Some had "John Wayne" toilet paper, rough, tough, and took s... from nobody.
I knew a row of terrace houses, eight of them, the toilets were down the yard, through the gate and across a "backs", all six of them.You see the problem.Who kept which clean, and whose turn for whitewashing and when was paramount.
Sunday mornings was best,all were occupied by "news of the world" reading gents, having conversations about what they were reading, and thick clouds of pipe and cigarette smoke issuing over the tops of the doors.One of the toilets in a nearby terrace had a dual seat, Two holes in a thick plank side by side. Probably one of the reasons people were thought friendlier in those days.
Printmiss, I remember bath nights, we girls first, we were thought cleaner, in all probability. The boys next, an extra kettle full of hot water by now was required, a brick under one end to create a deep end. Most baths were galvanised and invariably hung on a nail behind the coal-house door
Posh people had toilet paper, they also had blue water in the, inside toilet, ( how hygienic is a toilet in the actual house, mother thought) even when they were not expecting visitors, and fruit in a bowl when nobody was ill.
" Would it be possible to bring the toilet roll back, if the visitors didn't come," my friend at the shop was asked."As long as you haven't used it "she replied
Many s the time that father had to dig a path to the toilet in the winter when several feet of snow had fallen, and had drifted up to the top of the downstairs windows, everyone waiting to reluctantly face the cold and visit the freezing toilet. What about the bedroom windows that were frozen on the inside? What about the greatcoats that were used as eiderdowns? I remember a coffin being brought over a mile through hedge top high snow and even deeper drifts on a sledge, so that the funeral could take place, a local pub opened to give the bearers a tot of rum.Good old days weren't they.