posted 12 years ago
Many homes in the New England and upper midwest used to have basement cisterns, we still call the tank that holds water to flush a toilet by that name, usually they were cleverly
built into a corner of the cellar so that the cellar walls made-up two or even 3 sides of the cistern, The kitchen was located directly over the cistern so that water which was often
stored rain water could be brought up from the basement with a simple hand pump.
I never looked closely at the construction, usually the extra wall to 'finish' off the cisterns wall(s) was made of a hand laid up concrete ! I never paid any attention to whether it was
plastered on the inside ! A few had some kind of plug or cap low down in the cistern to allow for the cistern to be drained so that it could be cleaned out periodically ! Failure of this
plug was an instant Crisis, andusually caused the farmers wife to campaign for a new well and an electric pump in the basement - or connection to "town water "
In some locations where the water table was low and only a few 10s of gallons a day could be pumped out of the well before the 'Pump Failed- sucking air ' and the well 'required
resting'. One of the younger Family Members would have the duty of giving the hand pump that fed to cistern well water 20 -50 strokes 3-4 times away ! - That and filling the wood
box, failure to perform these functions was cause for not being allowed outside to play after school ! It was an unhappy mother who faced an Empty Cistern 'on a Saturday Night !'
No wonder that lying in bed and listening to the Rain on the Roof was often reported as a great pleasure, it probably saved many a truant young child from a Switching ! Big Al
Success has a Thousand Fathers , Failure is an Orphan
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