TexasEscapes.comTexas Escapes Online Magazine: Travel and History
Columns: History, Humor, Topical and Opinion
Over 1800 Texas Towns & Ghost Towns
NEW : : TEXAS TOWNS : : GHOST TOWNS : : TEXAS HOTELS : : FEATURES : : COLUMNS : : ARCHITECTURE : : IMAGES : : SITE MAP : : SEARCH SITE
HOME
SEARCH SITE
ARCHIVES
RESERVATIONS
Texas Hotels
Hotels
Cars
Air
Cruises
 
 Texas : Features : Columns : N. Ray Maxie :

A Serious View of Important Things

by N. Ray Maxie
N. Ray Maxie
Once again, I recently ran across the insightful story of several little blind- men telling their "view" and description of an elephant as each one inspected parts of his body. Touching and feeling a different part of his anatomy, they all of course had totally different descriptions of the elephant.

One day not long ago over morning coffee, I was an innocent bystander and observer of a friendly debate between three of my friends. It was at "The Texan" diner just off the downtown square. They were debating which "modern day" home improvement had the most significance in their lives.

First and foremost, I think all agreed the coming of the (REA), Federal Rural Electrification Authority with rural electricity was the number one greatest event. But what events were second, third and forth places? You should've heard what I am about to reveal! There are many folks among us today that have never experienced these historical events.

Subjects of our passionate discussion were; putting running water in the home; also an indoor bathroom with plumbing; plus the installation of gas or butane piped into the house.

As I listened most intently, an old adage handed down to me in the 1940's by my Grandfather David Alfred Maxie kept coming to mind. "Son remember, a persons point of view always depends upon the point they are viewing from." These three friends certainly illustrated some good ideas in that regard. An old Indian saying goes, “Walk a mile in my moccasins.”

Our first friend arguing for running water in the home, acknowledged that in the old days, his family's hand-dug water well was a considerable distance from their house. Their old house where the well was dug, had burned years earlier. So they built another one a distance over a bit.

He being the youngest male sibling, everyone in his large family had "authority" to order him to draw and carry heavy buckets of water from the well to the house. That was a laborious task. Not to mention, if running water were available back then, they possibly could have put the fire out and saved the old house. So it was easy to see how, with his experiences, getting running water in the home was of great significance to him.

I can remember the first running water into our kitchen came by way of one ½ inch iron pipe. It stuck up through the cabinet top and had a brass outdoor water faucet on the end. It was sort of an ugly installation, but very pretty to my mother who was proud as a “peacock” about that modern convenience. No more carrying water from the “fresh water” spring a quarter mile down the hill. She kept the brass faucet polished and shining brightly.

Our second friend argued for indoor plumbing and a modern bathroom as the greatest convenience in his life. He admitted that before the family finally built an outdoor toilet, they had to go into nearby woods or maybe out and around the barn for relief.

Thereafter, for many years, the old outdoor toilet was much better, a big improvement, but just too far from the house in the middle of the night, or on cold and rainy days. Maybe sometimes even a rattlesnake lurked nearby, or spiders hiding under the toilet seat. That “old privy” was cold and wet in winter and hot and stinky in summer. This friend’s point of view was well founded on his unpleasant personal experiences.

Personally, I can remember near the end of WW II when my father added a commode, a shower and wash basin. That was soon after water had been piped into our house. Long, long afterwards, a hot water heater was added when gas or butane became available. Until then we heated pots and tea kettles of water on the wood burning stove, pouring them into the bathtub. Each person was responsible for heating his/her own bath water.

Our third friend argued that butane gas was the most significant "modern- day" improvement in his early childhood home. He described the long years of cutting, splitting and hauling firewood, and how it smoked up everything with suet and cinders. Also, the frequent filling of the wood box; keeping kindling and cleaning of ashes, buckets of coals and more ashes, were all never ending chores. Everyone kept cans of kerosene available for filling oil lamps, plus refilling them daily and trimming the wicks. The heating of all water and cooking everything with wood was a daily chore. He claimed he never went to school without smelling like wood smoke, kerosene or cow manure from tending farm animals. Since he also ran a trap-line to or from his way to school, he probably smelled like a skunk “wild cat” at times. So sure, bringing on butane was important to him because of these unpleasant early life experiences.

Is it any wonder that history has so many strange twist, turns and deviance among its pages? Standing several people side by side to watch an event together, and later asking each one individually what they witnessed, you will get a very different observation or description of what each had seen.

Interestingly, each one’s description will be the truth from their own personal, firsthand observation. The truth, but like the several little blind men and the elephant, entirely different.

Like my grandfather often said, "Son, your point of view always depends upon your point of observation”.

You just can't see both sides of a coin at the same time! Can you?

© N. Ray Maxie
"Ramblin' Ray"
August 1, 2008 Column
piddlinacres@consolidated.net
More Texas | Online Magazine | Texas Towns | Features | Columns | Ramblin' Ray
 
HOME | TEXAS ESCAPES ONLINE MAGAZINE | TEXAS HOTELS
TEXAS TOWN LIST | TEXAS GHOST TOWNS | TEXAS COUNTIES

Texas Hill Country | East Texas | Central Texas North | Central Texas South | West Texas | Texas Panhandle | South Texas | Texas Gulf Coast
TRIPS | STATES PARKS | RIVERS | LAKES | DRIVES | MAPS

TEXAS FEATURES
Ghosts | People | Historic Trees | Cemeteries | Small Town Sagas | WWII | History | Black History | Rooms with a Past | Music | Animals | Books
COLUMNS : History, Humor, Topical and Opinion

TEXAS ARCHITECTURE | IMAGES
Courthouses | Jails | Churches | Gas Stations | Schoolhouses | Bridges | Theaters | Monuments/Statues | Depots | Water Towers | Post Offices | Grain Elevators | Lodges | Museums | Stores | Banks | Gargoyles | Cornerstones | Pitted Dates | Drive-by Architecture | Old Neon | Murals | Signs | Ghost Signs | Then and Now
Vintage Photos

TRAVEL RESERVATIONS | HOTELS | USA | MEXICO

Privacy Statement | Disclaimer | Recommend Us | Contributors | Staff | Contact TE
Website Content Copyright ©1998-2008. Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. All Rights Reserved
This page last modified: August 1, 2008