Drinking, Drinking-Water
In the late twenties and thirties, we depended on a neighbor (relative) who lived about 100 feet away for our water. It was a hand dug well about 15 feet down and off the neighbor’s outside porch. We lowered a pail by hand and obtained a bucketful of very nice, clear clean water. Needless to say, most of the year we wanted to be the first in the bath water in a number 3 tub. During the summer we bathed at the end of the day in a favorite swimming hole of the Bluestone River.
Our family bought that house with its well in 1939, the same year that electricity came to the country. In the mid-forties a drilled well many feet deep provided the water. This water, as it contained iron, was not as nice as the hand dug well, but it was abundant. It was no longer necessary for my mother to go to the river during the dry season when the well water was low, start a fire under a number 3 tub and use river water for washing clothes. I remember seeing her use home-made soap and a wash-board and then rinsing the clothes in the river. The river was only about 100 yards away.
My parents many years later bought the original home site from my father’s sister. The deep well there provided an unlimited supply and the quality was so good that it could be bottled and marketed. We brought many five gallon containers of this water back to Tiffin.
Mary and I consider our Tiffin water to be adequate and safe. Because of its high calcium content, we have a water softener on the hot water line. This greatly reduces the amount of soap needed for washing and showering is delightful. On a second cold water line to the kitchen sink, we have an Amway filter that removes most organics and eliminates bad tastes and odors. The filter is changed once a year. Thinking about the source of water, the Sandusky River, we feel that we have great water for about one dollar a day including the filter.
We have been in some other countries where drinking water was very unsafe, and uncertain. Only in a few large cities in Colombia, S. A. where our family lived for 15 months, would we drink the water from the tap. In most places, we would not dare eat anything raw from street vendors. One of my favorite memories, however, is eating big slices of vine-ripened pineapple that was offered on the city streets. No water was used.
In the only Pacific seaport, Buenaventura, a city of about 100,000, there was no safe drinking water. Only bottled drinks were recommended for the non-natives. We did learn to drink warm soda and cervesa. Another favorite memory is drinking a cervesa in a frosted mug in this sweltering coastal city that receives 300 inches of rain a year and is about 3 degrees from the equator.
Leticia is the southern most city of Colombia and it lies on the Amazon. Across this mile-wide river at this location is Peru, and a small foot-bridge over a drainage ditch leads to Brazil. It was some sight to see the villagers in those three countries go down to the Amazon, with its water looking like that of the Sandusky after a major storm, and carry their pails of water back to their homes. Sadly most of them live with amoebic dysentery.
In China, even in most major cities, the water from the tap was not drinkable. All drinking water is boiled and brought to the door of your apartment or hotel room. They have great thermos bottles. Every morning we received two quarts of scalding hot water. As in Colombia, when away from our residence we drank only known boiled water or something processed like the too sweet soda, wine or beer. Tsing Tao was my favorite.
The remainder of this article is about the need for drinking a lot of water. I make no pretention of being an authority, but I found an interesting article about Dr. Batmanghelidz from an interview in the Phenome News of Southfield, Michigan.
He was trained at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School of London University., He was one of the last students of Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin.
He insists that proper water intake is the best medication for many ailments such as asthma and that it is the best anti-histamine medication. Unintentional dehydration is the cause of most pain and most degenerative diseases. He says that pain in the body is a cry for water. Water is used to liquefy, breakdown, and absorb food. If not enough water is present, heartburn results. He recommends a glass of water maybe as much as 30 minutes before eating
The Doctor concludes that some rheumatoid joint pain, migraine headaches, fibromyalgia, colitis and some angina are caused by dehydration. He claims many of the chemical toxins in our food can be eliminated from our body if we have proper amounts of water for filtering. Two or three glasses of water will eliminate pain of gastric ulcers.
He believes that we should have a minimum of two quarts of water a day. The immune system will benefit and the role of histamines will be enhanced and allergies will lessen.
An interesting claim is that we need approximately one half a teaspoon of salt (particularly sea salt) a day. Proper amounts of salt and water will aid incontinence, diabetes, osteoporosis, menopause, ulcers, varicose veins, and lupus. He believes that proper amounts of water increase longevity.
In conclusion, he says that water is the most important thing on this planet. Sodas, colas, and caffeine loaded substances are not a substitute for water and can actually cause dehydration.
Dr. Batmanghelidz is the author of two books: The ABC’s of Asthma, Allergies and Lupus: Eradicate Asthma, and Your Body’s Many Cries for Water.
Let’s have another glass of that good Tiffin-Sandusky River water – a-a-a-h-h-h!
- Percy