When I was a youngster, the family would visit my grandparent's farm southwest of Howard. It was always a treat for me, because I loved seeing the animals and the work that went on at the farm.
There was no electricity and no running water. My grandmother always kept a porcelain bucket on a waist high shelf in the kitchen filled with water. There was a common long handled dipper in which family members, visitors, and the occasional stranger used to refresh themselves. The fact that a common drinking utensil was used bothered no one.
In the early days of Kansas, wherever there was a public water drinking place, there was also a common dipper or cup tethered by a rope or a chain for everyone's use. Community use of the same utensil was something that everyone accepted without question.
However, a man by the name of Samuel Crumbine received appointment as the secretary of a newly organized Kansas State Board of Health in 1904. In 1909 he instituted a policy of banning common drinking cups in the state of Kansas and required their replacement with non-reusable paper cups.
Kansas was the first nation in the country to require paper cups for community use. In less than one year, 24 states followed the lead of Kansas.
Spring 2011, Reflections, published quarterly by the Kansas State Historical Society
What a wonderful piece of remembrance! thank you for that.
Not sure if paper cups were the way to go although I do understand the theory behind it, however my anscestors (granpa/dad) drank from the same 'water jug' in the fields. (I could taste the residue of chaw on the water jug hole!)
At silo time, all hands 'warshed up' with LAVA at the pump before eating. I really miss those days, and wierdly enough, no one caught any desease. Hmmmmm.
Great memories! I well remember the common dipper. Nobody thought twice about sharing it. However, Ready, we probably did share diseases, just didn't know it. I do seem to remember at my grandmother's house, though, when I had a cold, I was told to drink from a glass rather than the dipper. I also remember one of the greatest inventions at one time was when one of my uncles put a pump handle in the kitchen so that you didn't have to go outside to pump water. There was always a bucket under the pump with a common dipper.
Larryj
My mother had an enamel bucket and a common dipper until 1985 when she moved from her Elk County farm to Haysville. Even then the bucket continued to set in her kitchen. And I don't remember being any more sick way back then, than I am now with my filtered drinking water and personal glass.
Larry, we probalby did share diseases, however I firmly believe that we ate the right foods, had a huge amount of exorcise and fresh air/unclorinated water. We had a family that all sat down to breakfast, dinner and supper and played Monopoly with a coal oil lamp when the electrcity went out at the slightest storm. Therefore, we shared....that is what we did.
I agree with the 'having a cold, drink elsewhere' rule.
I twinged at the paper cup thingy as it does involve trees, of which I think the enviormnet wasn't their first and foremost thought. That's another subject.
So sad we can't drink 'from the same cup' anymore.
I remember my grand folks improved their home with a small hand pump in the kitchen. The water came from a well just outside the kitchen door. They were rather high above the Elk and I remember wandering how they hit water. It was not until the last couple years that I learned they had to haul water in and fill what was actually a cistern.
The pump was mounted next to the kitchen sink and the sink had a drain without a goose neck that went straight outside onto the lawn. That was called progress.
They also had a huge, and I mean huge, wood crank wall telephone in the kitchen but it had been there for a few years.
They had a separate "bathroom" next to the parlor that had a claw bathtub that could be filled with heated water from the wood stove. The tub also drained out onto the lawn.
The big progress came when REA came through and they had electricity installed. I think they only electrified the kitchen and the barnyard, though. That was big progress--you could turn on the outdoor light to see your way to the outhouse which was a distance from the main house and located next to the chicken house.
Quote[The big progress came when REA came through and they had electricity installed. I think they only electrified the kitchen and the barnyard, though. That was big progress--you could turn on the outdoor light to see your way to the outhouse which was a distance from the main house and located next to the chicken house./quote]
Now that was priorty! From a dipper to a star studded house! I do think we llost the message somewhere in the 'helping the poor...welll, hell we all were poor then, and never knew any different. I am grateful for those experiences of the dipper.
Sorry about the quote and not saying my stuff outside of the purple....just figured out how to quote stuff...but I think you all can 'jist'at what I was trying to convey.
