Cool, clear, water

Folks, on Tuesday, May 20, I awoke to find that we had no running water. I phoned the water company and they informed me that they had a problem with the water line that furnished our water. They also said they were working on it but it would be some time before it would be fixed.

As I sat in my lounging chair I had many thoughts concerning water.

First I thought about the people in Myanmar-Burma that recently suffered a severe typhoon. That area was devastated. One of the many problems they have is that there is little or no safe drinking water. People will suffer and die because of drinking unsafe water.

So I thought; what is the big deal, Brubaker? So you can’t make the morning coffee or flush the toilets; you really have nothing to complain about!

Next I thought about the water we had on the farm whereas where I lived the first six years of my life. Oh we had water. We just had to pump it up from the well and this wasn’t easy, especially in the wintertime when we had to pour boiling water down the pump to unfreeze it before we could pump our water. We had two pumps. One for drinking water and one for rainwater.

Then when I was seven we moved into a small town and had modern conveniences. The pumps were now located inside the house.

My mind jumped to how I drank water directly from Big Bear Creek when I was hunting or fishing. I do not recall ever getting sick from this habit but I should not have done it. Be that as it may we kids never gave it a second thought. There was water flowing briskly and if we got thirsty we just flopped down on our bellies and drank from that stream. We also had a town pump, located in front of the grocery store, A tin cup hung there and we all drank from that same cup as did the hobos and tramps that traveled through our town. I guess you can say we were very unsanitary!

No thinking person either young or old would think of doing such things today.

So I thanked the Good Lord for our safe water and pray that those unfortunate people who are without safe cool, clear water will receive it quickly!

Joe Brubaker Column Archives    Click here to read previously published columns