When Michigan Ranked at 'Number Two': 1873-1950

Looks like I was given another challenge.

I have been approached (or should I say 'dared') to come up with something about.....how do I put this? I can't think of a nice way to put it...so all I can say is, I dug up a gallery of photos showing old Michigan outhouses, sewer diggers, and other 'related' subjects.

Sure, it's part of all our lives...but it's also a delicate subject.

What I guess is interesting about it - at least to me – are the old photos I found. Sewer ditch-diggers from the early 1900s, a couple of samples of antique toilet paper, some Michigan outhouse postcards, and a few other items.

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Who of you remembers when the term “toilet” could not be mentioned on TV or radio? Or when TV shows could not even show a toilet in a bathroom? The commercial that broke that ban was for White Cloud toilet paper when their slogan was “it doesn't feel like (whispered) toilet paper”.

And while showing a toilet on TV was still taboo, an episode of Leave It To Beaver (October 11, 1957) did indeed show a toilet...but not the whole thing. Just the tank where the boys were keeping a pet alligator. Couldn't show the actual bowl yet

And then into the 1970s comes the program All In The Family where Archie Bunker could be heard in almost every other episode flushing the upstairs commode.

So, in short, I am NOT going to do a “Michigan bathroom” history-type thing. I figured a photo gallery showing some unique stuff is good enough. If you want to find out about the people who had to clean and empty human waste over one hundred years ago, you can read about them – called “Nightsoilers' - HERE.

In the meantime, I hope you find the following gallery somewhat interesting...
And that's all I have to say about this topic...