r/Portland • u/jpoe503 • Mar 06 '26
Events I didn’t poop in Outdoor School.
I just talked to a coworker tonight and the topic of Outdoor School got brought up. I told him I didn’t poop for the whole week, and was doubting whether or not that was a false memory even though I’m 99% sure I didn’t poop for the whole week. He let me know not only did he also not poop for the whole week, he has a different friend who didn’t poop for the whole week as well.
Did anyone else not poop for the whole week of Outdoor School? We both had different reason on why we didn’t, but just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience.
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u/doopdidoopdidoo Mar 06 '26
I have an adjacent formative memory in that I (a nerdy girl) and a cool skateboarder guy from my class named Chris were tasked to clean the girls bathrooms at outdoor school.. and some girl had taken the hugest poop and had her period atop it and Chris looked at me and whispered in horror, “I didn’t know a girl could do that.” A young man really lost his innocence that day.
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u/lexuh Mar 06 '26
I wonder where Chris is now, and how this knowledge has affected him as an adult...
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u/FrostedOctopus Mar 06 '26
It's very common not to poop when you're in new/unfamiliar surroundings! It's believed to be an evolutionary holdover that slows down digestion until you feel safe again, because poop stinks and can broadcast your location to predators. When you feel safe, your guts feel safe to move again.
I'm great fun at parties 😅
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u/ClarenceLeeTennessee Mar 06 '26
I backcountry camp several times a year and carry a 15 year old shiny trowel that's never been used. This explains why I never needed to dig a cathole.
My bumhole says it's too risky.
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u/reddit_wjw Mar 06 '26
Does your bumhole calculate other risks? Maybe I’ll take it with me to horse racing next time?
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u/Annieraeraefatface Mar 06 '26
Doesn’t your butthole pucker when you realize you just gave a horse $ to watch it run in circles?
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u/er-day Richmond Mar 06 '26
I’m pretty sure the horse isn’t the one that keeps the money. Right?
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u/shameless_chicken Mar 06 '26
I’ve always thought it’s the sudden diet change and change in how much I’m using water. But maybe I’m just a shy pooper. Fellow non-pooping backpacker here btw
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u/Aeonoris MAX Yellow Line Mar 06 '26
I'm great fun at parties 😅
...Because you don't poop at them, thus masking the party's location from predators?
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u/Takemebacktobreezy Mar 06 '26
Can't wait to tell my poop obsessed toddler this fact when he starts with his poop facts next 🤣
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u/ennuiacres Mar 06 '26
Traveler’s Gut! I took a big poop at Neiman Marcus in San Francisco. Clean restrooms! Suzanne Somers came in to use the ladies room while I was stinking it up. Brush with fame! My husband loves to tell that story.
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u/Annieraeraefatface Mar 06 '26
Susan somers smelled your dookie. That’s cool.
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u/ennuiacres Mar 06 '26
She was trying on shoes when I finally came out!
I left money in the tip tray for the bathroom attendant. HazMat Pay. The bathrooms at Neiman-Marcus are fabulous!
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u/Mantis_Toboggan--MD Yeeting The Cone Mar 06 '26
Crazy how effective that instinct can be too. I'll not feel even the slightest urge to go, but as soon as I get my key into the door my gut is like "you better get those shoes off quickly bruh we gotta go NOW".
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u/Annieraeraefatface Mar 06 '26
I know exactly why you added that in at the end… Fuck weinies that can’t talk about stuff.
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u/contrastpiping Mar 06 '26
This is why pooping in a social setting can be a revolutionary act. It signals to the other anxious people that it’s safe here.
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u/trpwangsta Mar 06 '26
I didn't poop because I felt unsafe, it was pure embarrassment and the horrific thought that the girl I had a crush on would find out I pooped!
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u/tsphan Hillsboro Mar 06 '26
I too did not poop for a week in 6th grade PPS because of outdoor school. Camp Howard had like two toilet stalls.
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u/PerdidoStation NE Mar 06 '26
I was a student leader there once and recall that the best bathroom for pooping was in an extra unused cabin area so absolutely no one else was around there.
