Regional Replacements

by Mandy Seley
Mandy\'s avatar

  …given some of my kin, I can’t rightly blame him for thinking this might be legit.

(It used to be a thing, before TP was invented, but I just now learned that, along with everybody else who was baffled by the suggestion.)

38 comments on “Regional Replacements”

  1. Yeah they were, If I recall correctly they were softened first somehow. Also the Sears catalog back in the day was a outhouse fave. Reading material and nice soft pages to wipe with

  2. I am several knitted groups and someone suggested knitted tp once and everyone was like ‘eewl, gross how can you think of something like that?’ until me and some others pointed out that we used washable diapers years ago and how this any different, because you know you can wash them? 😛

    1. I love her expression on her face, it’s that expression of “what da hell is wrong with you” look” and you can tell, she’s an angry kitty

      1. From that expression I’d say Fox isn’t likely to be getting laid anytime soon…
        Keep up the good work.

  3. ROFLAMO!!!!

    I’m old enough AND from the south to know that indeed it WAS a thing back in ‘them thar days’. 😀

    And I’m now cleaning sprayed coffee off my monitor at your expression in the 3rd panel.

    Thank you for a GREAT wake up!

  4. There are other things. Like the pinky at the left hand – thats why some people still lift that finger when drinking tea from a cup. Not because they still use that finger but the gesture stayed – without having a real reason any more.
    Then moss, on ships they had a stick with a sponge hanging in the water at the poop deck…

    1. Off all the things to brush your kiester with.. What next, pinecones?

      1. You have obviously never been on an Oregon camping trip and gotten desperate…

  5. Corn cobs, corn husks, the non glossy pages of the Sears and Roebucks catalog, Common Mullen leaves, Yellow dock leaves, pretty much anything that would cover your hand.

  7. It was a thing in the North too, basically anywhere that was poverty stricken. Of course it also mostlywent away around 70 or 80 years ago, although when I was a kid you’d still see fragranced and dyed boiled cobs, even in fancy bathrooms as kind of a joke. Honestly, cut up newspaper was more common where you could get it (It also breaks down faster in outhouse holes, so you don’t have to dig new ones as often, think of them as primitive septic tanks.) Used to see it in old Soviet bloc countries too.

  8. I once went hiking in a 8 foot boulder strewn lava field at the base of a volcano and while miles from anywhere had to use the only thing readily available — pinecones. Do. Not. Recommend.

  9. Shit, Shower & Shave is a common phrase for a reason…. (lived in a desert with no income for a few months 1990, y’all can complain when you know how to stretch 3 days food & water out for two weeks)

    1. I believe President Andrew Jackson and General MacArthur were both known for smoking them.

      1. My great great grandmother smoked corn cob pipe. The only surviving description of her is: “She was the daughter of a Cherokee chief; 5 foot nothing tall. Smoked a corn cob pipe and cussed like a sailor.” What they used in the privy is probably all of the above. Nothing went to waste in the 19th century.

        1. LOL! MY great-great-grandmother was a Cherokee who married a white man! 🙂

    2. Smoked a pipe for years, you could and still can, buy corncob pipes in stores.
      They’re inexpensive and come with a plastic mouthpiece now.
      Not a bad smoke, but they don’t last as long as others, they’re considered ‘disposable’.

  12. You’ve never seen the 3 cob holder ? 1st 1 red . 2nd 1 white . 3rd 1 red . use 1st 1 then use 2nd 1 , use 3rd 1 if needed !

  14. I feel like there’s a “three seashells” joke in there somewhere, but I can’t find it.

  15. Interesting how much…bigger that pretty cat got in the last panel! 😉

    1. And Mandy already looks kinda suspicious, or apprehensive, in the first panel. 🙂

  20. I don’t know about corndogs but I don’t want to know what they used to wipe with in Europe when toilets were new technology during, but I can’t imagine corncob toilet paper sounds painful

  21. You can still get corncob pipes with reed stems from historical reenactment dealers. As for other uses, you just store them in a bucket of water in the outhouse until needed.

  22. Been a while since we’ve had a new comic; is all well in the Curtailed household?

      1. I’m sorry things aren’t going well for you and Mandy. You two take the time you need to recuperate. No comic is more important than your wellbeing. I truly do hope things get easier for you guys.

      2. I’m so sorry to hear that – I saw Mandy’s twitter post that she got to draw something – and the floof was exactly what I needed to see as well to make my day better. I know these are hard times for so many reasons, but you both are lights in the darkness. I hope your personal part of the world starts to get better.

  23. Hee hee. we joked about that when I was growing up. Then Dad bought a corncob that had an electrical cord with a plug attached to show we had “Modern Conveeenyances”. It was hung up behind the toilet in a frame.

  24. I had to laugh at her expression in the last panel.
    To me it was a kind of “You’re not incorrect.” thing mixed with “Why are you bringing this up?”

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