September 2023-Toilets

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Car #16: TOILETS

Not the most interesting subject to build, but an essential one!  The traveling shows supplied these facilities for the crew and public.  During the earlier years, the carnivals always setup in open fields just outside of the towns.  These pre-fab restrooms were just large outhouses placed over quickly dug septic holes.  As my traveling carnival is built on rail cars, so must be the ‘facilities’.

Memories of my early childhood recall seeing similar ones of these behind rural gas stations and in State and National parks.  The basic ‘open air’ design is still used in rural locations, usually built of cinder blocks and are still built over septic tanks.  This one was modeled (from memory) after the one that sat behind the Chicken Restaurant and Gift Shops at Knotts’ Berry Farm in Southern California and was probably an original build.  During our family visits in the early 50’s I recall it being old and outdated then.  Still showing its age, it was still in use during our last visits to the Farm in the late 90’s.  Does anyone know if it is still there?