We have become a paranoic people based on some things. And that is not to take away from the inventor/patent of paper cups.
I have always said, "It may in the best intrest of some, but for all, we all have to make sacrifices.
I will drink from the cup if there. I am not afraid, and I just might actually smile! lol
Do any of you remember the cone shaped paper cups they used to have for the public to use? Couldn't set them down anywhere.
Wilma,
And they were not very big.
You could do all sorts of 'art ' projects with them too. Tear out the bottom, hold it tight, and then fill with water, be creative with how you get it emptied! Lol!
Waldo,
I vividly remember the long treks to the outhouse. Our outhouse was 2-3 miles from the house. Impenetrable forest lined the path on both sides with saber tooth tigers lurking in the dark. The limbs overhead had Pterodactyls sitting on every limb awaiting to swoop down and devour little tykes. I still tremble with fear just thinking about it.
In the past 55 years a great seismic event has happened and now that ol outhouse aint but 50 yards from the house and the old growth forest has gave way to a lone walnut tree ---------------------but I bet that stink'n ol outhouse still has mud dobbers as big as turkeys in it !!!!
Jarhead,
I was not relating the first couple sentences and then it was hilarious.
There was a movie starring Sissy Spacek called Raggedy Man (1981). Took place in Texas in the 40s. Her little boy would go out to the outhouse with a flashlight by himself after dark but first he would find a big stick and then shine the light all around and then beat the heck out of the closed outhouse door.
Then he would carefully open the door shine the light in and hit the door jambs up and down with the stick before he went in.
I just barely remember going to the outhouse but you could not drag me in one today--well maybe that is not true would depend on the situation.
Jarhead, I am so glad you survived all that! ;D ;D
I remember when my dad had the Smith & Goodwin Store in Howard that there was a large galvanized water container with a push button spigot that was located near the rear of the store in the shoe department. Every day or maybe every other day, Charley Ritz, the ice man, would bring a huge chunk of ice early in the morning, and as it melted throughout the day, cool water was available for customers to stop for a drink of water. The cups were flat folded in a dispenser somewhat like a napkin dispenser, and could be unfolded and would hold a nice few sips of water. I think this continued until the store closed in the late 1960s. What memories spring up out of other conversations.............
I recall what might be the same type of galvanized water container that was used by the farmers when I would accompany my granddad to the fields at harvest time. He always let me make the connection of the wagon to the tractor and I thought that was one big super fun job.
This was when a number of farmers would gather to help one harvest and then all would go to another man's place and continue harvesting there.
As I remember, the container was placed in good shade somewhere around the edge of the field. The water was so cold that it hurt my teeth. There was a lid on the container and the person refreshing himself would take the lid off, pour some water from a built in spigot at the bottom of the can, and drink from that lid. Everyone used the lid for a cup.
When I was about 13, my mother got a teaching job in a lumber camp in Wyoming. The camp and all that was in it was owned by the lumber company including the houses, the store, the school. However, the cabin we lived in that year was privately owned. The cabin had a bedroom, a living room and a kitchen. Wood stove for heat and a wood stove for cooking. The outhouse was about 20 yards out the back door of the kitchen. During the winter on top that mountain, the snow was about three feet deep from September through June. I vowed that I would keep a path shoveled down to ground level to the outhouse. One day the owner of the lumber camp came by and while applauding my ambition, told me to let the snow pile up and just make steps going out to the outhouse and then steps going down to it. So I carved ice steps with his help. The reason to let the snow pile up.............that area was National Forest and open range and nobody wanted any cattle or elk or deer falling into the path and injuring themselves.
Larryj
This is a very neat thread. I also was raised with a "common dipper" but our water bucket was wooden. In summer months just as the day was getting really hot we put a tray of ice cubes from a metal ice tray into the bucket of water. Water has never ever tasted as good as that water did and I do like to drink water! We rode the train to Chicago every year and I remember the pointed paper cups to drink water from. Mom always made up save our cups so we wouldn't waste any with our many trips to the water spout. I don't recall any drinking water in stores, but there was a water fountain on one of the streets in El Reno we use to drink from. Can't recall any in Yukon, guess we went thirsty :) when we shopped there. Good memories!
