THREE BATHROOMS, HMMM

So, how do you spend your days during this pandemic? If you are like me, you watch a lot of television. Sadly, the shows available leave a lot to be desired. 

I think I have seen every cop show that has ever been made. The same for sporting events. I love college football, but the games are not nearly as exciting when you already know the outcome. 

I absolutely refuse to watch soap operas and daytime game shows. The same is true for the talk shows. To my mind there is enough misery in the world without having to watch people looking for sympathy telling their most private stories.

No, the viewing choices are limited at best. 

I found an answer though. I started watching the HGTV Network. I watch people shopping for homes. Some are looking for permanent homes and some are looking for vacation homes. 

A recent show really caught my attention. A couple with six children were shopping for a new vacation home. What really got to me was the wife's requirement for at least three bathrooms. Her comment was that there was no way her children could share a bathroom. Hmmm, I thought. It brought back some memories. 

When I was a youngster our family didn't have such difficult choices. My parents, grandparents who lived with us, and my brothers did in fact have to share one bathroom. We didn't call it a bathroom though, we called it what it was, an outhouse. It was about fifty yards behind our house. It didn't matter if the sun was shining or the snow and rain was coming down. It was still fifty yards behind the house. We survived. 

And speaking of baths. That was pretty simple. My mother filled a big tub with water she drew from our well, heated on our wood stove, and poured into the tub. My two brothers and I shared that water. That's how we got our baths. The common thinking was that once a week was probably plenty. Again, we survived.

Speaking of survival, so much of what is restricted today was common in my youth. For example, lead-based paint. Everything was painted with lead-based paint. How about asbestos. My schools were insulated with asbestos. Our church was insulated with asbestos. In fact most buildings used the miracle insulation asbestos. 

We didn't have car seats or seat belts. My brothers and I had bb guns. We didn't shoot anybody's eye out. Speaking of guns, we also had real guns early on and went hunting before and after school. And yes, we kept our guns in our school lockers. It was never a problem. We saved our ammunition for the game we were hunting. We would never have wasted it on somebody's house or car. Besides, if we screwed up we would have gone to jail and we knew it.

Now I know times have changed. But, have people? Are we so different now than we were fifty or sixty years ago? Do people really need three bathrooms? I often wish we could return to the simpler times. I don't miss the outhouse, or the well, though. I am sure we had bad guys who committed crime, but you didn't hear about it so much then.

Concerning the lady who thinks she needs three bathrooms, whatever floats her boat. She might be surprised at how well her family could get along without them. 

Ron Scarbro August 16, 2020