Another wonderful recollection of my Aunt’s, this one entitled ‘The Dunny’. Kevin and I were talking about the old times when he mentioned the Dunny Pan. His family had a holiday cottage at Ettalong and as a teenager he was responsible for burying the contents of the pan. He would dig a hole late in the evening on the vacant block of land next door, then early next morning empty the pan into the hole and fill it in. His father told him one day not to use the block next door as they were going to build on it and another vacant block was found. I wonder if their garden flourished? Remembering a photo dad had, he was doing the same thing some thirty years earlier on holidays with family and friends at Cowan, he had a name for the photo taking my turn as the men all took turns to do the unpleasant job. As a child I remember the Dunny Man coming to our house in Sydney, he wore a scull cap and sholder cap for protection from the contents of the pan. He would bring the empty pan in to replace the full one, putting a lid on it to keep the contents safe and carry it on his shoulder to the dunny truck which had divisions with compartments for the pans to be placed into. Sydney had a service that the country people did not have. Sewage came and with it the lavatory and overhead cistern with a pull chain. Now we have inside toilets with push buttons and soft toilet paper, different to the pan in the dunny outhouse way down the backyard with the old telephone book hooked over wire, or the newspaper with string hanging from the back of the dunny door, to be used as toilet paper. If a night call was necessary, you would take a torch for the trip down the backyard, look for red back spiders or any other creepy crawlies and when done, hurry back to the house. For a quick call, you would use the potty under the bed. Progress is a wonderful thing when you think back to the old times. Photo is of my grandfather George Tutt ‘Taking his turn’ and is mine, courtesy of my aunt.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 22:51:16 +0000
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