Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Any other old guys remember Honeydippers?

As a country kid growing up in the mountains of rural Virginia in the 40's we had the little house out back as they were called in polite company then. When we went to visit my grandmother in a small mill town all the houses had out houses. The town provided sanitation trucks & workers to pump out the outhouses. Workers were called honeydippers. I was told that if I didn't study in school I would end up being a honeydipper. Any other old timers remember trips to the outhouse on a cold rainy day? Then there was always the possibility of bugs & the occasional snake. A neighbor man got bit by a spider in a private area & almost died. As a young kid I always wondered what the private area really was. When we went to the low country in SC to visit relatives there was a small room with a slop jar for use at night. Never knew who had the privilege of dumping the honey pots. In the early 50's it seemed as though modern plumbing had reached rural areas & outhouses & honeydippers disappeared. Maybe some of these honeydippers moved to DC & became politicians.

Just knowing the term honeydipper makes me feel old....

And knowing what a sears catalog feels like wadded up doesn't help either...


My folks always told me if i didnt do well in school, I'd be a Ditch Digger.....they never told me Ditch Diggers made $35 an hour!

Many outposts in 'Nam had nothing but outhouses. The first place I worked was under an Army General and the Officer's Privy was a four-holer! The....stuff accumulated in half-barrels and once a week a crew of misfits and soldiers on punishment had to gather up the barrels, mix the contents well with diesel fuel and burn it off - stirring it the whole time. The miserable sods ALWAYS managed to pick the upwind side of the camp to do it, too.

Regress about 20 years. My earliest years were on a farm. One day when I was nearly four, Grampa hadn't been seen for a worrisome amount of time. My mother sent me out to find him. I discovered him in the outhouse, and I thought he was asleep. He wasn't.

My brother was an airline mechanic that became a modern day honeydipper for a little side work.

A year later he quit his job and does his business full time.

I'm going to tell my kids to skip law school and pump schit! Those guys make a killing!


Travis

Our politicans have been doing this for so long .

we have to have our tank at camp pumped every year. It's about $175 per trip.

On the side of his truck it says "your crap is our bread and butter"

We have a company locally here who's motto is "We're number one at number two".

With a job like that, you don't have to worry about getting outsourced and when a customer calls it's usually a rush job and price is no concern. Also no one wants to watch you work and shoot the breeze.

Exactly, and God help you if you call on a holiday/Sunday.


Travis

Saw a septic tank pumper in NC that said "WE TAKE YOUR CRAP".

Considering the theme of this thread, you might have chosen better words to describe that job!

Yea, a job like that would keep me down in the dumps...

My cousin's grandfather was a hoarder of the wrappers that peaches were lugged in.

Anyone who hasn't read Capstick's account of the Bwana blowing up the crapper is missing something in their life.

Our local septic pumper's slogan is " Satisfaction Guaranteed or your Honey Back"

No. They leave crap, they don't take it away.

These guys have a sense of humour.

have to, I guess...

ColdBore - you didn't know that general. Trust me, that post was like one huge outhouse, and he was certainly over it dispensing his "authority" to one and all.

Don't know if it still does, but some time ago a pump truck in a small local town had written on the side "We haul milk on Sundays"

Watched a guy pumping out my neighbors a few years ago from a safe distance, and he over filled the truck causing it to spray out the top seal of the truck. The operator was a little rank by the time he stopped the pump....

You ain't the only one with memories of that Rocky!