Shower Water ~ How Clean Would You Be If You Had To Haul It?

People often take water for granted today

People often take water for granted today. They are so used to going to a basin, turning a tap (faucet, in some countries) and out comes hot, cold or water to whatever temperature it has been set for. It wasn't always this easy so I have to ask, if you had to haul water from outside, heat it on the stove or fire, pour it into a bathtub, how often would you then feel obliged to shower?

Some of us baby-boomers who grew up just after the second world war, remember life before mod-cons even existed. A real convenience for many of us, was when the outside 'dunny' was dismantled in favour of a WC with running water, installed inside a house. This was a terrific convenience. No more having to use the pot under the bed and remembering to empty it the next morning when you took an outside walk to the 'loo. A WC is architect language for a Water Closet but which everyone else calls a toilet.

For those 'young 'uns' reading this, a dunny is Australian slang for a toilet comprised of a tin shed installed over a long-drop toilet. This long drop was a deep hole dug into the ground, with a wooden bench seat with a hole cut out of it. Some fancy ones had a wooden lid that closed over the hole to keep the flies to a minimum.

The bucket of lime was kept on the opposite side to the newspaper squares used for toilet paper in case you accidentally dropped a square when you ripped it off the wire holder. Lime is very caustic and burns, and a burnt backside wouldn't be very comfortable. The lime had to be used every time we did a 'no.2'. This was all just a part of life in the Australian bush in the 1950's.

Showering was something we didn't do as we all had a bath once a week in winter or when we had to go into town. Going into town was the highlight of the month so first bath time was often fought for between my Brothers and myself. I usually won because I was a girl and took longer to get ready to go.

By this time our new home was built with Mod cons and the hot water heater from the slow combustion stove used to give us all enough hot water for our needs. But across the creek at my Great-Aunts house, she was still hauling water from the rainwater tank outside in a 22 gallon drum, heating it over an open fire, dragging the bath tub up from the laundry at the bottom of the garden near the dairy, and pouring the water into this tub in which to take her bath. My great Aunt did this until she was 93 years old and almost blind. She had lived in that same house since she was ten years old and moved into a nursing home for the last 3 years of her life. It was only then that she had electricity, running water, an inside toilet, and a shower.

She never used an underarm deodorant in all her life and yet never once do I remember smelling any BO about her. I think this was because she used to 'have a bird-bath' every day, and change into an afternoon dress. Aunty was a great one for correct social etiquette.

If you had to do all that every time you wanted to have an all-over wash, how often do you think you would be showering? Can you visualise the amount of shower water we could be saving our infrastructure from having to deal with?

What a wonderful saving of water resources this could be for our planet and today we even have deodorants to keep BO away from family and friends!

by: Jan Smith

POST COMMENT

Goodbye To Water Worries - Install A Shower Pan & Liner Durable and Stylish Glass Shower Fittings How to Get the Right Shower Fittings Some Convenient Shower Fittings Meteor Showers Over The Grand Canyon And Whitewater Rafting With Arizona River Runners Wait! First Filter the Chlorine From Your Shower Top 3 Reasons to Use a Shower Head Water Filter The Importance Of Tempered Shower Glass Sex in the shower with your partner and a vibrator How to Determine the Best Shower Head Water Filter Shower Stall Drains Shower Installation Guide -Your Options for Installing a Shower The Tile Shower Drain -- More Than You Can See