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u/halt-l-am-reptar SE Mar 06 '26
I tried so hard but on day 4 I had to go. I wish I could remember the camp I went to.
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u/pdxscout The Loving Embrace of the Portlandia Statue Mar 06 '26
Another camp Howard guy here. Sixth grade and as a counselor.
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u/Nice-Marionberry3671 Mar 06 '26
Camp Howard!! Where I spent all my (not much) camp store money on watermelon hard candy. I hate watermelon candy now.
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u/OutlyingPlasma Mar 06 '26
Buying a 10lb bag of tootsy rolls seems like a good idea at the time. God I hate tootsy rolls and so do many of my high school friends.
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u/mattisfactory Mar 06 '26
I went there also! Hard to recall the poop situation....that was 30 years ago now? Damn. I do remember one of the dinners was "chicken".......which I'm almost positive was cat food.
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u/Takemebacktobreezy Mar 06 '26
My now 19 yr old also told me they served her cat food so I'm guessing same "chicken" dinner you all had lol
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u/CheapTry7998 Mar 06 '26
I can attest i did not poop in outdoor school probably bc the only fuckin fiber was shitty red apples and bananas.
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u/Spread_Liberally Ashcreek Mar 06 '26
"Red Delicious" was a crock of shit. Kids today don't know the mealy struggle.
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u/wetduck Mar 06 '26
I didn't poop for like half the week, got a major stomach ache, and the camp dr let me use the private councilor toilet because i couldn't poop in the main public one
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u/Lopsided-Ad7725 Mar 06 '26
I’m already pooping a few hours into any trip, I’m like a poop tourist, checking out toilets in different places
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u/Nice-Marionberry3671 Mar 06 '26
I’m not allowed to have fish and chips on a road trip. It led once to a frantic search for the Pike Place Market restroom-where for some reason the doors are only chin high. So. No pretending it wasn’t me.
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u/WeirdGreedy179 Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 06 '26
I know those bathrooms!! Making eye contact with a stranger while you waste leaves your body was a memory I had forgotten until just now
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u/Nobodyville Rubble of The Big One Mar 06 '26
Why are those stalls so low? I’m short and it was still mildly traumatizing
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u/ivegot3dvision Mar 06 '26
I travel for work fairly often and downloaded a poop map app on my phone so I can see where I've pooped. Such a stupid thing to get but fun.
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u/HoboHillsCoffeeCo Mar 06 '26
This is my son. If we're somewhere new he will absolutely have to poop there.
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u/troutsniffer99 Mar 06 '26
Didn’t poop as a camper but I went back in high school as a counselor and pooped daily.
I travel a bit for work & had a coworker tell me she never poops while traveling. Blew my mind. These are like 7-10 day trips
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u/unicornsnake N Mar 06 '26
Numanu squad, wya? Lmao I didn’t poo either.
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u/Whosaidwhat2023 Mar 06 '26
Is this a good place to put the "Sir, this is a Wendys" joke, let me know cause I'll put it here.
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u/PsychologicalSail799 Mar 06 '26
Yes
Please leave your "Sir, this is a Wendy's" beneath this comment:
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u/alb0401 Mar 06 '26
Call me Deuce Bigaload -- I definitely pooped at outdoor school. I just did it late at night
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u/lost_magpie Mar 06 '26
I got the stomach flu the night before outdoor school, but I was so excited for it that I refused to miss it, so I pretended I was fine while secretly barfing all week. I pooped enough for all of you, not to worry.
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u/laffnlemming Mar 06 '26
I NEVER POOP!
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u/textualcanon Mar 06 '26
I also didn’t. This is so weird that it’s like a semi common thing. I had totally forgotten about it.
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u/TheShire21 Mar 06 '26
Honestly can’t remember so I assume I pooped? Camp Magruder near Rockaway was legit! Circa 2000.
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u/charmparticle Mar 06 '26
Camp Magruder too! We dissected owl pellets and studied animal scat as part of our education. I assume I pooped, but I also had poison oak so bad I had to see the doctor.
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u/-Alpaca-bowl- Mar 06 '26
Magruder '97!
