I agree that the stories about the peddlers may not be directly linked to genealogy but they are linked to family history, which brings to mind another important, but necessary, part of family history...the outhouse. Being the offspring of poor sharecroppers, I never thought about the outhouse and whether it was a "one-hole" or "two-hole" outhouse. I didn't give any thought about whether people were lucky enough to have a Sears and Roebuck Catalog, who rubbed the pages together to soften them. I never thought how after the catalog ran out, you went to corncobs. It was just a little building in the backyard which I went to when nature called. Then when my uncle killed a snake in the outhouse, I never used it again. I found a bush to hide behind. There apparently were two kinds of outhouses: the kind that was built over a hole that had been dug and the kind that no hole was dug into the ground. Our's didn't have a hole dug into the ground. This kind of outhouse had a opening behind the seat and when necessary, some unfortunate soul had a job with a shovel. My wild, tomboyish aunt had fun with this opening. If she saw somebody going into the outhouse, she went to the opening behind the seat, and peeped up at the exposed rear-end sitting there. She would rub a stick across the victims bare rear-end and laugh when the person ran, screaming, out of the outhouse. This memory is lovingly dedicated to my dear, distant Cousin Nell who subscribes to this list. I hope it brightens up your day.