Howard Ware and the Sochi Olympics

A few years ago, my buddy, Howard Ware, now 92 years young, gave me a quick tour of an outhouse situated on the property next to his garden where he grows his famous pole "limers". It was a reminder of a much slower paced and simpler era in old New Gretna 

The outhouse adjacent to Howard's garden.

Howard took a load off his feet as he sat down to give me a brief talk regarding his experiences with various types of outhouses.

Oh, the memories that Howard had.

Howard pointed out that this particular outhouse was a two seater. That concept always seemed strange to me. How often did nature call two people at the same time that two adjacent seats were necessary? And wasn't this bringing togetherness to a whole new level? 

The two seater

Some might say that the two hole outhouse fostered an early form of social networking now satisfied through Facebook and other internet services. Maybe things were more advanced back in the old days then we give them credit for.

I shouldn't be so judgmental regarding the togetherness fostered by the two hole outhouse of the past, as this was brought to my consciousness as I was surfing the net regarding the Sochi Olympics and came across the following photo. 

Twin toilets at the Scoci Olympics

The twin toilet concept in the Olympic Village was causing quite a stir among the athletes and commentators. It's hard to image, that in an Olympic environment that took 51 billion dollars to create, the Russians couldn't spring for a separate booth for each toilet. I guess that, with today's inflation, 51 billion dollars doesn't go as far as it use to.

Howard is probably scratching his head, wondering what all the fuss is about and smiling as he thinks back to the good old days when a good two seater was a status symbol in New Gretna.

Maybe the twin toilets are a sign of things to come, that in addition to synchronized swimming, the Russians are lobbying for a new Olympic sport - synchronized pooping. Don't laugh! They say that truth is often stranger than fiction.

Pete S