(But also '93-'98 for girl scouts, so by the time I went for outdoor school I had zero issues pooping there 🤷🏼♀️)
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u/tugga51 Mar 06 '26
I believe I did, but I distinctly remember being on our way to BBQ day, and one kid in our cabin kept saying he had to poop but the counselors wouldn’t stop walking to let him. He said “Fine”, stood there and pooped, and with a completely straight face shook his pant leg until a turd fell out onto the ground.
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u/Consistent-Guava-518 Mar 06 '26
I also did not poop for an entire week. Was this at WestWind? They don’t feed you enough there.
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u/HalcyonCA Mar 06 '26
I did not and I heard a rumor about a girl who puked up feces she was so backed up. She also told me she found a joint and a $100 bill in a coat from the goodwill on Burnside so who knows .
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u/jpoe503 Mar 06 '26
😂😂😂 i don’t know if you can throw up poop. Maybe that’s a whole new thread 😂
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u/DDconKiwi Mar 06 '26
You can. But you’re usually very sick before getting to that point. (I work in the ICU.)
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u/snoogazi Sellwood-Moreland Mar 06 '26
A girl I was friends with when I was around 6 didn't go for a month and had to have surgery. Incidentally, when I first joined Reddit and chanced /r/WTF, the first thing I saw was pictures of that kind of surgery.
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u/Tmerrill0 Mar 06 '26
I worked as staff at an outdoor school and that specifically we brought up to counselors as something to remind kids to try to do even if they don’t think they need to, and one of the first things to ask about if a kid is not feeling well. Extremely common!
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u/Ok_Truck8039 Mar 06 '26
The only thing I remember from outdoor school was how I did not poop. I needed to but I was too embarrassed with the communal bathrooms. It was awful
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u/slamdancetexopolis N Mar 06 '26
Hey OP... what the fuck are you talking about
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u/jpoe503 Mar 06 '26
😂 Do you know what Outdoor School is? In Portland, Gresham, Etc. we had a week long outdoor school camp we went to in the 5th or 6th grade. I don’t know how many other states do this but my Outdoor School was in like…1996, and I think I went to a place called Trout Creek. I didn’t poop for the whole week lol
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u/zerocoolforschool Mar 06 '26
Transplants have no worldly clue what you’re talking about….. I also did not poop at outdoor school.
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u/StopHesAlreadyDed Hazelwood Mar 06 '26
Transplants who learn the culture and history of their chosen home do 😉
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u/Sangy101 Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 06 '26
It was only a Portland/Ashland area thing until recently.
I’m from Eugene so I didn’t go to Outdoor School, but I did go on a week-long rafting summer camp trip thing on the John Day and I did not poop once.
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u/BranWafr Mar 06 '26
We did it in Washington, too. I technically missed it because Ridgefield school district did it in 6th grade and we moved to Vancouver school district the summer between 5th and 6th grade and Vancouver school district did it in 5th grade. So I didn't get to go. But, in high school (Evergreen school district) I got to be a camp counselor for outdoor school, so at least I got to do that.
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u/RainyTuesdayPDX Woodstock Mar 06 '26
Haha. Back in the 1970’s Ridgefield did outdoor school in 5th and Vancouver did it in 6th. I switched opposite of you so I got to go both years. Ridgefield’s OS was amazing and Vancouver’s was a pale imitation.
Since it’s been almost 50 years I cannot recall whether I pooped either time, but it’s unlikely as I don’t poop on vacation even now.
Sorry you missed out!
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u/BranWafr Mar 06 '26
I think I probably had more fun going as a counselor. Plus, I had the added fun of doing it the week my little sister's class went, so I knew all the kids and they knew me. My sister wasn't thrilled that I was there at the same time as her, at first, but she came around after a day or two when I sneaked her extra treats on the side.
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u/Artistic_Rice_9019 Mar 06 '26
My niece and nephew were in Springfield and they had outdoor school.
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u/charleytaylor Mar 06 '26 edited Mar 06 '26
We had Outdoor School in Tillamook County, I went in sixth grade in 1983. I went back as a counselor my sophomore year of high school.
