By: W.C. Reader

Golly, we surely do wish that Judy Hawley still had been representing Karnes County – and other neighboring counties – during the last regular session of the Texas State Legislature. There is a problem that we might like to have discussed with her for possible solution. Now as most of you recall, Judy served this district – including Karnes County – well in the State Legislature for several terms. And she still probably would be there, had it not have been for some of those political schemers redrawing district lines in such a manner as excluded the county in which she resided from the rest of the district. We still miss the many friendly visits and discussions we held with her, and maybe, if not now, at a later date, she may again be able to serve the people of South Texas.

Now, since retiring from the education profession about a quarter of a century ago, we have busied ourselves promoting matters of a folklore nature, using this column many times as our base of operation. Our most notable success has been in reviving memories about the ways our ancestors lived during the formative years of Karnes County; and in demanding respect for, and restoring dignity to the outhouse, which served our forefathers so well down through the early years. Our most notable failure was in our inability to stop that group in Kenedy from sending that railroad caboose on its way to “foreign” fields. Think of the stately reminder it could have been of year gone by if it could have been enshrined on the “Y”, just beyond 1^st Street, where trains and people came and went while helping this area grow.

Well, so much for all that, and we’ll move on to the thing that bothers us from time to time. That is the demise of the outhouse as a factor in modern-day living. We have to go no further than you old folks to confirm the importance of this structure in planning your day-by-day agenda. In the early years of the 20^th century, we remember when it dotted the landscape not only in the rural areas, but in the cities and towns alike. Then along came the septic tank and sewer lines. The rich folks were the first to latch on to the indoor bathroom, and then we, poor folks followed in their footsteps – as soon as we could save or borrow enough money. This was the beginning of the end for our beloved outhouse. The headlong rush towards oblivion for this historical object temporarily was stymied in the Depression years of the 1930’s, when the Government established the WPA, a “make-work” organization, which went around the towns and countryside, rebuilding and repairing outhouses. But along came World War II, and indoor plumbing became a fad. Again, like the buffalo and the old steam engine, they began to disappear from the landscape. The death knell probably was sounded when high school students discovered the outhouse was just the thing to top off their Homecoming bonfire.

Now this is where you would have come in, Judy. Had not unthinking redistricting people “sawed up” your old district, removing you from the battle field in Austin, and had illness not put us on the sidelines, we might have asked you to sponsor legislation in the last regular session, declaring the outhouse to be a Texas Treasure, and designate it to be an “endangered species”.

We know this will not be possible at the present time, Judy, but you think it over. You and we might be back on the fire line someday. Who knows?

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