Portable Sanitation Association International

Page 4 PSAI Industry Retrospective - the 70s History Of The PSAI: The 1970s Turn back the hands of time to the late 1960s and the early 1970s…Rock and Roll…"e Summer of Love"… the Vietnam War…Peace Protests…the Apollo Moon Landings… Our country and the World were changing before the eyes of those who lived in this era. e Space Program was advancing technology at an accelerating rate. Mainframe computers were replacing entire departments of statisticians. A new invention, the "hand-held Pocket Calculator" was introduced in 1972. Authority and the status quo were being questioned and challenged at all levels. e country was becoming more connected through communication and technology. HISTORY OF THE UNIT AND THE OPERATOR With this paradigm shi, an industry that was not really an industry at all, slowly came to be. In the 1940s during the height of World War II, the Long Beach Shipyards were among the first places for portable restrooms to be used on a wide-spread basis. Constructed of wood with modified metal 55-gallon drums for waste tanks, these facilities provided time savings for the ship workers who were constructing and repairing naval vessels for the war effort. It is interesting to note that women played a huge role in this industry and efforts of "Rosie the Riveter" cannot be underestimated in the development of portable sanitation facilities in these locations. e facilities saved time and were efficient, key elements in war-time production. Aer the War and with the return of G.I. Joe and G.I. Jane, residential construction and home building began to flourish. In the 1950s, a cottage industry of independent providers of homemade, wooden portable restrooms were being formed throughout the country. Many of the familiar portable restroom companies of today were formed independently and unknown to each other during this era. Among the many companies formed during this time, here are but a few: • In 1956, construction sites in California were being provided wooden units by Andy Gump. Manufactured in his garage, this hardworking gentleman told his customers that "his handshake was his word and bond and he didn't need a contract or a piece of paper to seal the deal." • In Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1958, Al Hilde, Jr started a company, Satellite Industries, with 36 units, a service truck, and a deodorizer formula. A veteran of the US Army, Al had noticed that the military always provided adequate food, clothing and shelter while providing inadequate portable restroom facilities. • In 1959, Gene Barnhardt started TSF Company in Evansville, Indiana. Originally servicing units in the area, Gene later began manufacturing. How did these early pioneers of our industry do their jobs? Clyde Sansom remembers that in St. Louis in 1965, he made his own units with "three wood sides, a wood door, a 55-gallon drum cut in half, 10 pieces of wood to make a skid, and 30 or 40 nails to hold everything together." He then "painted the inside gray and installed a length of wire to hold two rolls of toilet paper." He was then ready to deliver this "350 to 400 pound monster" to his customers. Clyde's deodorizer was "Pine-Sol and some blue recreational vehicle dye." Clyde charged "$1.00 a day for my unit which was not bad since gas was 38 cents a gallon." How did Clyde and these early pioneers service these "monsters" on a weekly basis? By modifying the exhaust system on their pick-up trucks, the engine could create a vacuum so that the waste tank could be emptied. What if the tank gets too full and the sludge backflows to the truck's engine? "You lose your engine and your backside" according to Clyde. He eventually installed a cutoff systems to prevent engine failure as a result of servicing restroom units. Kathy Craon is another person that quite literally grew up during this period of time when our industry was growing up as well. Kathy's father, Ed Craon, dedicated his life to our industry and his vision was truly revolutionary. Ed Craon began manufacturing portable restrooms for widespread distribution as opposed to the "homemade model" prior to the mid-1960s. Kathy can remember her Dad shipping wooden units in "4-packs" to eager portable restroom operators throughout the country. According to Kathy, "during this period if you were an operator with 200 units, you were huge. is was indicative of the lack of acceptance of portable sanitation in the marketplace." "120-mile-an-hour fork lift" made from a 1967 Chevy two-door sedan

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