Does anyone else have strong memories of running out of toilet paper as a child?

I hated it, and as an adult often buy large quantities just to make sure it never happens to me again! Never ran out as an adult! Perhaps my epitat will say... I never ran out?

I remember yelling to my parents that we were out of toilet paper. Sometimes I would hear... "Use your fingers..." Yuck.

Other times there would be the torn up rags until they got to the store...

Do people still go through that stuff or did I have a unique childhood?

Can't say that I ever had the old Sear's catalog as a back up, but know there are bound to be some stories out there that make mine seem mild...

Feel free to share...

From age 6 maybe 7 till 17 I lived in the country. We had a out house at least a football field away from our house. In fact we had to walk past the barn to get to it. ( I was so scared of the cows) Most of the times we were lucky enough to have T.P. but there were times that we used the old books. Our elders liked to tell us how lucky we were to have books to use because they used corn cobs, they were to poor for the books.
My greatgrandpa was the only person in the whole holler that had an inside bathroom. We went to live with him when I was about 10 that was 1 of the happiest days of my life.

My grandfather was from West Virginia, so I've heard about the catalogs and corn cobs, but still can't hardly imagine it!

My mom also tells me that they didn't have refrigerators until late 50's maybe! That just floors me!

A lot of things about rural living floors me, sadly I lived through a lot of it. But it is not all bad. We always had refrigerators, but no t.v. The radio only worked good when the leaves had fallen. We lived down between 2 mountains. I left KY in 1981, happy to go. I love Ohio.

My hubbys dad said they did not even have a clock that they went by the sunlight and shadows in the house to know what time it was. He is 71 though.

My step dad died a few years ago and some of the things he told us were amazing how they survived on nothing. They did not even have roads that were driveable. Sometimes in the late winter and early spring they lived off dried pumpkins and bread. I think there were around 16 siblings in his family.
I'll say it again I am grateful,to be in Ohio and have what I have.

I hear that! I'm glad for what we've got!

My grandfather used to mention that he would go sguirrel hunting when he was growing up. He never said anything else beyond that. After his funeral, I was told by a distant relative how much they appreciated that my grandfather had kept their family in food for a long time by giving them his squirrel. That really gave me a different perspective. My grandfather never mentioned that he had helped others or anything of that nature...

Logan County WV and Pike and Floyd counties in KY are the areas where my grandparents were from. I've seen it change tremendously since I was little, but can only imagine stuff before my time...

I quickly learned to check first when I was out.

When your home, I did use water and my hand from the sink next to the toilet.

Sometimes I carry some and my person when I venture out to a large city.

I do carry a roll in the trunk of my car.

My grandfather rented a shack on his farm that had an honest to goodness outhouse made from weathered wood. That was definitely an experience to remember. It's definitely not a porta potty. Going in the woods in a latrine is not fun either.

I do remember when parks had real bathrooms you could use. Now with vandalism, I saw the remains of a plastic one that was set on fire. It was just a puddle of plastic.

I also remember when the toilet stalls accepted coins to allow you to use it. A law was passed banning them. Now you lucky if there are toilets available.

I think lack of "public" restrooms actually hinders travel. "Rest stops" exist on some car routes, but not all, otherwise you sometimes need to eat at a restaurant to use the bathroom. A bar is another place where ordering a drink and using the rest room works. Gas station rest rooms have always been the pits.

They apparently make self cleaning restrooms that can be used on the street, but they apparently are too expensive because I've never seen one.

Motto, look before you sit. I heard a story of a laxative given as candy to get back at someone. The toilet had the toilet paper removed and plastic wrap placed on the bowl.

Now, you also have a different worry. Make sure nothing is loose from your pockets, etc. that could accidentally fall into the toilet before it "automatically flushes". You just have to change your habits accordingly.

Then there are the nice places that leave a plunger in the restroom stall which I have used.

Shopping and restrooms don't seem to get along. Lowe's has the right idea. Restrooms at the front of the store as you exit the cash registers. Returns go in an entirely different door. Someone is really thinking.

But have you noticed the signs at many places that say "No merchandise in the restroom", but there is no place to stash an item or two or put you mini shopping basket on.

Coat hooks are non-existant and if they do exist they are placed improperly so that someone can reach over the stall and take your coat etc. and run.

And don't forget to tip the guy selling colone and hands you a paper towell and wants a tip.

You never know what to expect and you have to be prepared.

Oneguy That is a great thing about most country people they are willing to share and never even mention it or pat themselves on the back.. it is just a way of life.

