When we were kids, and mom, dad, me and little brother, and my aunt and uncle and their two boys, who lived downstairs of us, would go to the Chicago area Forest Preserves for a picnic and a day of fun in the sun, dad always made sure to bring his large 'black bag'...that bag went everywhere with him, even just to the store...in it were his camera, flash, light meter, film, and his cigs, and lighters....all that was standard equipment for his black bag because one never knew when an opportunity for a snapshot or a cig might come along...
But whenever we went out to the forest preserves, there was always something extra added to the black bag...hammer, screw, nails, screwdrivers, and these smooth hunks of metal that dad had pilfered from his job as a machinist at Sunbeam..it probably was scrap metal, which served no useful purpose...on these various scraps of metal, dad would inscribe things with his electric pen...
So, when in the Forest Preserves, dad would take us kids down to the outhouse, or 'woody-woods' as we called it...we would all go in, each in our turn, and do our business...then dad would have us kids stand guard, to make sure that no one was coming...when the coast was clear, dad would be nailing or screwing those metal sheets onto the outhouse...usually they said things, like, 'This outhouse erected to Hizzoner Mayor Richard J. Daley(Who was the mayor when we were kids)...sometimes they also said the aforementioned thought, and then it was added, 'This sign designed by John L. Frazier*(My dads name)....
Dad got such a kick out of that, and we kids were proud to stand guard so that dad could have his fun...
When I grew up, I often wondered if anyone every noticed his signs on the outhouse...they were not real big, and dad usually hammered them in up high, near the roof of the outhouse...
I guess in time, when they tore down the old outhouses, and replaced them with newer counterparts, the workmen must have gotten a chuckle out of those signs...
And that is the story about my dads fascination with outhouses...he loved to put signs on them, and he loved to paint them...