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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Slop Jar / Slop Bucket

I would never use the words "slop jar" in front of...well anyone, except family. I always figured the word "slop jar" originated in mama's family way back, as that is what everybody called these things. Only recently did I learn that a chamber pot and a slop jar is the same and it is okay to say "slop jar". 

These two "slop jars" belong to me and sit up on the dusty top shelf in my pantry/laundry room...



Aunt Berlie is in my heart and quite often on my mind. We surely had fun together back when I was a little girl. I must have started spending nights with her back in the late 1940's. There was no bathroom in her house, so that's how I came to know about the "slop jar".

There was a little outhouse that sat next to another old brown out-building in Aunt Berlie's side yard that looked a little, just a little, like this. Her outhouse was on the opposite side of the building and there was a huge fig tree growing between the two buildings...

           Picture from Wikipedia

Now there wasn't as much meanness going on back then as there is now, but once it got dark outside, me and Aunt Berlie stayed inside. Aunt Berlie usually bought a new puzzle when she knew I was coming to visit, so we would have something fun to do at night. We usually made one last trip to the outhouse before dark. If one of us woke up during the night and had to go...Aunt Berlie would turn on the overhead light. That light bulb was in the center of a high ceiling, and I mean high! I remember there being a long string that went from the light bulb to the bed post. Anyway, we would then pull the "slop jar" out from under the bed. Every morning the jar was emptied, cleaned and put back under the bed.

There is also a "slop bucket"which was kept near the kitchen to dump scraps in for the hogs...



Aunt Berlie didn't have hogs, but Mary and Clyde who lived just a little piece down the dirt road did. I used to spend time with them too, well, with their twin daughters, Ruby and Rachael, my cousins. I've heard Mary say many times, "Ruby, you or Rachael one carry that "slop bucket" out and feed the hogs." Ruby or Rachael would pick up the bucket, without one complaint, and we would walk down to the hog pen and pour the slop into a long wooden trough. It was fun to see and mostly fun to hear the hogs eating that slop. It was fun being with Ruby and Rachael. They were identical twins and always had pretty blond hair.

Well, I promised to show you the latest apron made from that new pattern...



The new pattern made all the difference in getting me back in the sewing room. Change is good! 

Thank you for visiting.

Love,
Henny Penny


21 comments:

  1. Great story about your aunt!
    I love your apron, and my grandma had aprons like that. She had several styles she wore and this style was her "everyday apron," for maximum coverage, I think. She had other ones, half aprons, for company that were more fancy. I have a few of hers, all worn thin. Great memories.

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    1. I'm glad you have some of your grandma's aprons. The only really old aprons I own came from yard sales or antique shops and are my favorites to wear.

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  2. Long ago times and long ago things. . .

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    1. Absolutely. I miss those old days and things. :)

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  3. I have an outhouse in the back yard (full sized, surrounded by flower bed) and a chamber pot in my bathroom as a waste basket! It gets lots of comments. My grandma had aprons just like that, she made them all. I still love them. Great job!

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    1. Oh I would love to have an outhouse in the yard. I love the way they look. I also love the idea of using the chamber pot as a trash can. I don't think one would fit in our tiny bathrooms. Such a good idea.

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  4. Really cute apron!
    I would call the slop bucket one that was kept under the sink for slop...leftovers etc for the hogs. The piss pot or thunder pot/chamber pot was kept under the bed and taken out at night at my cousins house...my Mother never allowed one in the house, we were to use the outhouse all the time. :)

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    1. I have never heard it called piss pot or thunder pot. That's almost as bad as slop jar. :) I would hate to have to empty and clean one every morning!

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  5. We had a chamber pot at my gran's house, we called it the 'guzunder'.....LOL
    No slop bucket, just carried everything to the compost pile, piece by piece. My gran swore they attracted ants.
    I like yours, they arte hard to find.
    ~Jo

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    1. Yup, a 'guzunder' because it 'goes under' the bed! I remember them at my Gran's house too.
      Jane x

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    2. Hi Jane and Jo! Well I have learned something from this post. "guzunder"! Sounds like that could somehow be a knock knock joke. "guzunder" sounds better than slop jar!

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  6. We had an outhouse when I was little, until we finally got added on to our house and built a bathroom. I don't know that we ever had a slop jar though. I guess we didn't drink anything before going to bed :-)
    This post os so nostalgic. I love it.

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    1. I would love to know where the name "slop jar" came from! Sounds awful! :)

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  7. My country grandma always had a slop bucket to put scraps in for her hogs or for the dogs, My city grandma did no such a thing, but I'm sure both had slop jars once upon a time, because both had added additions on to their homes for the bathrooms. Thanks for the stroll down memory lane!

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    1. That reminds me of the book "The city mouse and the country mouse". I used to read it to my daughters. I remember my Aunt Berlie having a bathroom added to her house. Don't you know that felt like a luxury!

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  8. Dear Henny, slop jars were very common around my grannies' homes when I was smaller, we are talking 1960s into 1970s.I loved my grandmas and to help them clean the slop jars and to slop the hogs as well. The hogs sounded like squealing little children over that slop. I miss my grandmothers every day and they have been in Heaven for over 30 years now. Thanks for the story and the memory! Girl, I love that new apron! WOW! XO Terry

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    1. Oh I know you must miss your grandmothers. You just don't forget times like that. Isn't it funny how feeding the hogs and emptying the slop jar was more fun than work back then? I'm glad the apron looks a little old fashioned. I almost didn't buy that pattern. Glad I did. Love, Henny

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  9. The apron is lovely. I like the colors you used and the little decorative edging.

    When I was really little we used to go visit my aunt in Arkansas who lived in my grandparents old house. No bathroom-----just an outhouse. I hated it-----I was a modern baby & child and the outhouse was just too much for me. I always tried to "hold it" but usually broke down at some point and fortunately managed to do my business in the outhouse with the spiders.

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    1. Spiders and wasps! I always worried about spiders too. Can you imagine having to live with an outhouse today!!

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  10. We weren't fancy enough to have Chamber Pots. We used the old eight pound can that held shortening in the beginning. It was a yellow tin can with blue letters...Crustene. It was my job to empty the buckets in the morning. I really didn't like it but you never said anything like that. You just did your chores.

    There was an old joke: What's the difference between a poor man and rich man? The rich man had a canopy over their bed. A poor mad had a can of pee under it.

    I love your apron and bonnet.

    I enjoyed reading backwards on your posts. Thank goodness there were no serious consequences from your burned pan. Don't feel badly I jump from job to job. I get distracted easily. I think it may be we try to do too much.

    Have a great day.

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  11. Love that joke!! I don't remember the yellow shortening can. I do remember lard stands. Wasn't that the big tall tin cans that held lard when hogs were killed? I used to love staying with Ruby and Rachael at hog killing time...as long as I didn't see the hog being killed. You are right about us, women, trying to do too much...all the time! :)

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