I grew up in South Texas on a farm in the 30s and 40s. We were saving water and recycling every thing. We didn't waste anything. Now they call it living off the grid.
WE WERE LIVING OFF THE GRID AND DIDN'T KNOW IT
Water was a gold mine if you had a well with good drinking water on your land when I was growing up.
I grew up in the South Texas Brush Country, in southwest Wilson County where water was scarce, because we did not have a good well on our farm. We had a windmill that pumped brownish, bitter, water and when it sat in the tank where the well pumped the water into, and the wind didn’t blow for days, the water became still, murky and covered with a rust colored slime mixed with the mud on the bottom. That was because the cattle waded into the tank and stirred the mud. We did not even swim in that tank!
Maybe in the summer when it was so hot, and we had been working in the fields all day and were covered with dirt and sweat, we took a shower under the pipe going out into the tank, even though it was smelly, yucky, felt even worse, would not lather the Lifebuoy soap we used (or if there was not enough money to buy soap, we used the lye soap Mother made). Those showers were okay because at least it was water and we got clean. Mother and Daddy called it “hard water”.
The only water we had to drink was the rainwater coming off the roof to the gutters and into a big cistern by the corner of our house. If it didn’t rain, the cistern was empty, and Daddy had to haul water in big barrels from a farm a few miles from our farm. They were kind enough to let us get water from their well.
We used the water from the two barrels of water for all household things like drinking, cooking, washing dishes, washing clothes, and bathing. We had a dishpan with soapy water and one with clear water for rinsing. We had a washbasin on the back porch which we poured water in to wash our faces. When it was a dry year, we treasured every bit of water we had. We didn’t waste water. When the baths were over, we poured the water on the garden and plants. The dishwater was used for the same. But sometimes when Mother and Daddy weren’t home we kids just threw it in the backyard! Shame on us! I didn’t know what it was to have running water, much less good drinking water on our land. At least the livestock had water, if the wind blew!
I have written about how I loved rainy days on the farm, when my daddy would be in such a good mood. In the drought years, he was not ever in a good mood. I never had running water in my house until I was 17 years old and moved to San Antonio after graduation.
We didn’t waste scraps of food either back then either. Those went into a “slop bucket” for the hogs. Nothing was wasted back then. Talk about recycling. We “recycled” everything. We didn’t have plastic wrap, paper towels, toilet paper, paper napkins, plastic grocery bags, plastic plates, plastic cups, paper cups, and the only thing we threw away was the newspaper and sometimes used that for toilet paper, when the pages of the last years Sears Roebuck Catalog ran out.
We were “living off the grid” and we didn’t even know it!
That is why I love rainy days, thunderstorms, lakes, rivers, green trees, green grass, and flowers. That is why my brothers always get excited when they see a thunderstorm. Because they grew up where it rained very seldom, and like me, they love rainy days too.
Last week I visited with a neighbor here in Floresville, and she showed me the barrel with rainwater she catches when it rains. She uses it to water all her flowers and plants. Why don’t more people do that? We are a wasteful society.
We were a different people back then, Lois. Not necessarily better, but self-reliance was prized, balanced with 'community' out of necessity - thanks for reminding us.
That was the hardscrabble life. You didn't mention electricity. But you probably didn't have that either. And yes, we are a wasteful society and we have to learn how to stop.
I was fortunate to grow up in Wisconsin where clean and cold, sometimes tasting strongly of iron, water was readily available underground. Windmills were everywhere and provided water for milk houses where milk cans were submerged in water tanks with cold running water refrigerating the milk.
Country kitchens had a hand pump over the sink where you could pump water directly from the ground for kitchen use. Drain water from the sink often ran directly out into the yard. Cattle often got their water from creeks or ponds. None of these wells were treated. if water got bad, another well was dug.
My community in West Virginia on the side of a mountain of 11 homes at a water system from a spring and cistern high on the mountain above with the piping system to each of the houses. We got lots of rain there. By the time I bought that cottage in 1975, city water had replaced that old system that still worked for watering gardens.
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WE WERE LIVING OFF THE GRID AND DIDN'T KNOW IT
