on the backs of bicycles.  We referred to them as "honey wagons" and when passing one on the road, put the pedal to the metal to get past the stench.  The contents of those honey wagons were used to fertilize the fields, mostly the lettuce that they used to make kimchi.  It was basically the cheapest and easiest fertilizer around. 

Larryj