No more school...

[Jack Cronkhite]

...even beyond a hippie home.
Last summer I made a trip to the border to pick up a nice VH. I tend to take a lot of back roads on the way home from there (3 hours by good roads). Kay was along and tends to get nervous when pavement becomes gravel becomes a trail becomes an old pasture. I always figure if I got there and didn't get stuck, I can always retrace the route and find pavement again. Some of the land I know well and know that at the end of a horrible primitive trail (by city girl standards) there will be a decent road again.
Here's one trail, a pasture, a very photogenic abandoned and decomposing GMC school bus, and a church built the year before the 1929 stock market crash that ushered in the "Dirty Thirties". None of this would have been seen from pavement. :) Also, the VH two months later.
Cheers,
Jack

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=143&pictureid=1959
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=143&pictureid=1960
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=144&pictureid=1958
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=144&pictureid=1957
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=160&pictureid=1961

[Dave Suponski]

Jack, I always enjoy your great photo's. Thank's So if I get this right the church is in the middle of nowhere.....right?

[charlie cleveland]

that sure is some beautiful country....i believe the school bus is about a 1949 gmc.....if it was not so far id like to attend church at that old place....it has some thing i like about it but i cant explain it....charlie

[Jack Cronkhite]

Dave: Actually, the church is within a couple degrees of the centre of the universe. This one is at the hamlet of Courval, Saskatchewan. It was a small French settlement about 40 km northeast of Gravelbourg. The hamlets of Courval (parish of St-Joseph) and Coderre (parish of St-Charles) originated respectively in 1908 and 1910. The settlers came from the Eastern Townships in Quebec as well as from North Dakota; today their descendants number about 400–500. The population of the hamlet of Courval today is approx "a few". When Kay, the dogs and I arrived and took some pictures, the population had a significant percentage increase for a while. By some estimates, that would be close to the middle of nowhere.


Now this church gets closer to the middle of nowhere. A few dedicated souls are doing restorations. No inside plumbing yet but not really needed with the current amenities.

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=144&pictureid=1962
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=144&pictureid=1546

This church is at the true epicentre of nowhere. The faithful flock is but a few pigeons in the belfry.

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=144&pictureid=1965

[charlie cleveland]

those old churches just keep getting better and better....bet a few roosters and hens stay in the church yard.....if only those old builings could talk.... charlie

[Jack Cronkhite]

Charlie: You can attend services here. Just ten miles from North Dakota and 1/2 mile from roosters and more roosters. Hell's inferno hath no effect here, that's for sure. :)


http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=144&pictureid=1968

Churchyard biffy - more holey than righteous
Nothing says "emergency" like a fancy outhouse still available for the congregation in the dead of winter.
http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=144&pictureid=1967

Cheers,
Jack

[Dave Suponski]

Good to see that this is one of them "Premium" outhouses complete with toilet seat lid and a paper towel holder! I wonder what they stock it with for reading material?...:)

[Fred Preston]

No more school for "Further" either. I think she's still located just outside Pleasant Hill, Oregon.

[John Dallas]

Paper towel holder? I thought it was a mail box.

[Dave Suponski]

Could be huh!.... Now those folk's spend alot of time in the john....:rotf:

[Jack Cronkhite]

The idea of a mail box is intriguing but having been there (well not "been" there), I know it is indeed a paper towel holder. This is pretty fancy alright. Toilet seat and a real toilet roll, not a Sears catalogue, paper towel dispenser above a bench that has a cutout for a water basin (a seasonal thing not in this picture due to the inevitability of becoming a rather useless ice basin). I guess it is true that "cleanliness is next to Godliness".