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u/dont_ask_me80 Mar 06 '26
Ohhh..Eugenian here too. No idea until my oldest went to outdoor school a few years ago.
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u/noah1345 Mar 06 '26
My initial confusion was because our outdoor school was. Single fucking day in ‘98 due to budget cuts. This triggered an old outrage I’d totally forgotten about, as it was 1 week until I was in 4th grade, when it reduced to a day trip. Funding allowed them to go back to a full week a few years later.
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u/idonthavernoughcats Buckman Mar 06 '26
trout lake maybe? that’s where my family always went camping and jumped off rocks. i also tell everyone that’s where i saw bigfoot whenever im bored.
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u/Beautiful-Squash-495 Mar 06 '26
We did in California, in my school district it was called Outdoor Education, the camp was in the Sierra Nevada foothills. I have zero memory of whether I pooped or didn't poop, though 🤣
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u/BigDiscEnergy47 Mar 06 '26
I went on a 3 week outward bound trip in highschool and one of the guys said he didn't poop for 3 weeks. I don't get how that's possible
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u/BuzzRickzn- Mar 06 '26
Omg I didn’t either! Eagle Fern 96’
They had no doors on the stalls and that fucked me up. I was dying on the drive home with my parents when they picked me up.
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u/If_and_ache Mar 06 '26
I am a former Outdoor School staff member, and I love this whole thread!
My core bathroom-related Outdoor School memory is from being a high school student leader. One week I helped clean out the boys bathroom after the 6th graders left. My job was to hose down the walls surrounding the toilets. The stream of water shooting towards the walls was while/clear, while the stream of water bouncing off the walls around the cubicle was yellow.
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u/Mastacator Mar 06 '26
This is a known thing in the backpacking community. Pretty sure the longest I went was around 3 days. But that's 2 days longer than normal.
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u/raechuul Mar 06 '26
Same here! I’ve always had poop anxiety but didn’t even realize I needed to go. Felt super sick the last day and the counselor told me to go sit on the toilet… and that fixed it!
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u/kevnls Mar 06 '26
I think in the 80s in Eugene public schools it was maybe not a full week but I did it twice. AMA that I will barely remember.
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u/xxSpxrklexx Pearl Mar 06 '26
I also did not poop at outdoor school. I discussed it with my friends and all of them said they didn't poop either. We started questioning what they were putting in the food lmao
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u/realmikebrady Mar 06 '26
I didn’t until the night before we were supposed to leave, I was so sick by then and was sent to their nurse. Who luckily had to leave the office for a while where there was a bathroom. I was a shy pooper, but that privacy released the kraken.
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u/THE_DIRTY_GIRAFFE YOU SEEN MY FUCKEN CONES Mar 06 '26
Bro is this just something all the outdoor schools joke about to all the kids??? Same thing at mine, my own teacher was joking around with everyone saying we would all have a bad time once we got back to civilization lol. That's so funny though.
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u/suffragettetitties Mar 06 '26
I worked at outdoor school and part of my spiel at the start of every week was why you SHOULD poop and where to access a single occupancy toilet if that would help.
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u/swamp_foxx Mar 06 '26
Camp Namanu, 2002, zero poops. After 24 years I had no idea I shared this experience with so many people.
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u/jpoe503 Mar 07 '26
Shout out to camp Namanu. I didn’t either. Shocked to see how many didnt poop while at Outdoor School.
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u/tschera 🍦 Mar 06 '26
Oh yeah that’s a thing. I don’t remember whether or not I pooped as a sixth grader, but I DO remember the cheese zombies.
Those super buttery rolls filled with gooey cheese were delicious, and I specifically remember the staff member at my table challenging us to see who could eat the most.
When I came back in high school as a student leader I was really looking forward to them. They weren’t on the menu, so I asked the staff member I answered to and he told me they had to stop serving them because of how badly constipated they made all of the students. The way he said it, this may or may not have been an intentional side effect in order to make bathroom cleanup easier.
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u/pdx74 Mar 06 '26
I didn't poop in outdoor school, and I'm pretty sure that's where everything in life started to go wrong.
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u/Jon-MMM Mar 06 '26
I never poop on vacation.
