by Marilyn Richardson
Two granddaughters, ages eleven and thirteen, were coming for a summer visit so I began thinking up activities. There’d be swimming and the occasional movie, a trip to the mall, maybe some sewing, but there needed to be more. What about, I thought, after watching a documentary on women in India, if we tried living on a bucket of water for a day?

At first the girls protested.

“No, grandma, I’d die.”

“Why would we do that?”

I explained it was to see how people lived who didn’t have running water, then I backed off, saying we didn’t need to try it if they didn’t want to. They immediately changed their tune.

“How long would it last?”

“How big is the bucket?”

“What about showers and hair?”

I suggested they take care of that the day before.

After deciding the experiment would last until six p.m., we chose to try it the next day. We cleaned out a large
bucket with bleach, then filled it with water.

We then divided what we had—a pitcher full for drinking water, a cup for brushing teeth in the bathroom, a pan on the stove for dishes. No one wanted to try to build a fire in the backyard to heat water.

Washing dishes was sort of fun, mainly because all three of us were involved in the task. We used about 4 cups of hot water with soap, rinsed the dishes in two cups of water, and dried off what didn’t rinse off.

Brushing teeth was also fun. We’d pour a dollop of water over the bristles, add the toothpaste, pour another dollop and brush.

As to the toilet, I asked if they wanted to dig a latrine in the back yard.

“Eeeww.”

“Yuck.”

I felt the same, so we agreed to the adage, if it’s yellow let it mellow…

Habits are hard to break and we all admitted to accidentally turning on the faucet once or twice.

I’m not sure what the girls learned, but I was surprised to find that the three of us could live on very little water if we agreed not to wash clothes or take showers. In fact, at the end of the day we still had a quarter of a bucket of unused water. There was what you might call cheating. We went to town for lunch, played at a water pad by the library, had big drinks from the fountain inside, and an Icee treat at Target. Nobody suffered.

I also learned that we don’t drink enough water, and the following day I had five loads of clothes to wash, the dishwasher was full, and the girls couldn’t wait to take a bubble bath.

We talked about going a day without electricity, then realized we wouldn’t want to turn the refrigerator off, nor, in Southern Utah, go without air conditioning, but we could easily go without television and electric lights. We’ll do
that next week.

And maybe next summer we’ll try the bucket of water for the whole day, with no trips to town, and even hand wash some clothes.

Other activities that filled the time:

Both girls fell in love with the Lemony Snicket books, A Series of Unfortunate Events. When they discovered that the library also carried the CD’s or tapes, they wanted to listen and read at the same time. For reluctant readers, this was a plus.

I decided they should have spelling words to study. What worked best was to write up eleven words including one easy word and one hard word. They could then eliminate one word if they chose. The eleven-year-old always chose.

Doing a page of math a day from a fifth grade book the teacher had donated didn’t work. I couldn’t figure out the answers.

Piecing a baby quilt doesn’t work if you don’t like the fabric.

Tying a baby quilts was easier but still a “whole ton” of work.

My favorite activity was reading aloud to them my latest middle grade novel and seeing their reactions. They were very good at critiquing and could advise me that some people don’t say, “Ouch” anymore, they say, “Ow!”

They were especially interested if there was going to be any kissing.

Since returning home, the thirteen-year-old wrote me on Facebook that the bucket of water day was one she’d never forget. I can’t wait for next summer.