By Golly we had a swimming pool when I was a kid. Yep! We were up there jiving with the best of them.  On hot days Mama would draw water from the well and fill a big wash tub. The tub was placed under the shady walnut  trees in the front yard. Some people had fancy ones shaped like our modern bathtubs but we only had the tubs Mama used for washing clothes. We could play in or out of the water. Splashing around like ducks. Speaking of ducks we had two white ones. They loved our swimming pool too if they ever got a chance to get in it.

In very hot weather another tub of water was placed in the sun and by the end of the day the water was heated just right for a bath. We were not supposed to play in it.  When we carried it inside to the back room for bath's we usually had to skim the bugs off the top. Younger people might turn their nose up at this but you don't know what you missed.

Those old wash tubs were used for so many different things. On special occasions they were filled with crushed ice from the ice house and cokes were placed in the ice. Wow! Those were the coldest cokes I ever drank. Yummy!!

Any time Mama got a new one the old one was put to use also. Water was put in them to water the cow and horse. Sometimes the top was cut out for a shallow one to feed and water the chickens in. One with leaks was used to sew tomato seeds in the spring. Water was added to keep the dirt moist while they grew. Chicken manure was mixed in the garden dirt and placed in the tub. No potting soil and Miracle grow then. Around the first of June the tomato plants were planted in the black dirt Daddy had plowed up in the garden. Later tender plants were covered with the tubs in the garden if a late freeze was expected.  I can distinctly remember putting my hands up to my elbows in that dirt, chicken manure and all, and playing in it after the plants were removed.  Mud pies?  Prooo-ba-blee, did I taste the pies? I really don't remember!  We were allowed to be kids in the 50's  and we didn't stay inside all the time. Even in the winter I remember being out more than in.

Occasionally some women would use a leaky one to plant flowers in but that didn't happen a lot. Those tubs were too useful for them to get rusted out for just a flower pot. At least that's what my Daddy said and Mama agreed with him.

We made use of everything in as many ways as we could. I have an old wash tub hanging on a nail out on the smoke house. People have tried to buy it from me to plant flowers in. NO WAY! That tub is going to hang right there as long as I have anything to do with it.  So many sweet memories can be conjured up by just looking fondly on that old tub.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)