EARLY CLASSICS from STEVIE

[Kamasu_Jr]

WHAT THE HECK IS A WATER BOY?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj9hDmG2rfw


MUSIC IN some SANTIFIED CHURCHES IN DETROIT often sounded like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYzODvDLIgo

[robb_k]

WHAT THE HECK IS A WATER BOY?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj9hDmG2rfw
MUSIC IN some SANTIFIED CHURCHES IN DETROIT often sounded like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYzODvDLIgo
5641
In the rural South,. often Black neighbourhoods had many [[most or all) houses not connected to a water system. People had to walk to a main public holding tank or the nearest river or lake. They had big metal canisters [[cans) to hold the water. Some of them hired boys to carry it for them.

Even in my own time growing up. there were also houses in big cities that were not connected to the sewer system. I remember talking to someone from St. Louis many years ago[[I think it was Tina Turner -but not positive), who told me she grew up in a house well within the city, that didn't have a toilet inside. They had an outhouse [[thus the name) in the backyard. It was doggone cold in the winter to go out there at night, I'm not sure if they had water hooked up to the house in pipes [[but they probably did), But, in the late 1800s, and early 1900s, building in cities like Chicago and St. Louis, often occurred faster than than the cities' utility companies could keep up, providing pipelines. Political graft sent the pipeline connections to the wealthy and middle class areas first. The housing in the poorer areas was often forgotten, and took a long time to catch up.

[shoo-be-doo]

5641
In the rural South,. often Black neighbourhoods had many [[most or all) houses not connected to a water system. People had to walk to a main public holding tank or the nearest river or lake. They had big metal canisters [[cans) to hold the water. Some of them hired boys to carry it for them.

Even in my own time growing up. there were also houses in big cities that were not connected to the sewer system. I remember talking to someone from St. Louis many years ago[[I think it was Tina Turner -but not positive), who told me she grew up in a house well within the city, that didn't have a toilet inside. They had an outhouse [[thus the name) in the backyard. It was doggone cold in the winter to go out there at night, I'm not sure if they had water hooked up to the house in pipes [[but they probably did), But, in the late 1800s, and early 1900s, building in cities like Chicago and St. Louis, often occurred faster than than the cities' utility companies could keep up, providing pipelines. Political graft sent the pipeline connections to the wealthy and middle class areas first. The housing in the poorer areas was often forgotten, and took a long time to catch up.

Fascinating Rob! A little social history revealed. I had no idea about this. Thanks to Kamasu for posing the question. BTW don't you just love Clarence Paul on this recording?

[robb_k]

Fascinating Rob! A little social history revealed. I had no idea about this. Thanks to Kamasu for posing the question. BTW don't you just love Clarence Paul on this recording?
5643
Absolutely! The interplay between the two of them is what makes the song so good.

The World has changed a LOT since I was a little kid. We not only didn't have TV or computers, but people had old-fashioned wringer washing machines and dried our clothes on a clothes line, and burned our trash in a cement covered incinerator in the back yard. Some people had both an incinerator and an outhouse back there. In my family's home in South Chicago [[built in 1917), we had a built-in ice box [[wall cabinet) with a metal [[bank vault-type door). We did have a refrigerator, but the people in the house probably bought block ice and used the ice box through the end of World War II [[which was just some months before I was born).

I remember some older neighbourhoods in Chicago [[south east) that still had outhouses in the backyards, when I was growing up.

My best friend built a log cabin in the forest [[wilderness area) in The Übersalzburg area in Austria. We go there sometimes, to get away from Munich's noise, to do our storywriting and drawing in peace. There are no water pipes anywhere near it. So we have to walk about a half mile down a steep slope, and walk back up carrying our water in water canisters. You can bet I appreciate that water. There are no young boys nearby to pay to haul our water.

[Kamasu_Jr]

Thanks Robb. I had some idea about what a water boy was but wasn't sure. My dad says he doesn't remember outhouses in Detroit and most homes were connected to the city's water pipeline. However, he says his grandmother, who lived in a rural part of Youngstown, Ohio did have an outhouse in 1960-1962 before they eventually got indoor plumbing.

[jillfoster]

Thanks Robb. I had some idea about what a water boy was but wasn't sure. My dad says he doesn't remember outhouses in Detroit and most homes were connected to the city's water pipeline. However, he says his grandmother, who lived in a rural part of Youngstown, Ohio did have an outhouse in 1960-1962 before they eventually got indoor plumbing.

Our church had an outhouse that I had to use in 1978! LOL

[heikki]

Hi Robb!

...and happy birthday once more.
Thanks fot that explanation on "Water Boy." I've been wondering about that myself, too.

Best regards
Heikki