A squirrel story for you. Before my step dad died, My children and I were visiting. Now mind you they had never seen a dead skined anything in their lives. My mom was cooking squirrel for my pap and my daughter walked in asked what we were doing and my mom held up the squirrel. Lol it was so funny how my daughter screamed, if you could have seen the look on her face. Needless to say she had something else for dinner.

The first time I ever saw anyone working in a toilet area was at a flea market in Hillsdale Michigan. The guy kept the bathroom very clean and stocked and worked for tips not mandatory. Now that I understand the concept, it doesn't seem as odd as it did at first.

I've watched as my grandparents and parents plucked a chicken or skin a rabbit for dinner... and truly wonder about what my son would think if he saw such a thing? He has helped me clean fish for dinner before, but that's all...

Having rabbit at my grandfather's, I was told it was chicken and a lot of people said that chicken was the best they had. He raised rabbits and ducks for consumption, but he would not eat the lambs he had on the farm. They were his friends.

I never had turtle there, but it was available too.

I had alligator soup and absolutely loved it. I'll usually try anything twice: caviar, escargo, cow tongue, pigs feet (won't eat these), pickled pig ears in a restaurant (didn't try them either), goose, duck, snapper turtle soup, lobster (not a favorite), crabs, clams, oysters (not a favorite either) etc. Haven't tried Muskrat or deer yet.

I've had snapping turtle, frog, and deer along with some of the other items you mentioned.

I liked them best when they were fresh caught. I've tried it at pricey restaurants, and it really was disappointing how bad it tasted in comparison to what I had for free...

One of these days, I'd like to get some turtle for a soup... I can almost taste it sort of like a clam chowder but no clams...

I've had on our dinner table or a neighbors pheasants, turkey wild and farm raised, frog, fish eggs, raccoon, wild rabbit, turtle, deer, lamb, ground hog, and of course cow, calfs that we raised, chickens and pigs/hogs, We used all parts of a pig, head souse, pickled pigs feet, cracklins from the skin, my mom would even eat the tail (baked) I had family that would eat the testicles ( called them mountain oysters) we also made lye soap out of them and used the rendered fat to cook with. Barely anything went to waste.

We had our own eggs, butter, milk and buttermilk that we churned. All of our veggies came from the garden we canned them for the winter and I even remember canning meat because we did not have a freezer. Sausage was not so bad, but whole squirrels and rabbits were just gross.

The potatoes went into the ground and it had a door over the hole, that lifted and we would get the potatoes from there all winter long.

Honey was always fresh with a piece of the comb inside the jar or sometimes people would bring it straight from the nest wrapped in wax paper and the honey dripping out of the comb. When I was really young my great grandpa had bee hives and the smoker suit for retrieving the honey.
My great grandpa was one of the best men I ever knew. He had apple orchards and a huge patch of ruhbarb and strawberries. He had raspberries vines and blackberry vines.

We always had molasses. A stir off to make molasses was the only time I saw the whole holler attend anything. Usually someone in a surronding holler would have a stir off yearly and people would buy/trade their molasses from them. I don't remember any one holler having a stir offf each year. I guess they normally took turns, it was a long process and hard work. Normally when someone died the whole holler was there esp. if they were laid out at one of the many churches around, we had a church at the end of our holler and not many people had cars, so it was easiest to belong to that church.

In the spring time we would go gigging for fish and frogs and their eggs. We would also go hunting for mushrooms we called them Hickorey Chickens my hubbys family called them dry land fish. It is odd how different counties of the country call the same items different names. We would look for polk salad, and different types of wild greens to cook in the spring. We were never allowed to eat wild onions... not sure why.
Some of my family even dug for roots, ginseng and yellow root and my mom used to make tea from something called sassafras it was pretty tasty. There was also some type of bark on a tree (can't remember the name) that she made tea from or people just peeled it back and chewed on it.

We usually had rabbits but they were not for eating, my grandma always said it was a shame to kill them so they ran loose when we were out to watch them or stayed in hutches. The dogs were fine with them as long as we were around but out of site they were fair game. Same with ducks and Genias(spelling?) they were just to enjoy looking at and listening to. Although some people would eat theirs.

We had dresses and skirts and shirts made from feed and flower sacks. They used to come with patterns on them. I only remember flowers on them or some had strips at the bottom and the top of the sacks. We even made quilts from them. I find it odd that we never made curtains from them.

It may be redneck to say but our curtains were always plastic. Lol... what the hell did we do if a scuffle occurred and they got torn or a cat,bird etc... got in the house.. shoo maybe we taped them together. Remembering back they were really tattered when the spring rolled around. We put new ones up in the spring and took the old down and threw them away, in the spring as they were always so smoked from the soot from the wood/coal stoves.

