Ohhhh----The Relief

Oh---- The Relief

I recently recalled a wee story I wrote, the saga of the toilet bowl, in a High Country Highland Pipe Band Outhouse.

Looking at the legacy of a by-gone era, I know what is running through your mind.  However you will be completely wrong , to suggest that those high country bandsmen and women were given massive rushes of flatulence.  A thought of that nature could well be construed as a total lack of respect.

Those of us who live near the coast, we do tend to take our winter temperatures for granted, but not for those resilient Mackenzie folk.  You see, year after year that sparkling white toilet bowl blew to pieces.  No.....Not from that silly!!!  It was all due to the harsh Mackenzie winter.   Even though members consciously turned the water on and off at the conclusion of each meeting or practice, disaster still struck and it was an unenviable task to mop up afterward and make necessary repairs.  So it was with a certain amount of smugness, that some hardy soul invented a monstrosity , that even Jack Frost knew when he had met his match.  

Yes, I am told it was with a certain amount of relief, when the late Michael [Mick] Carlton , so generously  offered to fix the problem for all time.   He himself acknowledged that the German battleship, the Bismarck could be hard-pressed to blow a hole in this little beauty.  And of course , members no longer needed to hold a current steam ticket to understand the intricate muddle of pipes before letting off steam.