I don't know about you, but we always had water in the house, but mom (Opal (Lane is maiden name) Olson) did not. In fact, she had 5 sisters and 2 brothers and grew up about one mile west of Grainola on the first road north out of Grainola and then to the north on top of the hill which was about another quarter mile or more.
They had a water-well but you had a hand pump to get water in a bucket that you would have to carry to the house to wash dishes and then what about taking a bath or flushing the toilet. Not so fast: the bathroom was outside in a little room called an OUTHOUSE. An outhouse was a hole in the ground with a shed about 4 feet square built over the hole with a bench seat with a hole in it to let stuff fall through, if you know what I mean.
Now, what about that bath? Have you ever seen a galvanized tub? They would heat the water on the wood stove, yes - a wood stove. Now that is another problem as that meant you had to cut wood to put in the stove to cook. Right, no electricity and no running water and no gas in the early days. Back to the bath: now you might understand why folks back then they took a bath once a week. Who wanted to carry enough water to heat and fill up a tub to take a bath? Generally, Saturday evening or afternoon was bath time as Sunday there was church, and you had to be clean for church. Mom's parents were not particularly religious and in fact I don't believe Grandpa Jess (Poppie Jess as we called him) ever darkened the door except when he was carried in. But what is interesting about that is I have his father's bible, and it had a lot of written notes in it. Ok, OK, back to the bathing. Another item of interest is that the bath was taken outdoors even in summer and winter. How would you like that in winter?
All of this to say that when they got running water in the house and a hot water heater (which did come later so they still had to heat the water for a bath) it was a great day! I do mean a GREAT DAY! Did I mention that it was much later that the outhouse was replaced with a toilet and again running water? The first indoor toilet was actually what was called a water-closet where there was a board with a hole in it and a bucket (slop bucket) underneath to catch the stuff. It literally was a closet. Just a side note, they did not have closets in the bedrooms and there were originally only two bedrooms, meaning that all the children slept in the same room. Yep, boys and girls in the same room, like a dorm except for a while there was only one bed and a feather bed at that.
So, what do you learn growing up in the Osage?
- Water in the house was a great invention
- Being poor is relative and they were a very a happy family
- hardships create character and character creates hope
- Romans 5:4 Character creates hope (if you want hope come to Jesus)