A few years ago, I went back to the old home place where I grew up in Grant Co, OK. The house was in ruins with only one wall remaining of the house that I once called home. I sat down on the concrete water well casing and started crying. The memories of the times I once shared with our family flowed back from many years before. The well house was the only thing that remained intact. The concrete housing where I sat once held an electric water pump that replaced the hand pump we used when I was a small child. The cement well encasement is on daddy’s right side in the last picture above.

The old hand dug well that mama and daddy labored so hard to dig was our source for cool spring like drinking water. Mama and daddy dug the first well when they moved to the farm in 1934 when I was only three years old. Over the years, the well was repaired several times, and dug wider and deeper in the process. When electricity came to the area in 1951, mama and daddy made a concrete encasement cover for the old well with an electric water pump housed inside. A hydrant was placed on the outside of the well. They never did have running water inside of the house in all of the years they lived there. Daddy died in 1960 and mama moved to Cherokee in 1963.

One story is hilarious that daddy often told about the well digging. Mama and Daddy took turns digging the well. They used a bucket with a rope tied to the handle to raise and lower into the well for the dirt removal. The deeper they dug, the more they had to use a pick ax. It was a very tiring and hot endeavor. Mama wore an old loose fitting cotton dress when it was her turn to dig, nothing more. Since they lived in a remote farm area, she was comfortable in thinking that no one would ever see her.

One day, when mama was down in the well taking her turn digging, daddy pulled on the rope to bring up the bucket of dirt. It would not move, so he gave a very hard yank. Somehow, the bucket had caught on mama's loose fitting dress. It literally stripped her naked, bringing the dress up with the dirt bucket. She fumed at daddy for a moment. He thought the situation was very funny and burst out laughing. Mama was not one bit happy about what daddy considered so funny. Suddenly, all became very quiet above the well. Then, mama heard daddy quip "Well, Hello Harry, when did you get here?" Mama began to panic and for several moments tried to hide her naked body by hugging the wall of the well as closely as she could. Only then, did daddy reveal to mama that Harry was not there, that he was only joking. It took her a few days before she saw the humor of his actions. Of course, daddy told Harry Terrill, his best friend and neighbor, about the incident the next time he visited. Harry broke up into hysterical laughter. Harry always enjoyed my dad’s great sense of humor. This story has been told many times and I still laugh whenever I hear it.