Also one year, we were allowed to have a cat/kitten that his mamma died... don't know who had the momma, probably my great aunt on the other side of the creek anyway we named him squirmmy he was a redish orangish tanish boy. Squirmmy because he was always trying to get away from one of us over zealous kids. It was rare to have a pet inside of the house... that was considered nasty. But what granny said usually went. Anyhoo that year he put little rips all in those plastic curtains. Mopping was a blast or sweeping because he would aways be hiding around the corners.
We also did not have doors on the 1 bedroom and he would hide under that curtain. Oh did I mention until I was 6 or 7 until 10 or so we lived in 3 rooms with 9 people of course in the spring and summer someone slept on a bed on our enclosed back porch. Always one of my uncles slept on a rollaway bed in the kitchen. Evil sgp slept in the living room. Back to squirmmy he did not live to be old. My step grandpa probably killed him... he hated us and cats or a dog killed him who knows... probably 1 of the reason I now have 4 cats all in the house and treated like little queens and kings. Btw the way I have fabric curtains.

I know I have strayed way off topic here... thank you ohioguy for starting this thread it has been so enjoyable for me to write this (well with the exception of the evil step grand pa part) but that's another story. Wow, I remembered so much (mostly good) stuff that I had forgotten over the years, and to think I'm only 44. You would have thunk I was raised in the early 1900's, my goodness those poor people must have really had it hard.

Excellent stuff... I like the way the thread is evolving... Hope to hear more!

Well here goes, there were times that we would be playing in the creek no t.p. only leaves hanging from the branches. Or when we were back in the woods. Boy did those leaves or poison ivy cause havoc on your bottom. You would carry t.p. for a month, didn't need it and the first time you left it behind (no pun intended) mother nature would stike again. I have exhausted my t.p. stories.

I was camping for a month in TX, and there were no outdoor facilities, so the idea was to go in and not disturb the environment more than necessary... I was doing my part with biodegradable toilet paper, and expertly picking locations to drop my deposits... which I covered with rocks.

All went great for a while... no notice of impact on the environment from my group of 13. Well anytime there is 13, you know the luck won't be all good. The 13th guy to join our expedition, had issues.

One morning as I was scouting for my constitutional... I went to a different location daily... so on this morning, I came across a dry creekbed... observing its high banks to provide privacy, and apparent easy walking along the bottom, with no plants etc... I decided to hike the creek bed for a ways.

All was going great until I rounded a bend, just getting my own urges... when to my surprise, I discovered a great man made natural disaster of sorts. That 13th individual had apparently been going to the same place every time... creating a rather imposing log pile right in the middle of the creek bed intwined with toilet paper and even soiled underwear... evidently he wasn't on time on one occasion...

It was as bad as it might seem. One look made an awful lifetime memory. I had to go some distance to take care of my own urge, but then returned to the scene with a plan. I piled rocks over it like a large mounded grave and put a cross made of sticks on top.
I used a pocket knife to help cut a whole in the stick so I could make the cross...
I then used rocks to spell the guys name next to it. I never told anyone and never went back to the site. I always went the opposite direction from camp after that, just in case he had another surprise waiting... I also never found evidence of any of the other campers, so that was interesting in a way... I was fearful of moving a rock to find someone had been there previously, but thankfully there were many rocks and it never happened.

How did I know who did it? Well, I had some amazing tracking ability... actually his boots left a unique print, plus he dragged one foot slightly when he walked...

Nothing was ever said about it by him or anyone else in the group. I watched as he disappeared in the same direction for his business on later days, and can only imagine the impact of what he might have thought when he saw the grave marker?

We have a closet completely full of extra TP. But then, we have a teenage girl, and she has many friends. My folks had a box of kleenex in every room of the house. I have a closet full of TP. When camping, if you're distracted enough to forget to stash TP in your pocket, a good emergency wipe is thimbleberry leaves. Thimbleberries are delicious too.

I took my son camping with the scouts. When he saw I had brought TP just in case, he said "Dad, you must be thinking like a scout... always be prepared."

When I was a kid and in the Boy Scouts, we were camping for a few days. One morning, I had to go really badly and couldn't get to the nearest restroom in time. I just went out into the woods to "do my thing." I think that used leaves...

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Originally Posted by oneguyinohio

Does anyone else have strong memories of running out of toilet paper as a child?

.....

Do people still go through that stuff or did I have a unique childhood?

Feel free to share...

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Hmmmm... Me thinks you are VERY obviously male! If you were female you would have undoubtedly reached for TP at least 4 billion times only to find that your kids/husband/dog/cat had left exactly 1 1/2 pieces of paper on it when they were last in the room! You learn to hide a roll within reach.

Hugs, Didi