Well water

I bought a piece of property adjacent to my front yard. The property had county water. One day while working I turned the water vale on to get some water. There is nothing you miss more that when out of water or as we say in Alabama, “the well ran dry.” I checked to see if the water line had burst. Finding no leaks I walked down to the water meter. When I opened the lid, the water had been cut off and a lock placed on the valve.

Growing up it was not unusual for the well to run dry. Our well on the home place was forty-five feet deep and had a rock bottom with five feet of water. If mama did a lot of clothes washing, she lowered the water below the foot valve pump. We did not have inside plumbing for a long time, and I was a senior in high school before dad and I installed a commode and bathtub.

We did not have hot water. Mom had to heat the water on a stove. We had to carry water to the back porch until we did indoor plumbing. It was a “way of life” for most of the residents of the Mars Hill community west of Jemison, Alabama.

Our granny Hopper in Lawley, Alabama had an outside well utilizing a rope and pulley to draw water from her well. I have vivid mental pictures of drawing her water and drinking water from a bucket, using a dipper cup to drink the water. When she washed she carried buckets of water filling a wash pot.

When I realized there was a lock on the valve, I went to the water authority in Thorsby, Alabama. I thought I was entering Fort Knox Gold Reserve. I found inside glass windows separating customers from the snobbish ladies. I thought I must have grown another head by the looks I received. When I asked why there was a lock on my water meter valve, I had to produce documents to prove my identity and that I purchased the property.

I had never experienced such scrutiny. After no satisfaction from the monster enclosed behind the plate glass window a former classmate recognized my frustration and took my case. I told her that I did not sign as many documents when I bought my house and then asked why the security in rural Alabama. She said people can get violent and vicious over water.

After a few minutes of details on the violent and the vicious I understood their dilemma and understood the immediate hostility by walking into the office. After paying a hefty hookup fee they unlocked my meter. With the rapid growth of rural areas and the insufficient planning of new construction, water is vital.

Our world is mostly water. Flesh and pure water is depleted faster. As I draft this article there is a water battle and lawsuit between Alabama, Florida, and Georgia because the city of Atlanta is sucking most of the water and lowering reservoirs and rivers to the Gulf of Mexico.

Called the Tri-State Water War it refer to a decades‑long conflict among Georgia, Alabama, and Florida over water rights in two major river basins, the Apalachicola‑Chattahoochee‑Flint (ACF) and the Alabama‑Coosa‑Tallapoosa (ACT). It is a long‑standing, multi‑state legal and political fight over shared water resources by competing needs for drinking water, industry, agriculture, and environmental protection.

Nothing is more important in the desert than water. Society depends on water. Recent years of drought in Alabama has lowered creeks, ponds, rivers, and underground water levels. If folks had to draw and tote water like in the “good old days” there would be a decrease in water usage. Like the saying goes, “You don’t miss the water until the well runs dry.”

The Bible has many verses on wells and water. Again, there is nothing more important in the desert than water.

 

Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:10-14 KJV