Volume 8 , Issue 3

The Prairie Connection, Balmer Fund & Old Cistern Stories...

The Balmer Fund would like to have some old cistern stories--and photos (scanned) for their March, 2006 Issue of The Prairie Connection. Almost every farm had a cistern, it seems, and there must be a multitude of memories out there that ought to be documented for posterity.

Has anyone out there ever drank the water from a cistern?

Was it the best soft water for washing clothes and hair?

Did your parents, grandparents ever install a hand pump in the men's wash-up room so they could use it when they came in from the fields?

Ever wonder what ever happened to the chain of cistern cups that pulled the water up?

So many things were thrown away when they became obsolete. We never dreamed they would be of value again, both monetary and nostalgia-wise.

The Prairie Connection doesn't need anything until the first week in February on the cisterns, so there's time to get your cistern stories written down for posterity!

Did anyone ever fall in the cistern?

What did you do to keep the skunks, rabbits, etc., out?

What uses did you have for the water: garden? livestock? household?

Most young people today have no clue as to what a cistern is -- we need to explain things in great detail for this NOW generation!

Send your cistern stories to the Prairie Connection, c/o Rosalea Hostetler - Email: wepreserve@balmerfund.org. Thanks for your help in preserving the prairies of our ancestors for the NOW & Future Generations.

We here at "The OkieLegacy" would love to hear some of those "cistern" stories.
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