Tish-tosh don't forget the Piss-pot

Last week I talked about Prospecting on a Mountain and I am going to admit my weirdness and tell you something that pleased me. It was more on the view of a historian then the actual view I saw. Here is the problem we often have with a particular kind of museums. In museums that depict life we have to question ourselves, one who are the people we are trying to represent, and in trying to create a home or life experience how far is too far. For me when it comes to the daily life topics we often don’t go far enough or even put it out there for people to think about. This means when I saw a chamber pot in more than one room I may have had a complete joyful moment.

Jan Steen, Women getting ready for bed, note the chamber pot in right corner

That is right I got excited over seeing the piss-pot. Here is the thing though, when we talk about daily life, we talk about food, laundry, drinks, daily tasks, and other little bits of history. However unless, the bathroom plays into a story it often gets left out but it would very much be part of every home or hotel. I was even more excited to see that not only was there no indoor plumbing in the upstairs sections of the hotel. To top it off they had a variety, not only in shape but also type.

They had one like this one, unfortunately there was too many of us for me to get a picture of it

Even the best moments have had interpretivly was those wierd connection, birthing in an unknown place with people I didn’t know.  I personally have never had to do it but when I was playing a woman who had, I connected with a woman who had done just that, a military wife. I was asked by a child what the pot was under my bed, I told him and then asked him to check it and see if my "son" had cleaned it out that morning.  The little boy got so grossed out ran out of my house and his father looked at me laughing. He told me "That is the most realistic and best thing that has ever happened thank you. "

Ok so I might be a little weird but let us point out if there wasn’t a pot of any kinds. You are either going to become very constipated or things are going to get a little gross. So to any museums trying to make me feel at home, remind me I will need to go the bathroom, place a piss-pot under the bed or even just the room. The moments when I have made the most connections with people over history is when I was connecting them to day-to-day lives. Talking about trash, chores, poop, food and hardships makes the history not only more real but it creates a personal connection that you can’t get anywhere else.

The Romans were the first to create an idea of indoor plumbing.