Praise the Lord and pass the water ~ November 4, 1999

David Heiller

What is it with people who drink a lot of water? People have water bottles on their desk, in their car, by their bed stand.

Is it some kind of a fashion statement to carry a bottle of water with you?

I could go on, but I’d better not, because I’m one of those nerds that has a bottle of water close by most of the time.

I never thought I would be this way. I always thought it was fine to just take a drink of water before you go someplace, and take a drink when you get to where you’re going. In the meantime, if you got thirsty, so what? It’s not exactly a hardship.

I always laughed—to myself—when I would see my mother with her bottle of water in the car, and hear her talk about how she likes to have a bottle of water with her when she drives.

But something changed a few years ago. I started noticing how much I enjoyed a glass of water, and what good things it did for me.

Strangely (or maybe not), I now notice that I am thirsty a lot. I often seem to be dry and in need of a shot—of water.

It reminds me of when I was a kid. I bet you can relate to this… When we played baseball or football at the school grounds, we played hard and non-stop, or so my rose-colored memory recalls. No one had a bottle of water nearby then. You would have been laughed off the field.

A water bottle is the perfect gift for Dad from
 his college freshman!

But after the game, or sometimes half way through if it was a hot summer day, someone would say, “Let’s get some water,” and we would stampede across the street to Irma Bissen’s pump.

Mrs. Bissen had a hand pump that was about as old as the city. It was Civil War era, with a long iron handle that you had to pump quite a few times to bring the water up.

She kept a dipper hanging from a wire on the pump. We would take turns pumping for each other. It took two hands to pump. One person would pump while another person would hold the dipper under the spout. It took teamwork to get a drink of water.

That was 30 years ago or more, but I can still hear the sound as the water rose up the inside of the well and reached the spout, then came blasting out into the dipper. That water tasted good! I wonder how many kids drank from it? We didn’t worry about anyone’s germs either.

Mrs. Bissen always seemed to be home, and she always seemed to be watching us from behind her screen door. If we pumped extra water just to see it pour out, she would magically appear and tell us to stop. Once she even threatened to take away our water privileges. That was enough to keep us in line.

We didn’t think about the fact that the water was good for us. We just knew we needed that pump and that water. I don’t think any of us thought about how that water rejuvenated us. But it did, and it still does.

I read quite a few years ago that if you are working and are feeling tired, you are probably dehydrated, and you should stop and take a drink of water.

After reading that, I started taking a bottle of water with me when I was cutting firewood. When I felt a little fatigued, I would take a drink of water, and it was amazing how that perked me up.

It became a habit for me to have a bottle of water handy for other activities, like working on the house, in the garden, or when skiing or hiking or biking. Now I take a bottle of water with me to work, and drink it in the car like my mother does!

I keep a bottle on my desk. Taking a big drink has the same rejuvenating effect when I get tired at my tough desk job.

I’m preaching here, but I think everybody ought to have a bottle of water handy.

One minor detail, and I almost hate to mention it. But in keeping with my policy of being brutally honest: make sure there’s a bathroom nearby.