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