As a young boy I was asked by a cousin to go down into this Well House. (I guess that's what it could be called. We actually just always referred to it as the Well.) He said he would give me a quarter for doing it and before I continue the story you should probably know that he did give me the quarter and in the early 60's that was pretty good money. Back then they still had penny candy at Kohl's our local grocery store. No it wasn't the Kohl's you see all over the country now but did have that original name long before this big chain of store came out.
So as you can tell from the pictures that this well, which was our water supply all during my childhood, was covered with a wooden lid. It was a heavy lid and not nearly as good as the one in this image. But it was a lid that still kept most of the light out of the hole where the water tank and pump were kept.
The lid did let a small stream of light into the hole that made it somewhat bearable I suppose and I know because after l I went down the old wooden ladder into the hole he promptly put the lid onto the well .
I can't remember my reaction to the incident other than I was pretty scared because there were enough Black Widow spiders in that well to eat a kid my age totally up before the lid could again be removed, or at least that was how I pictured it at the time as I clung to the ladder in hopes that they couldn't see any better than I.
Well he finally took the rock off of the lid and let me out. In this last image and an earlier one you can see the rock that is kept on the lid now to prevent children from accidentally falling into the well and the rock that Jack put on the lid to keep me in was probably not that big but as far as I was concerned it was far bigger than the well cause I couldn't budge that lid from underneath at all. Besides that lid had years of spider webs on it too. He and I have both laughed about that little trick a lot of times since then but at the time I wasn't laughing I was probably crying. (The person in this photo is my brother Lynn who later helped another cousin pull other pranks on me. It was a tough life being the youngest brother.)
So as you can tell from the pictures that this well, which was our water supply all during my childhood, was covered with a wooden lid. It was a heavy lid and not nearly as good as the one in this image. But it was a lid that still kept most of the light out of the hole where the water tank and pump were kept.
The lid did let a small stream of light into the hole that made it somewhat bearable I suppose and I know because after l I went down the old wooden ladder into the hole he promptly put the lid onto the well .
I can't remember my reaction to the incident other than I was pretty scared because there were enough Black Widow spiders in that well to eat a kid my age totally up before the lid could again be removed, or at least that was how I pictured it at the time as I clung to the ladder in hopes that they couldn't see any better than I.
These images make it look like there is a lot of room in that little cement cavity but there really wasn't. It took some doing to move around in it after you got down the ladder to the floor and I often wondered when I would get bit by spiders when down there trying to prime the pump in the spring as it became quite hard to keep water pumping until our canal was again filled with water and the water underground was again restocked after a long dry winter.
Have you ever thought about using pictures to illustrate your journal? With electronic formats now in this digital age and all of the thousands of blogs it is a smart way to record your history. Having the picture of the well helps me to remember just how big that hole was that I was trapped in for those few minutes which at the time felt like hours. The only other thing that would need to be done is to keep a paper record of your blogs and your history becomes alive for others to read and laugh at (unless they had similar prank pulling cousins and the history brings back painful memories). Remember though I said that we now laugh at it but I still hate Black Widow Spiders.
1 comment:
Wow you were a brave little kid! I have never seen what was under that lid! Thanks for the pics.
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