Saturday, March 5, 2016

Taking It for Granted -- Or Not

Water!  The stuff of life.  We can't live without it, of course.  And these days I tend to take it for granted.  I turn on the faucet and there's water, and plenty of it.  But when I was a child we didn't have public water services in our small town.  People used wells or cisterns and we used the least necessary to do the job, whether it was cooking potatoes, bathing, or cleaning.

Those families who used cisterns, like ours, had to purchase water by the truckload.  Mom or Dad would call the "water man" and a day or two later the truck would lumber into our driveway to deliver our water.  (The truck that delivered our water was similar to but smaller than the one at right and was black.)

Our cistern was near our house on the other side of our driveway.  On top of the ground was a cement slab perhaps 30" square with a hole probably no larger than 10" x 12".  A piece of wood (I think) covered the hole and a large rectangular rock on top of that held the cover in place.  Beneath the cement slab was the cistern itself going deep into the ground.  It was a hole perhaps 6 feet wide and I can't guess how deep.  The cistern was lined with either cement or stones.  Though we were cautioned to stay away from it that didn't prevent me from taking a peek when the cover was off.  But it was so dark I couldn't see anything.

In a recent post I mentioned that my father had to clean the cistern because a neighbor boy claimed to have thrown a cat into it.  Another challenge with the cistern was that sometimes we ran out of water.  I remember one winter morning we turned on the tap and there was no water.  Mom was beside herself.  My sister and I suggested we just go to Gramma's house, two doors down.  My mother forbade it.  I think she didn't want to lose face with her mother for not having ordered water in time.  But we were in luck because it had snowed the night before.  We filled containers with snow and my mom heated it on the stove so we could wash before going to school.

"City water," as we called it, eventually arrived in Mineral Ridge.  We felt like we were hot stuff to be able to take a bath in more than an inch of water. 

I did not take water for granted when my husband and I lived in El Salvador for nearly a year.  When we arrived at the home of our host we were told that the water would probably be off for several hours during the day.  We never knew when those hours would be but, as it happened, only rarely was the water off when we were home.  (When we were there in the late 1970s there were no hot water heaters.  We showered in cold water.)

Six weeks later we moved to a room in a very tiny town in the country.  There was a central public water source which most villagers used.  It was usually the children who carried empty containers to the water, filled them, and returned with them to their homes.  The girls carried them on their heads, the boys on their shoulders.  We marveled that little 5-year-olds carried gallon containers (weighing 8 pounds) and 7- and 8-year-olds carried two gallons or more.

The family from who we rented our room was a little wealthier than most and had water piped to their home.  However, it was not truly indoor plumbing because it went to one end of their walled patio, a section which had a roof over it.  Against that wall was a toilet, a shower (both open air except for the back wall and door), and a pila.  In the photo ate right the woman is standing beside the pila that we used. 

To explain, our pila was essentially a concrete box to hold water that was about 24" by 36" by 36" deep.  It had a faucet to turn the water off and on.  Since there was not always running water, the pila was filled when water was available.  Beside and attached to the pila was a 6" deep, flat-bottomed "sink" for laundry, dishes, etc., which had a drain.  When dipping water out of the pila we had to be very careful not to contaminate the water with soap, or anything else, for that matter.  When I washed clothes I laid each piece in the sink, used a container to dip water from the pila to get the clothes wet, then used a bar of soap to roll over the clothing.  And then I scrubbed them, dipped more water to rinse them, and wrung them out by hand.  I tell you I was thrilled to see the end of hand-washing clothes in a pila.  





In the photos of the pila, above, the woman in the top right photo is using the sink to wash clothes.  Not all pilas had ridges on the bottom; some, like the one I used, was smooth.  In the bottom photo, second from the right, you can see the pila on the right with the sink on the left.  In the center bottom photo, the pila is in the center with a sink on either side.

I washed our dishes in the pila and collected water from it to clean our house.  Pilas were also used to bath babies.  Once a neighbor child, a toddler of about 18 months, was angry and screaming.  Her sister picked her up, sat her in the sink of the pila, and poured cold water over her.  I was surprised to see her begin to laugh.

I try not to take water for granted these days.  When I remember my mom having to call to have water delivered by truck, watching children carry it from a public source in jugs, or having had to wash clothes in a pila, I'm so very grateful for fresh, clean, running water in my home.  When I think of those times, then I don't take it for granted.

This is a Sepia Saturday post.  Click through to this week's blog post and see the memories and insights others have posted this week.

Photo of water truck courtesy of Wikimedia.
Photos of pila from google search results.

--Nancy.

Copyright © 2016 Nancy Messier. All Rights Reserved.
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22 comments:

  1. I am thrilled to have plentiful clean water too! For decades we lived with well water but there was no difference between that and the city water because it came from ground water via an electric pump with a storage tank. Served all our needs by just turning on a tap. A few houses had old hand pumps but they were just historic pieces. I was happy to vote money to repair and improve our city's water system recently.

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    1. It's amazing that ground water was plentiful enough to supply a whole city with its water needs, Kristin. And that it was clean enough to drink without processing or without unpleasant chemical elements (iron, sulfur, etc.). Yes, I would vote for money for city water any day. Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment. I appreciate it.

