Well Well Well

Webster defines
Well, Noun- "a hole dug or a shaft bored in the ground to get water, oil, gas or steam".
Figurative- A spring, fountain, or outer source: fount, a well of everlasting love.

To us it means all of the above, In addition to Bible scripture referring to the well. The lady at the well. So many thoughts can go through your head, A word can conjure up a well of memories.

Hence.

My first experience with a well, was when I was 3- 5 years old. I had not started school yet, We lived in Slabtown, (a shanty town on the outskirts of Sheridan).
Our well was about 8 inches diameter. Into it went a long metal tube cylinder. You would drop this tube down into the casing, it would fill with water, You then pulled it up by a long rope, and released a handle to release the water into a bucket. That was our source of water. We had no pump to pump the water into the house so we did it this way. I was too small so I never got to do this but I watched and I learned.
I was terrified of the hole in the ground.
When we moved to a different house, My mom always scouted the property for abandoned wells and made sure we knew to stay away from them, If they were in an accessible area, she would fill them in the best she could with garbage, (Yep I said garbage, so some where in Arkansas are holes with old bottles and broken dishes and pans in them.)
Often they were already covered by something, maybe even old boards that were possibly rotten. She would proceed to replace those boards and warn us to STAT AWAY!!!!
Often as not they were covered by a briar patch. A briar patch is something Brer Fox threw Brer Rabbit into. LOL

We always had a well on our property.
They were a source of baths, laundry, (with rain water), Cleaning, and Most importantly Drinking water.

When your Dad was a boy they never had a well that had water. One time they moved into a house with a bathroom but the well went dry, so the bathroom was not in use. I recall visiting that house, We were picking them up for church. He and Coy often had to walk to the neighbors to get water.

When he moved to Arkansas in 1963, he moved in with Coy and Lou. They needed a well, so he and coy went to work digging the well. Yep with shovel and pick. They hired a man from town to help. This guy was afraid of enclosed spaces, so why would he hire out to dig wells. Well in all honesty he was not very bright.
He would come to our house every morning and yell, Hellooooo, Helloooooo, until someone acknowledged. He came to get Harold to help.
The well diggers name was Frog McReynolds. Not his real name but your Dad called him that so often he forgot his real name.
So they began digging the well, Your Dad would dump the buckets and Frog would be in the bottom of the well, filling them. The well was only 14-16 feet deep but it did produce water. Not enough, but water never the less.
Your Dad then placed huge 36 diameter casings in the well. He would hook them to the bumper of the car, and slowly lower them into the hole. He said, It would feel as if the car was being pulled into the well. As I said Frog was claustrophobic, so he did not dig a 36 inch diameter hole, He dug a 5 or 6 foot diameter hole.

Today we have a well that is secure, but it still terrifies me. Just the thought of a hole in the ground that a person can fall into. Even though the top is sealed, I still have nightmares about wells.

When I was about 7 our cat fell into the well. Mama immediately dropped the bucket into the well, and the cat jumped in, but to this day, I can recall the boys coming in and yelling, "The cat fell in the well." Mama thought they said, "Jeanette fell in the well, "
I will never forget the terror in her voice as she ran outside. Of course, at that point she was grateful it was the cat, but the boys still got into trouble, I think they threw it in. They would do that, They often pestered the cat, by putting paper shoes on it. We would all laugh, but the poor cat was distraught by the paper on his feet.
So I would naturally think they would do something that mean. I have to remember to ask them.

As we were driving home last night we talked about all these things. We just wanted you to know.