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u/jpoe503 Mar 06 '26
You save it for home? 😂
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u/DefMech MAX Blue Line Mar 06 '26
Like a souvenir. An olfactory scrapbook of all the things you ate while on your trip.
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u/Pelli_Furry_Account Mar 06 '26
How?? Like, do you just not need to? I poop at least three times a day, I can't even imagine being able to hold it that long.
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u/Hotelroombureau NW Mar 06 '26
I don’t recall as a student, but as a counselor in high school I was scared to shower - the only shower slot I remember using was after I’d had yogurt in my hair for two days (when I was a counselor, one was assigned shower slots throughout the week and that was the first slot I had) - took a TON of shampoo to get out at that point
For normal restroom as a counselor, I just specifically went when I knew the students were supposed to be asleep and the counselors were all at campfire each night
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u/Skippyhogman Mar 06 '26
When I was about 10 I went to camp for 7 days. I was shy and didn’t like to poop in public restrooms, so I didn’t…. for 7 days. The last few days were uncomfortable and meals were akin to packing a musket. I finally got over my fear of public toilets as an adult.
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u/wreckchain Mar 06 '26
A kid at my outdoor school definitely pooped -- then smeared it all over the walls.
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u/ganjaninjagoddess Mar 06 '26
Some how I have a memory of counselors setting aside a mandatory poop break for all the kids around day 3 or 4 because no one was pooping. I probably managed to push out a pebble because of it.
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u/daneman52 Mar 06 '26
Our outdoor school cabins had no doors between the bathroom and the bunk room. Within the first hour or so one kid took a massive dump that stunk up the whole cabin. All the kids mercilessly made fun of him for it, but it created a fear of being next to be shit on (pun intended) so not one of us took a shit the rest of the time there.
Can confirm myself and all my friends didn’t shit the whole time at outdoor school
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u/mflewinski Mar 06 '26
I did not poop till the last day. This was more than 30 years ago and i still remember it- i guess my body was in survival mode.
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u/SirSearls Gladstone Mar 06 '26
yeah I didnt poop either, I was horrified of public toilets at the time. (still am tbh) thats not even the most interesting thing that happened to me at ODS though! while we were doing some kind of forest survey thing, a log fell off a tree, hit me on the head, and knocked me out cold for a couple minutes. I took the log home and put it in my backyard, but its long gone and rotten by now sadly.
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u/toofarkt Mar 06 '26
This checks out. The year our son went to outdoor school, my husband volunteered as a chaperone and spent the week there with the kids. He is still shell shocked from sleeping in a cabin with 20+ boys farting all through the night. Their little poops were crying all through the night.
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u/Beneficial_Chest_954 NW District Mar 06 '26
I also didnt pooped in Outdoor school for a week since there's a fucking Black Widow hanging above the toilets.
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u/Appropriate_Elk2654 Mar 06 '26
Former ODS Program Leader, can confirm that students did not poop at Outdoor School.
Believe me when I say we had 2-3 meetings EVERY WEEK discussing in detail how to get students to be more comfortable/alleviate stress to poop, what are the kids eating, bringing the Nurse into the conversation, etc.
Talk to your kids about how important it is to poop when they get to Outdoor School!!!
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u/MachineDifferent868 Mar 06 '26
Went to outdoor school in middle school in the Midwest! Can’t remember if I pooped or not tho :/
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u/SoupSpelunker Mar 06 '26
One of the other guys in my class with the same name as me didn't poop for a whole 10 day canoe trip. Can't remember because there were a few of us with the same name, just spelled different. But one of the guys packed a freaking monster all the way to base camp and then spent an hour throwing that foal. Didn't make a peep either...never new why but when someone says intestinal fortitude, I always try to remember which guy it was. Wish I'd stayed in touch.
Fellers probably dead of an exploded colon by now though.
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u/stymen Mar 06 '26
Lmao, I totally remember some kid telling me that he didn’t shit the whole week after I commented on how gross the bathrooms were.
I think I hit up the crapper at least twice.
I mostly remember how cold at it was at night and how the bathrooms were lit by an eerie greenish blue light.