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  2. I lived in a house with well water and a pump. When the electricity went out there was no water. I'm ashamed to admit that we'd go to a hotel if the outages lasted more than a day. After one long dry spell, I sent a note of gratitude to our local power company. Now with drought in California we are all appreciating how lucky we are to have water at all.

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    1. We are so accustomed to having running water, it is hard to live without it. Hard because of a power outage, but harder still because of drought. With a power outage, you can guess that it won't be off for months and months, but with a drought, there's no telling. I'm impressed that you sent a thank you to the power company. I doubt they get many thanks yous.

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  3. I feel guilty for wasting water, but not guilty enough to stop.

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    1. When I think of the ways that my mom conserved water (using the rinse water from laundry twice, then once again for the next load of wash, etc.) I know I waste water. I try avoid it as much as possible but don't always succeed. Sometimes the shower tempts me to stay a little longer than necessary.

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  4. There are photos of me carrying water as a toddler in buckets when we were camping in Europe but that is about the only time I have been without running water - apart from other camping trips. How lucky am I?

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    1. Very lucky, Alex! We've always had running water, too, but our daughter's water supply on her farm is sometimes iffy, so when we've visited her there have been times without running water. It's hard!

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  5. When one has experienced shortage of water, one can appreciate it when it is in plentiful supply, but even then I never waste it. Now we have a very deep well with crystal clear water pumped into the house for drinking, we also have town water which is medicated so we use it for washing etc. but not as drinking water.

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    1. It's wonderful that you have a double supply of water, Titania. I would be thrilled to have crystal clear well water to drink. It must be delicious!

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  6. We've always had running water 'on tap', but when our son and daughter-in-law lived in Ghana for a year they had to fill buckets when the water supply was turned off, which happened frequently, and power outages were also common. A big contrast to our privileged way of life. We take water for granted, although there were restrictions on its use for gardens etc a few years ago during a drought, and they may well be brought in again, as we've just had a long dry summer.

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    1. I think the hard part is having tap water, and then having it taken away, as your son and his wife did when in Ghana. The people in Ghana who have always lived having to carry their water can't imagine what it would be like to have running water in their homes. But still, we probably need to be aware of how we use it and be grateful to have running water.

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  7. An interesting post and a good reminder not to take our water for granted. Here in Lanzarote, where our drinking water is either desalinated sea water or commercially bottled, some households still have the water carrier deliver their supply.

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    1. I think there are probably a variety of reasons to buy commercial water, either at a store and toting it home or from a delivery service. In El Salvador some (usually wealthier) people bought bottled water because the public tap water wasn't necessarily water free of organisms. We Americans were all cautioned to either boil water before drinking or buy bottled water. What does desalinated sea water taste like, Little Nell?

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  8. Wonderful thoughtful story and very appropriate in light of the many reports around the world of water shortages and/or pollution. The recent catastrophe in Flint, MI is heartbreaking for the people, and frustrating that such a thing could happen in America.

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    1. Thank you, Mike. Oh, yes, I feel sorry for the people of Flint and their water situation. I think we all trust our public water service, and then to have that happen. What a terrible thing.

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  9. This post brings up some anxiety and the memory of losing our well a couple of years ago. We had to drill a new well and there really wasn't a guarantee that we would strike water again. Paying by the foot we had to go down another 200 feet, but we DID strike good water deeper down. Thankfully! What a trial. It took three months and we were without water the whole time. We had to truck it in for the sheep and had a big barrel on the porch for the household. We did laundry 25 miles away at the laundromat. We showered with a 1 gallon solar shower that we rigged up in the bathroom. What a trial it was. I will always be so grateful to just turn the tap and have great-tasting, safe water.

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    1. Kathleen, just reading about your experience brings on feelings of anxiety, and I didn't go through the experience! I would say what a challenge, but that word seems too mild for the experience. Three months is a long time without running water. I know the pioneers didn't have running water, but for us it's the taking away of something we're using to having that creates the problems, I think. Natasha's water has been on and off (their pipes freeze in the winter) the whole time they've been there. Just last December they were able to get city water, but that doesn't prevent pipes from freezing. I'm so grateful for city water. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm so sorry you had to go through it!

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  10. I have always been a city girl enjoying city water. So when we bought a second home at Smith Mountain Lake, I had to learn about wells and septic tanks. We used up all the water in the well twice - once by power washing the dock and once when we had a houseful of company showering, doing dishes, and doing laundry. I learned my lesson. Now I think about the timing of such chores. This was an outstanding post! Family history plus a good moral lesson.

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    1. Thanks, Wendy. How awful to run out of water with guests! I hope it may have become a funny memory, one of those ones where people say, "You remember when...?" How long did it take your well to fill again? I didn't intend for the post to be preachy or a moral lesson -- just my reminiscences of experiences with water. Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment.

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    2. The second time the well refilled overnight. But the first time we didn't know to turn off the pump so as a result we burned up the motor and had to replace it. The delay with all that meant several days without water. Ah country life!

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    3. Oh, no, Wendy. We learn so much the first time around. It's too bad that first time resulted in being without water and having to get a new pump. Our home had well water before we bought it but we arranged for city water before we moved in. I'm enough of a city girl that I wasn't interested in living with wells and well water. I hope all things at your country home have been going smoothly.

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