Sooner or Later…

Living Without Running Water

My grandma didn’t have running water in her Missouri home.  She had a hand pump and a cistern but no well.  The cistern was filled once or twice a year by a big water tanker about the size of a propane truck.  Lack of running water was not a great hardship perhaps just an inconvenience.   It is all in the ‘know-how’.  I lived with her when I was young and this is how we did things.

There is a short list basic equipment.  Grandma had 3 - 5 metal buckets that were for household water use only.  I’m not sure of the exact size, but during a recent trip to Walmart I saw some that where labeled as 10 quart which is 2 1/2 gallons.  These seem to be about the same size, but they were more squatty–a bit shorter and fatter than those old buckets.  Three were in everyday use with the other two called into service when lots of hot water was needed. A large tea kettle kept on the stove.  She had two plastic dish pans just like the ones sold at Walmart or the Dollar Store today.  These were for–washing dishes.  She had two metal wash bowls/basins:  one smaller and one larger.  The larger was about the size of a very, very large mixing bowl and was used for summer bathing.  The smaller was used for handwashing and washing up in general.  The dishes were never washed in the basins and your body was never washed in a dish pan.  Hygiene is my guess.  The last thing Grandma had was a large tin bathtub.  

Where were these stored?  One bucket was always on the counter full of fresh cold water.  The teakettle was kept on the stove.  The buckets were kept in the pantry unless in use.  The dishpans under the sink (though no one was fond of washing dishes so one was usually in the sink to ’soak’ dishes). The dish pans were kept nestled on a nail by the backdoor.  The tub was kept on a nail on the backporch. 

Yes Grandma had a regular kitchen sink.  It drained outside into the edge of the yard.  It was moved kind of regularly and helped keep things close to the house green.  Fire prevention when living in the woods in a drought.

Daily routine.  The cold water bucket was kept on the counter in an accessible, but not in the cook’s way place.  There was a metal dipper to drink from.  There weren’t a half-a-dozen little cups waiting to be washed this way.  Today, I’d have to think about it–esp. if I had a child who left floats kwim.  If any water had to be heated it was to be taken from this bucket first.  This meant that we had cold water to drink and room temperature water to heat up.  Saved on propane and heating time.  For small amounts of hot water the tea kettle was used–it heated faster than a bucket and is easier to carry.  Grandma finally had to use whistling tea kettles once it was just her and grandpa as she would forget they no longer needed hot water by the bucket.  If larger amounts of hot water were needed then the buckets came out–as many as needed.  This routine is important if you don’t want to be drinking luke warm water or waiting forever for water to heat.

So to wash dishes.  Right as supper is put on the table fill up your bucket from the cold one (or trade out) and a tea kettle.  Start the bucket heating, but not the kettle.  Eat and by the time supper is cleared the water should be hot.  Fill up both dish pans adding cold water to the washing water as needed but keep the rinse water scalding hot.  Turn on the kettle (if you have a lot of dishes) and start washing.  As the wash water gets cold or dirty pour it out (drain if have or fling off back porch).  Pour cooled rinse water into washing side and refill rinse side with hot water.  Keep doing until finished.  After everything is washed and put away dump both pans of water and rinse both with hot water from bucket or tea kettle.  Dry and put away pans. 

Now this may sound like grandma was a clean freak but I can assure you she had a laid-back house keeping style.  I’m guessing that the attention to not mixing wash & rinse pans and to rinsing out those pans was to prevent sickness.  In the early 70’s in rural Missouri medical help was a long way away–both is distance and time.  It really doesn’t take but a few minutes to be careful once you get the hang of things and into the routine.

What about personal hygiene?  Summer was the easiest and best.  Grandma lived waaay out in the woods with neighbors that were miles away so privacy was not an issue.  There was a family rule that everyone had to stay in the front room during bath times–or at least the front bedrooms.  Children worried about siblings peeking back then too. 

Take two of your buckets and start water heating before bath time–usually while washing dishes.  One bucket of hot per person.  On the backporch there was a small table.  On the table we would have two buckets of water–one hot, one cold, and an empty one in the middle for mixing.  These are in a row toward the back of the table.  Take the large wash basin and put it in the middle of the front.  Mix some water until it is to your liking.  Bend over so your hair is in the basin and using a dipper pour water on your head–it doesn’t take much even for long hair.  Two at the most.  If you need more wet bend over and put your head into the basin.  Shampoo–stand up it is easier on the back–when its time to rinse bend over and rinse as much shampoo as possible out using the basin water.  Then use the dipper to dip from the bucket to finish.  Keep the water in the basin as much as possible.  Finished?  Use the soapy water as a ‘first’ wash.  Use a washcloth and just slop that soapy water all over. Do this until the soapy water is gone.   Mix some more warm water and put a small amount in the basin.  Use this to wash and rinse your face.  Once done get the washcloth sloppy and soapy.  Wash like you would normally, just keep rewetting & soaping the cloth as needed.  When finished pour the water in the basin on yourself–it will be soapy and that is ok.  Now all the water left in the buckets is to rinse off.  By the dipperful do just that.  If you use conditioner then put it on your hair before washing and use the rinsing time to rinse it out.  This bathing really can be done with one bucket of hot water, but at first it might take more.  Train yourself not to go overboard.  Dry off and get dressed–usually for bed.  The refill your buckets.  Put the cold on the table for the next person, and your hot into the stove to heat up.  The next person will use the already hot water, but the third person will use yours.

