Presents...When we were young, we got all of the water for the house out of the little creek running behind the house. In the winter time we often had to break through the ice. This chore fell to us children and was a task we quickly grew tired of. Unless we needed a lot of water for wash day or some other special purpose, we generally got water in a tea kettle. It was kept on the stove and was also a source of hot water. We also had a reservoir on the stove which heated the water. We carried water for everything. On wash day we carried water until we were tired! Momma washed cloths on a scrub board in a wash tub. She put the boiler on the stove and boiled the whites until they were glimmering. Then she rinsed them. Those clothes got sanitized!
On one occasion, Arnold was sent to the creek to fill the tea kettle. He was out of sorts about something and while he came back up the trail some water splashed on him which made him more upset. He dropped the kettle and kicked it all over the pasture. He had that thing bent every way that it was possible to bend it. Papa happened to be standing at the corner of the barn and saw it all. Perhaps I shouldn't mention what happened next. We didn't have the means to get another tea kettle so even though it was all bent up we still used it. It was a sad looking thing sitting up there on the stove.
Something that was even better than the new electric lights happened when we got water in the house about the same time. A well was dug by hand 30 feet deep. At 28 feet they found water and went down two more feet for good measure. Papa put an electric water pump in it. Then we ran a water pipe out of the well, up the outside wall of the house, then through the wall to a sink Papa put in the kitchen. He then put a faucet on the end. Our first running water consisted of a faucet sticking through the wall over the sink. There was no more going to the creek every time we needed water! This was true luxury. Of course there wasn't any hot running water. This thought wouldn't cross our minds for several years yet. Nor would the idea of an indoor bathroom. It was also years before we didn't have to take our waste water out and throw it on the ground or the garden. But to us kids who had the job of hauling water from the creek, it was a miracle to see the water running out of the tap.
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Revised: 2 May 96