Bathed in blessings: Showers trump tubs for most Americans
If you’re an ordinary run-of-the-mill American, you take your daily shower for granted. Don’t. The next time that nice warm water is washing away your dirt and sweat, here’s something to think about:
It wasn’t so long ago that showers were for prisoners and soldiers. Not until the 1960s did shower-tub combinations make their debut as a must-have standard feature in new homes in the USA.
Information about the advent of showers is surprisingly sparse online (probably because nobody cares), but that’s where to find that factoid. You can believe it because that’s how I remember it.
Now go back a few more years to 1940. Per official U.S. Census data, 44 percent of American homes in that year didn’t have either a tub or a shower connected to running water.
Saturday night baths happened nevertheless. If you didn’t bathe in a metal tub temporarily set in the kitchen, maybe you went to the windmill to bathe in the stock tank – especially in the summer. But a shower? What’s a shower?
Times have changed. I know because I just conducted an informal coffeehouse survey. Eight out of 10 of my fellow latte drinkers told me they seldom bathe but routinely shower.
Oddly enough, the two who said they preferred a bath were both children. I didn’t ask their ages, but they looked to be about 9 and 10, girl and boy, respectively. Maybe they still like pretending the bath water is the ocean and they have ships to sail.
I didn’t ask anyone how often they showered. No doubt they would have said daily. Some might have said morning and night.
Back in the day, if your living circumstances fell into that above-mentioned little-or-no-plumbing category, that Saturday night kitchen bath likely would have been your only total body cleansing for the whole week.
The luckiest person in those days was the one who got to go first. One tub of water sufficed for the whole family. In today’s world that’d earn you points for recycling.
Yep, nice clean shower water beats used bath water. We are spoiled.
Meanwhile, what was the Saturday night pecking order for bathers? Did Fido and Rover come last? Probably not. Nobody bathed dogs back then. Besides, the fleas would have jumped off. Ask me how I know.
Truisms:
You don’t miss the water till the well runs dry.
You don’t miss the shower in your tub-shower combo till the little water diverter gismo on your tub faucet fails.
Be glad you’ve read this far. If that’s how your shower works and it hasn’t quit working, it will. You just haven’t lived long enough.
A non-functioning diverter is an excuse to update plumbing. You’ll spend a couple of hundred dollars, maybe more, for showerhead, controls and faucet.
Or you can remove the faucet yourself (not rocket science) and spend seven bucks on a repair kit to replace the little washer that failed. That’s the only part you’ll need from the kit.
You’re welcome.
Enjoy that shower.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Showers are favored washing option for most Americans