Wintertime bathing was a different story.  It is near impossible to heat enough water for a good deep bath and while grandma had a real kitchen sink there was no bathroom.  So baths were in the tin bathtub in about two inches of water. Our tub was shaped like a regular bathtub just slightly smaller.  If there had been a regular bathroom with at least a tub we could have done a porch bath in the tub.  Needless to say a full bath was about twice a week with good washing up in-between.  

What about laundry?  Well grandma had electricity and a wringer washer.  It was time consuming, but not too bad.  I have had to handwash clothes when the washer has broken down and it can be a bear.  A washboard is hard on the hands.  Wringing by hand gives blisters in the webbing between the thumb and first finger.  It also makes your wrists so tired that your grip is very weak by the time everything is finished.  Forget washing blue jeans by hand.  If you have to I have two suggestions.  Either get a mop bucket like the janitors use with a press to press the water out or buy one of those nonelectric washers similar to what is sold at Lehman’s.  It may wash only a small amount, but it will save your hands.  Oh and we tried to let the kids play on the clothes in the tub–they get tired too soon.  Playing in the tub forever is only fun when it is the kids idea, not when mom says to.

Hot water for other cleaning–tea kettle or bucket.  If you will need it off and on all day keep a bucket on the stove on low heat.  As you fill *whatever* top the bucket off with the room temperature water.  This works better in the winter when the humidity is appreciated than summer when it is not.

Bathroom stuff.  Well Grandma had a two-seater outhouse.  A family outhouse is not like the ones you see at campgrounds and parks. They are no where near the nastiness of a port-a-potty either.   See those places have dozens of people using them and perhaps a once a day cleaning–if that.  They are nasty, smelly, and gross.  While I won’t say that a taken care of family one is a perfume factory it isn’t in the same league as those others.  It would take at least a month of family use to equal the traffic in one day at those places. 

There are books out there to tell how to build, but grandma’s was basic.  The biggest thing is to keep it at least 100 feet from your water source, and downhill if you live in the hills.  Keep it down wind of the house in summer if you can.  Keep screens on, keep it swept, and keep up with the ‘plumbing’.  Once or twice a week (or more) take a big stick and level things off then sprinkle some lime/soil/sawdust down the hole.  This will help with odor–only on extremely hot days was it bad, but then why linger?  Grandma had a box of comic out there for longer visits.  Original Archies, Tales from the crypt, Superman, and all today’s collectibles.  Two-holers make it easy for children to keep each other company or to potty train small children.  Grandma’s had regular toilet seats to sit on so she didn’t do the big hole/small hole or adult/child size. Regular old TP.  Did you know that the moon and sun where early ladies and gents signs?  The moon=ladies and sun=gents.  Though by the later 19th century the meanings had been mostly forgotten.  

Night time was different–with the dark and critters inside was better.  Grandma had chamber pots for night time in the house or a potty chair for the very young.  We small children were not supposed to use them in the day, but we often did as they were closer.  These were/are usually white enamel pots with a thin band of red or blue around the top edge.  They come with a lid that also has the color band on the edges.  I have seen these used for planters or tried to be sold as cooking pots.  *Gag*  once a chamber pot always a chamber pot.  Grandma put a splash of pine-sol in the bottom to help cut odors during the night.   In the morning an aunt or uncle (teenaged then) would empty, rinse out (outside always) and place more pine-sol in.  Now, if it became necessary, I would keep a potty chair for small children and get an adult potty chair for older ones.  These adult chairs can be found at medical supply stores.  All in all a trip to the outhouse is nicer than dumping either one.   

The thing is its all about the routine.  A night fill the drinking bucket so bedtime drinks are cold.  In the morning that luke warm water is heated for hot drinks, washing dishes, or cleaning up.  Fresh is in the drinking bucket.  After breakfast, morning *chores* are started–pots are emptied and put away, cleaning, and whatever.  (Grandma was down to only chickens and some dogs by this time).  Live your day and at supper time start water for days dishes (usually her pattern).  While washing heat water for porch baths, bath, relax until bedtime.  Start again. 

By remembering to always take water for heating from the drinking bucket there is always cold water.  Thinking ahead means hot water is available.  It seems that the *thinking ahead* is the key.  We are so used to turning a tap and getting what we want *right  now* that planning ahead is a lost art.

Oh yes, Grandma had a fridge but in those days a trip to town was a once a week thing so her fridge space didn’t have room for a pitcher of water.  Why should it when to water from the well was cold?  Today we drive that trip easily everyday–or did until gas got high.