#818 Indoor plumbing

If there is one room in our homes that doesn’t get the respect it deserves, it has to be the bathroom. It is certainly one of the most used rooms in the house and without it, we would be running outside looking for the closest bush to use. (Not very private or comfortable.) Have you ever given your bathroom much thought? The idea of indoor plumbing seems like a no-brainer and one that must have been around forever right?

Although many people attribute indoor plumbing and the toilet to a Mr. Thomas Crapper, that is not a true statement. He may have held many patents in the late 1800’s for various plumbing fixtures, the siphonic flush toilet was actually invented by Joseph Adamson in 1853. Now there’s a little fun fact that you can store away in your memory for later use in the bar trivia games or when playing Trivial Pursuit Master Edition.

Now, back to indoor plumbing. We can talk about the history of it all day long, but the truth is, we all need indoor plumbing and it does make us smile. If you have ever had to use the bathroom really bad, you know what I am talking about. That feeling when you just make it in their, turn on the light and have a seat on your trusty American Standard is bliss. Most of us today will scroll through our social media feeds and maybe even catch up on the news while we do our business. We often take the bathroom and its indoor plumbing for granted but you will never hear it complain.

The next time you turn on your faucet, take a shower or flush your toilet (or maybe even use the plunger), take a moment to smile and be thankful for that convenience that just a couple of hundred years ago, wasn’t around. Rural America didn’t even get indoor plumbing until the 1930’s! Imagine having to dig a hole, build an outhouse and use that in the middle of a cold, rainy night. Or imagine if you where staying at an inn or a hotel and there was no indoor plumbing. (And along those lines there would thus be none of those fancy little hotel toiletries as well.) With that being said, I am smiling just thinking about being able to turn on a light and use my bathroom without having to go outside.