A modern marvel caused this writer’s home to slip a few decades back in time this week. While growing up in the country, modern services like running water, inside conveniences and electricity were not common, if even available. We routinely kept about 30 gallons of water available, should our well not be available. And while they may not have been conveniently located, we never removed all of the outside conveniences.
(Editor’s Note: When this article was proof read on Tuesday morning, one of our younger associates asked “Why did you have a convenience store in your house?” After explaining convenience was once a common term for outhouse, she suggested I replace convenience with john. That didn’t seem proper to me. There are certain words one doesn’t you in public discussion. At the gasoline station, when we replaced the conveniences with indoor facilities, we referred to them as the “Men’s Room” and the “Ladies Room.” And so that led to a discussion about why an outhouse was called a convenience. I suspect the term relates to the early explorers. When the Mountain Men roamed this area, there were no facilities and few trees to hide behind or lean against. The development of outhouses with interior benches provided a real convenience for later settlers. I’ve never tried to live like a Mountain Man, but I have taken many canoe trips on the Republican River. There are plenty of trees to hide behind but if there were outhouses stationed along the river, they would be real conveniences. So now back to my original entries.)
When my father gave me permission to remove the WPA designed convenience which was sometimes called the “Eleanor,” I was instructed to save the concrete base in case we should ever want to rebuild the conveninece. Not sure why it was called an Eleanor but I suspect Eleanor Roosevelt promoted the construction of such facilities while her husband, FDR, was President.
Monday a contractor slip-lined the sewer line which serves my current home. Rita and I were notified in advance to be prepared to be without water and sewer service for 12 hours.
That wasn’t a major inconvenience but we have become so accustomed to turning on the faucet and sending liquids down the drain, it was hard to remember the sewer service was not available.
Since one part of my life returned to my childhood on Monday, I’d liked to have returned another portion as well.
As a youngster, I got to observe many major construction projects like bridge and highway construction, the rerouting of electrical distribution and natural gas lines and the building of new telephone lines. The biggest project of all was the construction of the Courtland Canal and Lovewell Dam.
A highway resurfacing supervisor once told me if I ever wanted to work for a similar contractor, I should indicate on my application that I was experienced. (I didn’t have a lot but I did get to lay a truck load of hot mix on the gasoline station drive and helped my father lay a couple loads. We never knew when an out-of-spec load would come our way and when one arrived with only two high school students working at the station we knew what was expected. The load was accepted and we went to work spreading and compacting it.
Today’s safety concerns would never allow a youngster to observe projects like I did. The projects were done in the open and it was easy to see what was happening. That is not true today.
When the water and natural gas mains serving the newspaper office were replaced, horizontal boring was employed. With that process, nearly all of the work is done out-sight and below the surface. Whenever, I had the opportunity I watched and inspected, but I didn’t learn much.
The sewer work is also mostly underground. Big, noisy trucks are parked near sewer system manholes and tubes are inserted. Standing in my yard I couldn’t tell what was happening but when finished, I was told, the old line made of clay tile and placed more than a century ago would lined with a hard plastic material with openings cut in to serve each sewer service customer.
When I showered Tuesday morning, the water disappeared down the drain.
All appeared to go as planned, but we were warned in advance, it sometimes doesn’t and a noxious odor or even sewer backup was possible.
Hoping to prevent both, I opened a cleanout in our back yard and put a cage around it to keep our curious kittens from exploring the sewer system.
That must have worked. The kittens and their mother greeted us as we left for work on Tuesday morning. The clean out cage had not been disturbed and there was no noxious odor or signs of a sewer backup.
Our feline friends didn’t say but I suspect they were happy to have the construction workers move on. It was easy to see they were enjoying the earth we moved when opening and closing the clean-out. It is the nature of a cat to inspect and want to dig in freshly spaded earth.
Their convenience is not at all like ours.
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