O'Course I do remember the dipper that hung from the pitcher pump in the side yard. This is where all our household water was pumped. That dipper allowed one child to fetch a drink while the other operated the handle. When the water came up, the child operating the handle then dashed to the mouth of the pump and drank from their hands. We were forbidden to play in the water there, but it is amazing how many drinks a couple of girls require when playing outdoors. I have a snapshot of me and my sister playing in the water there. :D
Another common cup I recall was the one on the gallon thermos jug that my folks always carried in the trunk of our '39 ford. Dad always filled it with fresh water whenever we took a road trip; maybe just an afternoons tour of the countryside around Wichita, and further treks took us to Oklahoma or Missouri. We always stopped at the local springs such as Clearwater where that jug was emptied and refilled with the sweet water from those springs. I can still smell and taste that aluminum cup, and the slight taint of road dust gathered in the trunk. Best water ever! Not too long before my dad died, I was able to take him two gallons of the sweet spring water from a spring NW of Howard. He enjoyed it so much, but it would probably have been better from that old aluminum cup.
QuoteThat dipper allowed one child to fetch a drink while the other operated the handle. When the water came up, the child operating the handle then dashed to the mouth of the pump and drank from their hands.
If I remember right, it took 3-4 pumps to prime (if it wasn't dry, and you had to water prime it), then 1-2 more huge pumps to get the water so you could run to the spigot and drink with the hands...and then you had better drink, as there were always 10 seconds of running water that hopefully went into a bucket and not to waste! :'(
Maybe only 5 seconds of water...since I am older, time goes slower than I remember. ;D
I remember getting my hands and head right down in front of the cistern. Then my older cousin would all of a sudden pump real fast as the water started to come out and it would often go up my nose.
Waldo,
I think the first time I saw those cone shaped paper cups was when I would go on "train trips" with my Dad back in the 50's. A big ol galvanized water cooler in the way-car (caboose ). The cups held about two gulps of water, then run to the back of the way-car and throw the crumpled cup out between the rails as they flew by---then repeat the process over and over.All my trash on the tracks is probably why they shut the ol Howard Branch down
Did you ever put a penny down on the track for the loco to run over?
I never did but a friend says they did several times and the penny would come out something like a thin quarter.
One time he said they put a penny down and then sat nearby and waited for a train they knew would be coming by.
Along came a motorized hand car with a couple men on it and they hit the penny, which caused a slight bump.
They stopped to find out the problem, saw the penny, saw my friend and his kids, and then got back in the work car and moved on. That was according to my friend.
Seems to me track vibrations from a big locomotive might have a tendency to not keep the penny on the track.
What I remember about drinking water at Grandma Hancock's was the taste. Grandma had the best tasting water and it was always cool when it was freshly pumped out of the cistern. I can just taste it now.
Grandma's cistern water was quite often Howard City water hauled like most everyone else had to do.
In spite of being thought of as a city girl, I grew up out in the country also. Had a wonderful sweet well, but had a hand pump for several years before we modernized the place, had one electric circuit, a nice two holer and a bucket a day coal stove in the living room with a stove pipe that went up through the ceiling and provided the heat for my room upstairs. It was a big deal every spring when it was finally warm enough to take the pipe out of my floor and put the living room stove down in the barn until fall. Mom always put summer slip covers on the furniture and changed the rugs over from wool to sisal. One summer when I was little, probably 6, my mother's father came to visit and we took him out to the huge famous Longwood Gardens a few mile up the road. It is a wonderful place with many acres of gardens and big glass conservatories. Out in one of the areas was a great bubbling fountain with a big polished copper dipper hanging from it. Grandpa Boyd took a big dip and thoroughly enjoyed the refreshing ice cold water. He commented that it reminded him of his youth. I too remember my first experience with the cone paper cups was on the train headed for Kansas. Great memories!
What a great thread. I kept passing it up with the "I'll be back" and oh I am so glad I did.
You all have helped (not that I need help, brain seems to enjoy remembering when a lot lately) and
I too enjoyed the shared metal cup and the bucket of water.
