Where’s the canteen on his saddle?
Whatever happened to the well curb cup? Or the gallon glass jug wrapped with a gunny sack? For that matter, where did the insulated Thermos decanter go? Wonder if anybody can remember bending over and using their hand as a cup to get a cool, fresh drink of water out of a pasture spring? Do folks even know what a glass of water is?
Of course, people don’t pump water anymore, and glass jugs, covered with burlap or denim, went to the wayside with the invention of insulated containers. There really isn’t any need for early day potable water flasks, and now the old Thermos is just about out of the picture, too. At least that’s true in the urban crowd and also with many farmers.
Just look on the back of a farmer’s pickup, and there’s often an insulated ice chest. Used to be, one just figured the feller liked his “Colorado cool-aide,” but nowadays, it probably has factory-bottled water inside. Cowboys even carry a bottle of water in their saddle bags. Nobody could have guessed bottled water would be the most popular drink.
We can even remember the first time we ever saw and drank factory-bottled water at a ranch rodeo we were announcing in Burlingame. No question for us though on the
importance of water.
Twice, when we became ill, the doctor’s advice was “drink more water.” We’d
be wringing wet with perspiration, but just saddle another horse and keep right on going. Consequently, we became dehydrated to the point of sickness.
A minimum of eight glasses of water a day is recommended by physicians. There’s nothing better for cleaning out the body system and improving health than drinking plenty of water, they claim. However, novelty of drinking water out of a bottle is gone.
Still paying $1 over the counter, even $1.50 out of machines, and $3 or more at certain public events for 16 ounces of water in a bottle is outrageous. Folks keep paying it and then complain about a gallon of gasoline at the same price. We do occasionally drink
water from a recycled bottle we fill from the kitchen faucet, but water jugs are used too.
Since creation, water has been essential. It is proclaimed in Ezekiel 4:11: “Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.”
Figuratively, water is the source of life. In John 4:14, Jesus said, “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
+++ALLELUIA+++