The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-05-22
CAN YOU REMEMBER
WAY BACK WHEN
You Drank Water at Recess Out
Of Tin Bucket, Dipped With
Tin Cups That Must Have
Harbored Millions
Of Germs7

Can't you see 1t now-the bench
all dripping from water stopped out
of the tin buckets that were hurriedly
hoisted as the recess bell was ring
ing; little pools Of water forming on
the ground under the bench, and,
here and there on the bench, moss
starting to grow from the water
soaked wood? Those were the days
when individual cups were as much
a mark Of aristocracy and stuck
upedness as crooking ones little
finger while slipping tea.
Sanitary drinking fountains were
unknown. 1t was a case where ignor-
ance was bliss. And the water tasted
SO much better out Of the rustiest
tin cup on the bench. Perhaps that
was the reason the army draft boards
and doctors found so many with
physical defects that kept them out
of the army The water itself was
usually drawn out of the schoolyard
pump, whose creaking wheel was
heard in the few minutes of silence
that came before recess each day.
Sometimes the janitor didn't have
time to get all Of the buckets filled
before recess time Then it was that
bucket handles and many legs and
feet were invoiuntari1y bathed as
four or five boys struggled to carry
the pail, full and running over, to the
bench where the buckets and tin cups
always reposed. Fights were even
known to have been started over a
few splashin gs, especially when there
was every reason to believe that they
were done on purpose.
But the real job, the most coveted
job of all, was that of water monitor.
His duties were to turn over the
water buckets at the first stroke OF
the bell that announced that recess
was over. Thirsty souls-and there
were plenty of them-always waited
until the last minute to visit the
oasis in the schoolyard, and fire.
quently they were splashed from
head to foot as first one bucket and
then the other went over, and they
essayed to grab the drip
pings from the bucket.
Those were the days, too, when |
the Fairgrounds were divided by
high board fences and the sexes
were kept apart as assiduously as the |
guardian angel set his flaming sword
against our first mother and father !
at the gardens gate. 1t was the |
height of folly-in fact it was social !
suicide to be picked out by the JAM
or or prin cipal in such state of |
affairs, to carry water for the girls
bench. Such scorn and such jeers as i
your appearance, lug ,
,ing a bucket Of water across the |
accompanied by the JAM
or, who carefully unfastened the ,
title doors in the fence, removed the
empty bucket and showed the full one
through the opening.
The squeals of the feminine occu-
,ants of the schoolyard were less to
,e feared than the taunts of the mas
uline companions, although there
we're cases on record when cupfuls OF
water were poured down innocent
leeves and baptisms were admins
cred with other than the usual rites
accompanying such ceremonies.
The cool, damp bench is gone, the
moss that grew on the wet wooden
egs has long since dried up and ,
hriveled in furnace fires that the
ench has kindled, but there is the
lemory of the old water bench, the
Id tin buckets and the old, rusty,
cup, that no end OF sanitary. 1
parking fountains can efface. =