REFLECTIONS "Growing up in the 50's" Chapter 2-The Big Dipper

Nostalgia Tidbit: It was very common for the entire family to

drink water out of one glass that sat near the sink, refrigerator or

outdoor well. Sometimes even friends and relatives visiting drank

out of the same glass although usually you tried to avoid such.

Many folks used “metal dippers” to serve that same purpose. We

did!

Chapter 2

The Big Dipper

We didn’t use a lot of glasses when I was growing up.

Nowadays, around the house with only my wife and

me, we probably use more glasses in a day than we had

in our household when I was a kid. The reason we used

so few glasses, except at mealtime, was the fact that

we had “a family dipper”. In case you don’t know what

a dipper is…..it was a metal cup shaped container with

a long handle. It always hung on a nail above the

kitchen sink well within reach of all of us.

Any time we wanted a drink of water, we filled the

dipper with tap water. It really tasted good back then.

When you had your drink, you had better rinse it out

with hot water to kill the germs and then hang it back

on the nail, ready for the next family member to use.

When I say family use, I mean immediate family.

Visitors would have the luxury of using a glass. I will

never forget the time Uncle Joe visited us from

Tennessee. He went straight to the family dipper and

got his drink. Not only did Uncle Joe intrude

on our off limit family dipper but it was also rumored

that he had TB.

Back then, I wasn’t even sure what Tuberculosis was,

but I knew it couldn’t be good for someone to drink

out of the family dipper with such a thing.

Needless to say, that dipper was missing the next day

never to return. I guess washing it with hot water

wasn’t convincing enough to kill the fear of the TB

germ. It was nice drinking out of glasses for a

while…but soon…a new family dipper returned…after

Uncle Joe had gone back home of course! Uncle Joe

never came back to visit.

I think he was pretty old at the time … probably 45 or

so! He actually died shortly after his visit. He died of

TB, we supposed.

I don’t think I ever drank out of a dipper again.