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Everyone has their own story from the old days. Would you like to share it.
Like I would love to hear Taa's story of when he was a kid and how he would collect tooth picks and glue them all together to make a log of wood to sell to his neighbors.

Well here is one of my stories
, As a kid of a single parent growing up in the countryside we had a outside long-drop dunny which was always full and during a storm one day it blew over. My mum had a very close friend that occasionally visited and did some work to help out , so he built us a new dunny.
This one was not a long drop, but a shortdrop dunny as it had a 20 l tin that collected all the shit and had to be emptied when full. Not a pleasant task and as I was a scrawny kid could not lift it , so always managed to evade the job. I remember that I thought the new dunny looked quite modern as it had a door that you could close and lock. Plus there were all these sheets of old newspapers cut into strips and nailed onto the wall . WOW, what a luxury being able to just tear a strip off and wipe your ass.
As a scavenger at a local roadside rubbish dump ,one day I found a old spade and kept it hidden in the bush by the house, and when I wanted a crap I would dig a shallow hole . This had to be done very quickly as the hordes of big black blowflys that followed always knew what was about to happen and they could lay their eggs in your warm shit even before it hit the ground. I always kept a few newspapers hidden under a sheet of old corrugated roofing iron to wipe my ass afterwards.

I have never classed myself as being one of the most intelligent people on this planet but am now wondering why it took me 55 years to discover that in Cambodia you can clean your ass with water.




And no, That's the cowshed in the forground

so many of my stories can't be told to protect others who wish to remain anonymous

Why didn't you just have a septic tank? My mate's dad decided getting it emptied was an expensive chore so he made sure to buy the land where the overflow dribbled out. Presumably the new owners have the super sucker come round.

cptrelentless wrote: ↑Thu May 17, 2018 4:57 pm Why didn't you just have a septic tank? My mate's dad decided getting it emptied was an expensive chore so he made sure to buy the land where the overflow dribbled out. Presumably the new owners have the super sucker come round.

In the old days people would just dig a pit under the outhouse, and when it got too full fill it in and dig a new pit.

My (miserable old) grandfather was one of his generation that used to climb down into the septic tank to shovel out anything reasonably solid, to put on the vegetable garden. A carry-over from WWII and the Depression.

I'm glad he wasn't a hugger.

Side notes:

I tried to avoid eating vegetables at my grandparents' house, usually without success.

The night my grandmother died, my grandfather shed all his body hair. All of it.

I remember one of the better things about visiting Nan and Pop was they would always have those original soft drinks that would be bought by the dozen, in recycled glass bottles, came in wooden crates. The port wine flavour and pineapple flavour were the best.

Once I had a bag of lollies. I asked him, "Do you want a lolly, pop?" He laughed at lollipop. From memory, it was the only time I heard him laugh.

Other memories include the coils of fly paper hanging from the kitchen ceiling, the radio constantly tuned to the races with the form guide on the kitchen table, chain smoke, and how yellowed and nasty everything was in their house.

Oh, and he was a Buffalo (RAOB) - apparently that was significant in relation to my older brother, but not relevant to me. Come to think of it, my older brother's godfather is about as senior a Mason as you can get, which is also significant to eldest sons of eldest sons... weird.

I clicked hoping I'd find stories from the longest staying expats about their wild wild east days and what do I get. Stories about shit. Literally.

Going back 6 decades, our normal Sunday lunch was crayfish (lobster).
But chicken was only once a year ... way too expensive.

Firefly wrote: ↑Fri May 18, 2018 2:20 am I clicked hoping I'd find stories from the longest staying expats about their wild wild east days and what do I get. Stories about shit. Literally.

I was on the dole at 22 years old (2010) living in and out of hostels in Cairns, Australia where I saved enough to buy a ticket to Singapore from there I travelled by land to Phnom phen .

In Phnom phen I ended up staying in a 2$ guest house where I spent my days smoking 1$ joints, eating valium and drinking 0.50$ Angkor beers with an a Khmer lady I met on the boung ak lakeside.

She would let me borrow a her 50cc Honda chaly I would cruise along Monivong boulevard in the warm afternoons after the sun went down.

The lake was full of drugs back then you couldn't walk a metre without a Khmer dude whispering in your ear
"You want china white....? You want heroin....? You want smoke ganja....? "

I never got into the hard stuff but I did end up eating all types of pills from the calmette hospital pharmacy.

I remember a whole week with food, beer and accommodation was like 85$ and at the time the Aussie dollar was higher than the US dollar so I was getting like 4300KHR =1AUD I was living like a king on 100USD per week.......

Beerinthemorning wrote: ↑Fri May 18, 2018 3:41 am

Firefly wrote: ↑Fri May 18, 2018 2:20 am I clicked hoping I'd find stories from the longest staying expats about their wild wild east days and what do I get. Stories about shit. Literally.

I was on the dole at 22 years old (2010) living in and out of hostels in Cairns, Australia where I saved enough to buy a ticket to Singapore from there I travelled by land to Phnom phen .

In Phnom phen I ended up staying in a 2$ guest house where I spent my days smoking 1$ joints, eating valium and drinking 0.50$ Angkor beers with an a Khmer lady I met on the boung ak lakeside.

She would let me borrow a her 50cc Honda chaly I would cruise along Monivong boulevard in the warm afternoons after the sun went down.

The lake was full of drugs back then you couldn't walk a metre without a Khmer dude whispering in your ear
"You want china white....? You want heroin....? You want smoke ganja....? "

I never got into the hard stuff but I did end up eating all types of pills from the calmette hospital pharmacy.

I remember a whole week with food, beer and accommodation was like 85$ and at the time the Aussie dollar was higher than the US dollar so I was getting like 4300KHR =1AUD I was living like a king on 100USD per week.......

Quote ] 22 years old (2010) ,,,,, Is this a '' Old Time story '' ?