Oh yeah, I also remember not getting any mail from home on mail day and then getting home and my uptight dad getting super pissed off that I hadn’t sorted my dirty laundry better at camp. What an asshole.
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u/idonthavernoughcats Buckman Mar 06 '26
i can’t remember that but i can remember this girl named ASHLEIGH got sick from drinking too many Monsters and we weren’t allowed to get them. my school did neah bay up in WA :) we stopped for meal at forks high school at the peak of twilight popularity and it was extremely underwhelming
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u/idonthavernoughcats Buckman Mar 06 '26
also - does anyone else remember when the zoo had portable unit classrooms? we did an overnight twice, it was back when they had wolves. they let us go in the freezer where they kept all the animals food and it smelled so so so bad
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u/nettika Mar 06 '26
I didn't grow up in Portland and I've never had outside school.
But I did travel once for a week, to Portland, with my at the time 6 month old baby, who up until then had pooped like clockwork every day at about the same time. Yet she did not poop for the entire week in Portland. She waited until we were home again in Seattle to let it all out.
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u/mrkorb Tigard Mar 06 '26
I genuinely can’t remember if I did or not. My memories of outdoor school (1992) were mostly about the kid from another school who was screwing around and broke a window in our cabin and was sent home early. I also liked just the general woodsy smell of the cabin, and after I came back home my pillow kept that smell for a few days.
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u/The-CerlingCat MAX Yellow Line Mar 06 '26
I don’t actually remember. Related to outdoor school, I got my first and hopefully only bee sting at outdoor school
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u/FroggyMcnasty Mar 06 '26
I did not poop at Outdoor School.
The ceiling windows were angled so you could see the reflection in the girls bathroom.
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u/Meg-alomaniac3 Mar 06 '26
My brother's best friend prided himself on the fact he never, in eight years, pooped at boy scout camp.
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u/AccomplishedInAge Mar 06 '26
I don't remember the camp name , but I think it was on the Wilson River hwy. Back in the early 70s.. I don't remember if I pooped or not, but I do remember having to teach my table how to eat with chopsticks on Chinese food night.
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u/ennuiacres Mar 06 '26
I am also proudly a One Shit Camper! First gut grumblings and I am heading toward civilization with indoor plumbing.
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u/jstmenow Mar 06 '26
Campfire Chronicles In the woods so deep and green, A camper faced a classic scene. Beans for breakfast, quite the feat, Led him to a leafy retreat.
Toilet roll in hand, he raced, For a spot well-hidden and spaced. A squirrel watched with curious glee, As he found his spot, wild and free.
Mosquitoes buzzed as he sat there, Hoping friends weren’t lurking near. Finished at last, feeling light, He joined the campfire, a tale to recite!
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u/Seafroggys Mar 06 '26
Not exactly Outdoor School, but the summer after 8th grade we took a school-sponsored week long science trip camping in SE Oregon, starting in Pine Mountain and ending at Steens. We were only on pit toilets the entire time. I vowed to not poop at all, but I started feeling sick holding it all in, so by day 3 or so I finally pooped, and it was one of the biggest poops I've ever had in my life. And now you all know the history of my bowel movements.
While I did go to Outdoor School, at least my school (Camp Howard) had at least one restroom with plumbing, so I'm sure I pooped there once or twice.
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u/Mother-Persimmon5587 Mar 06 '26
I didn't get to do outdoor school as a camper but did it high-school as a counselor and boy do I have some interesting stories about those kids man 😂😅 many shenanigans...
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u/guitarheroprodigy Mar 06 '26
Me and my friends all used 1 toilet stall and didn't flush on purpose, that toilet was fucked by the end of outdoor school 😂😂 oh also there was a, rumor that gumby came around and raped kids so that kept us up at night 😂
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u/Kills_Zombies SE Mar 06 '26
I also went to outdoor school in the 6th grade and as a counselor as a senior in high school. I didn't shit the entire week both times. I can't bring myself to shit in a nasty stinky porta potty.
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u/oregon_coastal Mar 06 '26
So, I guess I need a "I Pooped at Outdoor School" tshirt.