The Waterboy

As a kid, we didn't have running water in our house. Technically we did but it was just enough for mom & dad to make coffee in the morning and the kids to brush our teeth. Much more than that and the well would run dry. For anyone who's had to prime a well, you know you don't want your well running dry.

To overcome this problem we (my sisters, brother and I) would carry water from the spring which was about 1/3 mile from the house. We used 5 gallon buckets. As a ten-year-old kid I would carry my two buckets...a weight that was roughly the same as my own. You can bet in the beginning I made many stops along the way. As I grew and got a little stronger the number of stops along the way became fewer and fewer.

Before bed, each kid would poor a little water in the bathroom sink then take a washcloth and clean those....uh....necessary parts. Once a week we would poor a full bucket in the bathtub then follow that with a pot of water that had been sitting on the stove. That would make the water warm enough to take a bath. My sisters would put water in a pitcher and slowly poor it on each others head so they could wash their hair.

In the summer we would make a weekly trip to Ranger Creek. After swimming for a couple of hours we would be clean.....well, cleaner than before.

Now that I'm a middle aged man, what can I glean from this? Lots. First, if you do anything you're going to get dirty. As a kid, I was always doing something and I stayed dirty. That's ok. Dirt never hurt anyone. Second, I didn't have the luxury of having a shower every night like my classmates. That's ok. Even now, my life isn't the same as theirs. We all have a different set of circumstances to deal with. The circumstances don't make the person. It's what the person does with those circumstances that matters. Third, if you want or need something done, just do it. Don't sit around waiting for someone to do it for you. Don't whine, don't moan, don't cry like a baby. None of that stuff gets it done. All the whining in the world won't carry a single bucket of water. Fourth, we didn't stay clean. We got dirty time after time and guess what? We had to carry water time after time. So, if you want to quit carrying water, quit getting dirty. In other words, if you want a different outcome from what you've been experiencing, try doing something different than what you're doing now. One last thing. I never saw Mom or Dad carry water. We kids carried it all. That's ok. It doesn't matter who gets the credit. Let's just do what needs to be done.

Looking back I'm kinda glad our well wasn't so good.