The art and skill of fetching water from a well

The house in which I grew up in Xia-Tan (下潭) had no running water, so we had to fetch water either from the water pump or the well next to it, located in the elemental school (the only school in the village) across the road.

I reminisced about my childhood story with the family during the holidays in Michigan.  When talking about fetching the water from well, I vividly remember the trick of twisting or jerking the bucket when it reached the bottom of the well, so that it could turn and sink into water; I was very proud of the skill.

While reading Lin-Yutang’s “From Pagan to Christian”, I came across this passage, in which he obviously had the same experience and even called this skill an “art”.

“We were a family of six brothers and two sisters, and we boys used to take turns drawing water from the family well.  There was fun in learning the art of swinging the bucket when it reached the bottom of the well so that it would overturn and catch the water.”

I recall there was a water pump in front of Janice’s dorm in the Harvard Yard.  It brought back the memory of my childhood when I first saw it.  My left thumb was once partially crushed operating the pump.  The water pump was kept it in the Yard for “historical” reason; like Lin Yutang, I must have lived through the history.

Many years ago on our visit to Taiwan, I did bring Jo and Sean to see that house in the village; I regret not to bring them to demonstrate the skill/art of fetching water from the well.

We moved from Xia-Tan (下潭) to Po-Tzu (朴子) half way through my fifth grade, I wrote a story about this in 2007.

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2007/04/comparing-with-young-abe-lincoln.html