Outhouses and Drop-Seat Pajamas

In 1953 the island still had no electricity or plumbing, so going to the  bathroom after dark meant carrying a lantern and making your way across the wet grass to the outhouse.  In the winter time, while not especially cold, my mother dressed me in thick, cotton, footed pajamas.  Now the way they worked was that they buttoned all the way up the front in a long row of buttons and in the back, four more buttons held up a big "butt flap" at about the waist.  After a few washings, the cotton was a little stretched out and that helped when trying to reach the buttons in the back to try to lower the flap and sit on the wooden planks across the seat in the outhouse.  I would have to sit the lantern down so I could see and where it wouldn't tip over and catch the whole place on fire; reach around to my back to undo the buttons,; make sure the flap was out of the way of the stream of pee; and still be able to reach a bit of paper to wipe myself without getting myself wet or falling in the hole.  Invariably I either pulled off a button or tore the fabric when trying to contort my body to reach behind myself and I can remember quite distinctly the feeling of a cold wet butt as I scampered back across the yard to the house with my flap waving in the breeze.