So what can a toilet tell us about history? Well, quite a lot actually.
We're in the middle of renovating a powder room in a part of our house that has seen just a few cosmetic changes over the years, but no major do-over. The sink and toilet are original pieces, installed when the house was built in 1960. In general, switching out a toilet is pretty far down the list of home improvement projects. It can be a delicate and messy procedure. Which accounts for why Thomas Crapper's innovation tends to stick around for a lot of years.
This got me to thinking how much the world has changed since that once stylish lime yellow bowl was bolted to the floor. For example:
In 1960 Canada's Prime Minister was John Diefenbaker. He was a conservative politician from western Canada, although he was born in Southern Ontario. His first mandate as Prime Minister began in 1957 with a minority government. His party was able to achieve majority status a year later.
Canada's current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, is a conservative politician who was born in Toronto but later moved to Calgary, Alberta where he began his political career. Harper still presides over a minority parliament.
Early in 1960 a young American senator from Massachusetts declared his intention to run for president. Eleven months later Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy would defeat Richard M. Nixon by a narrow margin to become the 35th president of the United States. Kennedy was the the first and only Irish Catholic president.
The current and 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, is the first African-American president in the country's history. He is also a Democrat.
In 1960 there was no such thing as a home computer, although a number of IBM's mainframes were being integrated into the accounting departments of large companies.
Today, hand-held devices such as the Blackberry and iPhone can store virtually a million times the amount of data and process highly complex formulas in a fraction of a second.
In 1960 nobody had landed on the moon yet, we hadn't even thought of it. NASA's greatest achievement at the time was launching a monkey into orbit.
Today NASA is on the verge of mothballing its shuttle program. Despite remarkable achievements in satellite technology, orbiting science stations and landing robotic vehicles on Mars, we have not been back to the moon in 38 years.
In 1960 nobody had heard of The Beatles. Chubby Checker ruled the charts with his dance sensation The Twist.
In 2010 nobody could forget about the incredible success of The Beatles. That said, Chubby Checker still performs live, and his song The Twist has been named the greatest hit of all time by Billboard Magazine.
In the 1960 Winter Olympic Games held in Squaw Valley, California, the gold medal for hockey went to the USA. Canada took silver. The medals were determined based on a points system, which meant Canada and the USA did not play one another for the medal. American hockey historians refer to this as the Forgotten Miracle.
In the 2010 Winter Olympic games held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and the USA met in the final match of the hockey tournament to determine the gold medal winner. I think you can remember how that ended, and it was unforgettable.
In 1960 the Montreal Canadiens swept the Chicago Black Hawks on their way to becoming Stanley Cup Champions (they swept the Leafs to win it).
In 2010 the miracle Montreal Canadiens fell short of qualifying for the Stanley Cup finals. The coveted trophy eventually went to (wait for it) the Chicago Black Hawks.
It seems that as much as our world has changed over the decades, in some way it is very much the same. Something to ponder next time you're on the throne.
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