By: W.C. Reader

Our good friend Henry Wolff, Jr., of the Victoria Advocate, on several occasions has referred to us as the most outstanding authority on the outhouse in South Texas. Well, we’re not one to duck a compliment like that. It’s a tonic for the soul to be recognized as “good-for-something”.

About 20 years have slipped by since we rose to a prominence – of sorts – by stirring up memories and reviving interest in this object which daily served the needs of mankind for such a long period of time. In the days that followed, we have been asked to write a number of articles on this subject, and at last count, we had delivered about 15 speeches on it to various professional and civic organizations. We quote these figures only to show you that interest in the outhouse remains a constant phenomenon. The most recent person to contact us about this matter is former Kenedy resident, Flora Eschenberg, a good friend of ours who now resides in Austin. She called a few days ago to ask us to furnish her a copy of a poem, which we used several years ago in a dissertation on the “can”. We are sorry to report that we still have not been able to comply with her request up to now because our files have gotten in disarray in the last couple of years. But do not despair, Flora. We will keep looking and hopefully some day you shall have it. We think it is a noble gesture that you want to use it in planning a program for your friends.

A little earlier in the past month (August 5 to be exact), we received a call from our amigo of many years, Lucille Koenig, who said she had a package to deliver to us from old-time friends, Earle and Merle Brown. After receiving this package, we looked forward to opening it because we just knew it was a birthday remembrance from these two dear friends of many years. But we discovered quickly that we were wrong on both counts. First, neither of them knew it was our birthday; and second, it was not a birthday present.

When we unwrapped the package, imagine our surprise when four paintings popped out. They were framed originals, and they were autographed by the artist, Earle Brown, who acquired his techniques as a student of a well-known Kenedy artist, Merle Brown. All four of his paintings revolved around a central subject, the outhouse; and his attention to details such as a well-traveled path from the house to the “can”, chickens and a skunk showing curiosity, mesquite posts and a barbed wire fence lending support to the structure, partially-open doors giving aid to the viewers in identifying “one-holers” and “two holers” give testimony to his knowledge of the subject. The only suggestion we can make which might contribute more to the realism of your pictures, Earle, would be to have one of the doors hanging by a single hinge, instead of having all the doors swinging from two well attached hinges.

Good work, Earle! People who remember how scarred our hands were from picking cotton burrs on those farms which we lived on North of Kenedy probably never dreamed the day would come when we were using those same hands to paint pictures and write news columns.

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