Community Suit - The Well
The SoulCollage® Deck has four suits. The Community Suit is filled with your ancestors, family members and friends – as well as locations or objects with significant nurturing history for you.
Today I want to tell you about one of those nurturing objects – The Well!
The Well - dug in 1926 giving water for 80 years.
The well was dug in 1926 by a group of families in Bangs Grove, Minnesota. Bangs Grove is not an official town - rather it is a grove of trees where several families lived. One of those residents was my grandfather. He left his wife and two children in Iowa while he came to Minnesota to build a two-room house for his family in Bangs Grove. My grandpa and the other families needed water so that same year they drilled 80 feet to secure an artesian well which flowed for over 80 years.
This well served the 6 families that lived in Bangs Grove. Although each family had to carry the water to their homes. (It gives images of the watercooler at the office a new meaning.) After a few years, my grandpa laid tile and a pipe from the well to his house. This cold water came in and flowed through galvanized troughs under the sink 24 hours a day. Grandma would place butter crocks, milk jugs and any food items needing to be chilled in that running water. The well provided a refrigerator before there was electricity.
After World War II my dad brought my mom home to Bangs Grove. My mom and dad moved into the house my great-grandpa had built and later my uncle had lived in. They carried water from the well until they also put in pipe and tile.
As a child I have fond memories of that well. It was half way between my house and my playmate Johnny’s house. On hot summer days we would often stop and get a drink – sipping that delicious chilled water and wiping our faces dry on our shirtsleeves – it was a ritual that somehow told us that all was well with our world of summer.
When the well was not serving to rehydrate us as kids it was a location. Walking home from the bus I’d say – “meet me at the well with your bike in 10 minutes and we will go for a ride”. Or “I’ll walk you home as far as the well.” When I was younger, the well also determined the allowed boundary of my play area. I could play up to the well. The well was a location, a constant in our lives.
Another favorite memory was how it served as a watermelon cooler. My parents would buy a big watermelon and dad would walk it down to the well and plop it in. The cold chilled water would float that watermelon for hours or days. Then we’d hear – “lets clean up the dishes, Dad is going to go walk down to the well and pick up the watermelon.” Cold juicy watermelon on a hot humid summer day – our well made it happen.
When my grandpa was older and lived alone, we shared the well with him. If no one was drawing water at that moment my grandpa had enough pressure from the artesian well for water to flow out his faucet. So, if he decided he wanted water he would turn on the faucet and simply wait until our house was done using it. A patient man – or this spiritual practice created his patience – I am not sure.
The Well – a place to nurture thirst, a place to create special memories like cold watermelon, a place to meet, a way to learn patience, a boundary of safety. The Well was a constant in my life as a child and in my dad’s life as well. What creates security? Sometimes it is simply something constant, something trusted, something that is simply there offering itself when you need it the most.