During the summer, not often enough Mom would let me go spend either a weekend or a week with cousins who lived on acreage with no running water and lots of room to play.
My mom didn't like anything outside and since I was one of the "Tom-boys" in my area, I just ate it up.
Leroy's (cousin) had a well almost a hand's span from a creek and we had to haul by hand buckets of water for the house.
During the night we had a chamber pot, outhouse was too far and all were afraid of snakes...I would give anything to
go back and actually inhale the smells most of all and running though the creek with barefeet and letting our toes feel that oosy-gooey mud between my toes. I could almost bet you now it was full of animal waste and who knows what. The water was very bracing when it was 100 in the shade.
My grandparents lived near Topeka and when we drank their water If we used glass it turned the glass black. Had so much iron in it and tasted wonderful.
Thanks
Another thing that could be in that creek were those little bloodsucking leeches. There was one spot in my grandfather's creek where you could always come out with one or two on you.
Ugh and double Ew! :P
Another thing that could be in that creek were those little bloodsucking leeches. There was one spot in my grandfather's creek where you could always come out with one or two on you.
Wilma, I can't remember leeches from that creek. When I was working with the mussel shells, harvesting them, buying for my employer, Louie Britain, I did learn what they felt like. We worked the Elk River near here and I can say, UGH and DOuble EU! they were not my favorite thing to pick off.
We had one young man who I am sorry to say happened to get one between his legs and (NO, I wasn't with them then) but I do know his brother and friends still tease him about that time. I guess the place where it landed, would have been so hard to remove unless someone else! picked it off........We had some good, good times doing that.
I would bet jarhead has some funny stories to tell about those days. We did buy shells from him.
Thanks for the "remember-whens"
I remember that the source for drinking water at the Howard Elk County Fair was a giant galvanized cattle tank. I guess this might have been about 1956. The tank was set up about 3' off the ground on a wooden structure and it had spigots installed around the circumference. At each spigot, there were two tip cups, attached by a string. Someone, I guess it must have been Charlie Ritz, came around during the day to replenish the ice blocks in the tank and the fire truck put fresh water in whenever the supply got low. I can't even imagine how many people drank out of those common cups every day of the fair.
Um, hate to ask, but where did the engine get it's water from? Draft from the creek or pump from a hydrant? ;D
The Longton FREE Fair also had a stock water tank with brass spigots in it to get cold drinks of water. It's possible it is the same tank that Howard used. It would sit on a hay wagon. I think it was used clear up into the 60's. I don't recall Longton filling it with a fire truck but used a garden hose from a hydrant. To get a drink from it was putting your life at risk because all the mud dobbers swarmed around the mud holes from kids spilling water. :)
I think that by that time there was a water dispenser for filling water hauling tanks. I am not sure how long it has been there, but it is on the west side of the west park in Howard. It dispenses the treated water that we all have inour homes.
That sounds much safer.
I remember going to Jacks Springs in Chase county and Daddy dipping water up in his hat and drinking water from the springs out of his hat. It tasted good to me, oh the memories.
Most of the natural springs waters were so filled with iron....why haven't we died yet?
And yet, it was a good cold drink.
Those paper cone cups also could make homemade snowcones! :)
Quote from: patyrn on May 18, 2011, 07:28:17 AM
I remember when my dad had the Smith & Goodwin Store in Howard that there was a large galvanized water container with a push button spigot that was located near the rear of the store in the shoe department. Every day or maybe every other day, Charley Ritz, the ice man, would bring a huge chunk of ice early in the morning, and as it melted throughout the day, cool water was available for customers to stop for a drink of water. The cups were flat folded in a dispenser somewhat like a napkin dispenser, and could be unfolded and would hold a nice few sips of water. I think this continued until the store closed in the late 1960s. What memories spring up out of other conversations.............
I remember drinking water at the Smith & Goodwin Store. We always had to have a drink from those funny little cups. We also liked running up and down those little stairs where maybe the bookkeeper worked. I think we got in trouble for doing that. What funny things we remember.