A more detailed view of the amenities. It is seriously still in use. Submitted as Exhibit A - one toilet roll.
Last occupant had to be a guy - seat up :rolleyes:

[charlie cleveland]

a men to that ...sure would have been nice to have toilet paper instead of thoseold corn cobs...sears and roebuck would have been a luxuery in the south...you could always tell if the outhouse was fancy...there would be red cobs and white cobs....the white cobs were to see if you got your self clean..... charlie

[Robin Lewis]

When I was a boy, a friend's father installed a red box, with a glass front and a small hammer on a chain, just above the toilet paper roll in the bathroom that was located off their bar area. Of course, it had "In Case of Emergency" printed on the top edge. You guessed it, it had a corn cob in the case.:eek:

[Richard Flanders]

That's a nice outhouse Jack! All it needs is a picture window, a comfy blue foam seat, and electric lighting like mine has.

[Dean Romig]

Dave, Jamie will be delighted to know I'm getting an electrically heated seat for the privy. It's really "state of the art" and quite attractive too. At least it will melt the snow that has always accumulated on the seat overnight in deer season.

[Francis Morin]

Lotsa character in the fotos there Jack- thanks for sharing. Had that church steeple been taller, I might have guessed Yankton, SD and the Prairie Queen Lutheran Church there- built in `1908 though. St. Patrick's in Parnell- has the tallest steeple from grade level to the top of the Cross of all the Roman Catholic Churches in the State- 266 feet--

Surprised few commented on the fine looking VH 12 and the fine Rooster pheasant it brought to hand- and later, dinner table. Great stuff indeed.

The British have their "Loo", the French their "Bidets" but the old two-holer with the Rears and Sawbuck catalogues is an American tradition- No wonder Monkey Ward's went bust- nobody even used their catalogues for "reading material" as they did the Sears- pity-

Outhouse geography question- big farm house, well trod path from back door to the outhouse- two men are on the path facing each other about midway between both points- Can you guess the nationality of the two men from such scant details given??:):)

[Jack Cronkhite]

Not sure why I'm thinking Irish but I can't get that to work.
All the wrong answers would be

The guy just finished could be Finnish or now from Hungry
The guy needing to go could be from Togo
If urgent they both could be from Iran or Rushin'
Meeting in the middle they could be Thai

And the real answer is???????

[Francis Morin]

And stand you to a Guinness with a tot o' Bushmills should we ever meet-You are so close- as in dancing, hand grenades and horse-shoes, where it really counts- Yup-- The gent headed back towards the farmhouse is a Finnish- and the gent headed toward the two-holer, he's probably a Russian.

I have some Finns for neighbors, also some Danes- although 90% of our rural area is good old Mick Irish- I study history quite a bit- if I have my facts right, Russia tried to conquor Finland in the Winter of 1940- and got their butts kicked- the country and the people there don't quit-probably the biggest % of Finnish and Swedish descendants in MI live in the UP- also gets some rugged winters-

Anyway, thanks for giving it a 'shot"-- :corn::whistle:

[Jack Cronkhite]

I have some Finns for neighbors, also some Danes- although 90% of our rural area is good old Mick Irish- I study history quite a bit- if I have my facts right, Russia tried to conquor Finland in the Winter of 1940- and got their butts kicked

You brought to mind an old elementary school days riddle.

Why is a fire engine red??

A fire engine has 8 wheels and 4 men
8 + 4 is 12
There are 12 inches in a foot
A foot is a ruler
Queen Elizabeth is a ruler
And a ship on the seas
The seas have fish
The fish have Fins
The Finns fought the Russians
And a fire engine's always rushin'
So it's RED :bigbye:

[Jack Cronkhite]

That's a nice outhouse Jack! All it needs is a picture window, a comfy blue foam seat, and electric lighting like mine has.

Does sound cozy. Is it a foot driven generator that gives the light? Do you also have forced air heating?

Back to the church and outhouse. Here's a shot that caught just a bit of the little house behind the house of worship. Next time down there, need to redo and have both structures in the shot.
Cheers,
Jack

[Francis Morin]

Nice building, as are most all of the Houses of Worship in America. Looks like a re-roof job with vinyl coated steel panelling- at at least a 10 on 12 pitch- Would like to see some fotos of the inside, especially the nave- if you ever drift back there Jack--:bigbye::bigbye: