When you asked for outhouse stories
I immediately thought of my niece. In our outhouse we had two holes: one adult
size and one child size. When two children went, one got the larger hole. I had
the smaller hole and she was teetering on the edge of the big one when all at
once down she went. Her shoulders caught and there she was with her knees
pressed tightly to her chin and her feet straight up. She was screaming and
crying. I tried with all my strength to pull her up, but I couldn’t. I ran to
get her mother and after much struggling we pulled her up. Only her shoulders
had saved her from a fate worse than death.
Marie Holzwarth
St. Francis, Kansas
Back in 1955 a call
went out from the editors of the then Capper’s
Weekly asking for readers to send
in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early
settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from
grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were
received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My
Folks title – My Folks Came in a
Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine
other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from Capper’s readers, and we are proud to
make those stories available to our growing online community.
