Los Gatos Weekly-Times Photo courtesy of Wilma Thompson Los Gatos history buff Wilma Thompson captured this outhouse on film. It's located on Hines Creek in Alberta, Canada, on property owned by her cousins. Old outhouses are privy to the history of a community John S. Baggerly Rare bottles were once the targets of collectors who came knocking on your front door asking if they might explore your old backyard privy. These collectors, known as "outhouse diggers," would be content even if allowed to dig in the area where an outhouse once stood. Such diggings might uncover interesting items that were thrown away in the privy pit; the holes were often used for a mix of garbage before professional garbage collecting became a business. The crescent moon seen in many privy doors served a double purpose: lighting and ventilation. The moon actually goes further back in history than its use in outhouse doors. The image is an ancient one and was used in colonial days as a symbol of womanhood. The male counterpart, Sol, was seen as either a star or a sunburst design, also on the door. Since most male outhouses fell into disrepair rather quickly, they seldom survived. The female ones, being better maintained, had a better survival rate and were eventually used by both sexes. These outhouse diggers are a part of the Outhouses of America Tour, a group of traveling archaeologists--of sorts--with an interest in what privies tell us about history. The Internet, that magical resource of everything, mentions that one Thomas Crapper was the inventor of the flush toilet and perhaps the outhouse as well. He rates a full page in the Outhouses of America Tour. Massena "Andy" Gump appears to be the inventor of the portable toilet as we know it. Several of these modern-day privies were set up along the east side of the Los Gatos High School front lawn for a celebration of the retirement of Principal Ted Simonson and other members of the administration and faculty. They remained for the convenience of those attending the graduation of the class of 1998. Gump died in August of this year at the age of 88, but certainly left a legacy. Gump once built five portable toilets out of plywood in his garage--sounds a bit like Apple Computer's humble beginnings. He did so because of a law that was passed in the 1950s requiring toilets at construction sites. He rented the first five out so quickly that he built 40 more. Now Andy Gump Inc. rents shower trailers, portable toilets, solar-powered restrooms and VIP restrooms complete with air-conditioning, flush toilets and mirrors. The late Edgar "Bud" Baumgartner, a native Los Gatan and longtime resident of Broadway, recalled "going to the moon" at our town's first grammar school on the east side of University Avenue. The multi-seat outhouse that served the school had cut-out half moons on the doors. At given times groups of girls and boys took turns answering nature's call by "going to the moon." Historians have speculated that if mankind could flash back in time, the first thing the travelers would notice would be the stench. Paris and London were founded on rivers that could wash away the "rough stuff," while royal families built castles elsewhere to escape summertime along the banks of the Seine and Thames. At one time, one of the town's septic tanks dumped sewage into Los Gatos Creek. In 1948, Santa Clara County organized a Sanitation District, and Los Gatos became part of District 4. Sewage thereafter went into a treatment plant. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, December 2, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.