Wally and Auntie Kay Smith and daughter arrived in Oliver during the mid 1930’s. They didn’t have a lot of money but what they did have they used for basic necessities.
After Wally bought his chosen piece of land, he hired Mr Haughton to build a house. It was to be a three room house with a kitchen, a living room and a bedroom. Where is the bathroom you might ask? It was about 30 meters from the house, what is known as an outhouse, no sink there either. There was a sink in the kitchen with a hand pump, sometimes known as a pitcher pump, which was used to draw up the drinking and washing water from the well which was housed in the basement.
Auntie Kay used a wash board to wash the family clothes until they could afford a wringer washer. The dirty wash water was carried out in pails and dumped at the fruit trees. As a boy I remember helping Auntie Kay carry the dirty wash water out to dump on the lawn under the fruit trees. For close to ten years Wally, Auntie Kay, along with the first daughter, and the second daughter, labored with basic water availability. With another child coming, it meant an awful lot of domestic work for Auntie Kay. They decided to install hot and cold running water for the kitchen and build a new bathroom and another bedroom. That meant that a septic system would need to be installed too. The work was completed, they were living in the modern world, finally.
Wally’s sister lived and worked in Vancouver and now that the Smiths were up to date with her expectations, it was time for a visit. She wanted her own room and insisted on a bath every day. Wally put his foot down and said no! The new septic system couldn’t take that much abuse, was his point of view. His sister refused to co-operate and promptly moved out. She went over to Wally’s cousins Jim Stewart and his sister Barbara MacDonald’s place which was in the neighborhood, and stayed with them. When Wally’s sister came to visit from then on she always stayed with Barbara and Jim and visited the next of kin from there.
Wally was always very conscious of overloading the septic system. Bathing once a week was sufficient for each of the family. The most washing machine Auntie Kay could get was the small washer/spin dryer. He wouldn’t allow a dishwasher to come into the house either. Even when Wally and Auntie Kay moved into their new house, he still wouldn’t allow a big modern washing machine to be installed.
Time moves on we all know that. I have not had to fuss over a septic system as Wally had during his day.
The house I’m living in now was built during the 1960’s. The original waste water pipe to the city sewer system was made of pressed tar paper. The builders at the time of installation were unaware of the volume of waste hot water that would be going through the pipes. The pipes began to collapse over time under the weight of the ground and provided the tree roots with a source of moisture compounding the problem. All the homeowners’ pipes in our neighborhood need to be replaced with plastic, we did ours last winter.
Auntie Kay had to make do with a dinky washer/spin dryer but we bought a matched set washer and dryer, the LG brand, ten years ago. The washer was a front load. A year ago it developed a noise. We hired a technician who said the bearings in the drum were going. He said to repair it would cost as much as buying a new one, so use it until it quits.The noise sounded like a jet plane taking off. We endured it for six months, then reconsidered the matter. We felt that it would probably quit when we needed it the most so we went and bought a new washer, top load, GE brand. It has more choices that we like than the front load had, and it should last as long as we need it.
As a wrap up, when I think of what Wally and Auntie Kay had to endure starting over in Oliver especially on the domestic side, I count myself as fortunate to having not done the same. I grew up with hot and cold running water, flush toilets and showers. That is one aspect of our society that I hope never changes.