WATER FROM A TANK

Mrs. Parker, my elementary school teacher, talked about going to the ranch with Parker, that’s what she called her husband.  They were walking around and were real thirsty and they hadn’t taken any water with them.  They were miles away from the truck.  There was a little pond of water and they just drank from there. 

But the next day they went to the doctor to check them out.  He checked them out and he said they were all right.  I thought, we used to do that all of the time.  My Grandfather would say, “See the ripples, get behind the ripples, not on the other side because the water is carrying everything with it.”  We would always drink that water, never had any problems.  When we ran out of water, we would fill up the milk cans with that kind of water and we and the workers all drank that. 

So when Mrs. Parker was saying about that, I couldn’t figure that out.  We would see the cows drinking in it and their saliva floating on the top of the water.  That is why my grandfather said, “Don’t drink the water that’s coming, that might have big salvia from the cows in it.” 

Like that cowboy song, now which is the real cowboy sitting in the front seat of the truck.  There’s no way to know.  Oh yeah, you can know, it’s the one sitting in the middle.  Because he doesn’t have to drive and he doesn’t have to get off to open the gate. 

The real cowboy would say, “How do you drink water from the pond? Watch the ripples and if there aren’t any ripples, pick up some sand and see which way the wind blows it.  If it’s blowing that way, then drink on this side.”  Because everything is flowing that way and it’s cleaner over here.   There would be cows drinking and we would be drinking too. 

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