My Dad grew up in a small farming community in Michigan during the 20’s and 30’s. My grandfather was a former school teacher and editor and owner of the town paper where they lived. Many of Dad’s friends lived on farms just outside of town.

Dad was active in school sports and played the trombone in the school band. He worked everyday after school at the grocery, starting in eighth grade through graduation.

There wasn’t a lot of time for “funning around” but one night he and some of his classmates started a ritual which continued for several years. Each autumn after the harvest when the fields were dormant they made tracks to Old Farmer Dault’s place. Old Dault was a prosperous man, having a large farm in the area. But the one thing he didn’t seem to want to part with, was the old outhouse that stood in the middle of the field next to his home.

Now the guys all knew Farmer Dault had running water and an indoor “necessary room,” as most of the town folk had converted by the late 30’s and many in the country too. Old Dault wasn’t really old, and the guys loved to tease him!

On the eve of Halloween, the guys didn’t go out begging for candy, they went “tricking” at Farmer Dault’s place. Dimming the lights on the dirt road just down from the field, they turned off the motor to the truck and everyone piled out walking slowly over to the area where the old privy stood, keeping a watchful eye for the farmer himself. Assured he was nowhere in sight, they ran towards the outhouse and gave it a heave over, then running like the wind so the smell wouldn’t cling to them, jumped back into the truck they fled!

This little ritual happened for a couple more years, Farmer Dault never acted like he suspected a thing, and the guys never told a soul. Old Dault may have thought about waiting for them, but one never knew what hour this prank might take place.

During their senior year, the War had started and they knew this would be the last time they’d all be together to play their prank. It also happened that this was the night of the school dance, so they took an old pair of shoes to change into.

Having parked their vehicle down the road a ways, they took off across the field and ready to once again play their trick on Old Dault, but they didn’t make it to the outhouse! The Farmer had given some thought to the situation and moved the privy back from its home base several yards. All decked out and ready for the school dance, guess who landed in the pit where the house used to be? And Old Dault made it large enough for all of them!

A light shone on the guys and Old Dault was doubling over with laughter as they climbed out of that pit. Then Dault told the guys to go into the shed with the running water and clean up a bit.

As they were leaving the farmhouse, my Dad claims he never heard so much laughter from anyone as that old guy made, still thinking of outwitting them as he watched them tumble into the pit that night.

Dad joined the US Navy a year after graduation, and when the War was over married and moved to California where I was born. A few years later we returned to Michigan and I was raised in the City. But I spent fulfilled weekends visiting relatives in that small town and farming community where my parents were from.

During a trip to my aunts in late October one year, I remember waking to an unusual sight. From her home on the top of a hill we could see the main part of town, where someone(s) had placed an old outhouse surrounded with bales of hay and pumpkins smack dab in the middle of the four corners!

I went rushing to find my camera to get a photo of this site! Outhouse pranks may still have been popular in the 60’s in the small towns, but it was something I never saw living in the City! I’ll bet Old Farmer Dault would have gotten a good laugh over this prank too!

(c) 2001 Diane Dean White Thelamb212@aol.com

Diane is a former newspaper reporter and freelance writer. She and her husband Stephen are the parents of three grown children and two grandgals. They make their home on the Carolina Coast where Diane continues her love for writing.