3 Ways to Take a Shower
The art of 'Navy Showers' Navy Shower anyone? I just found this post in the green blogosphere, where the writer advocates that we all take abbreviated showers, just like those guys in the Navy.
There is even a method to it.
And since we are in America, even the simplest things come with an instruction manual .
.
.
You may go to Wikipedia and find complete instructions for how to take a Navy Shower.
In short, you just turn the shower on, just enough to get yourself wet, turn it off, soap yourself, and then turn it back on to quickly rinse.
Showers on the farm This reminds me of my days back in my grandparents' farm, when we did not have a shower.
My grandfather was the only one to take a full 'shower' once a week.
I still remember him stripping down to his underwear, and getting into the 'abreuvoir', what looked like a big cement bath tub, and was really meant as a drinking station for the cattle.
The sight of him almost naked in the cold morning air, used to make me shiver.
Showers for my grandfather consisted of one bucket of cold water poured over his head, quick soaping, and rinsing with a few more buckets of cold water.
The women, my grandmother, my mother, and I, were content enough with occasional hand baths, using our 'gant de toilette', the French version of washcloth, which literally means toilet mitten.
According to American standards of hygiene, we may have been dirty, but our lives did not suffer, and the clean country air did its share to minimize our natural body odors.
I love American showers Fast forward forty years.
While I look back on these years on the farm with great nostalgia, I certainly do not miss those hand baths.
And I regard the long, hot American showers as a hard won indulgence that I am not willing to give up.
I love the gushing of water, the washing away of the impurities of the day, the warm cocoon of the shower, where for a few minutes I can let my body relax.
It is my daily version of a cheap massage.
A luxury I am taking for granted.
Of course, I am well aware it may not last.
Water is going to become the new oil, a resource so precious that people may wage wars because of it.
For now, I am not hearing, or seeing anywhere in my radar screen, that I am to stop taking long, hot showers.
There is even a method to it.
And since we are in America, even the simplest things come with an instruction manual .
.
.
You may go to Wikipedia and find complete instructions for how to take a Navy Shower.
In short, you just turn the shower on, just enough to get yourself wet, turn it off, soap yourself, and then turn it back on to quickly rinse.
Showers on the farm This reminds me of my days back in my grandparents' farm, when we did not have a shower.
My grandfather was the only one to take a full 'shower' once a week.
I still remember him stripping down to his underwear, and getting into the 'abreuvoir', what looked like a big cement bath tub, and was really meant as a drinking station for the cattle.
The sight of him almost naked in the cold morning air, used to make me shiver.
Showers for my grandfather consisted of one bucket of cold water poured over his head, quick soaping, and rinsing with a few more buckets of cold water.
The women, my grandmother, my mother, and I, were content enough with occasional hand baths, using our 'gant de toilette', the French version of washcloth, which literally means toilet mitten.
According to American standards of hygiene, we may have been dirty, but our lives did not suffer, and the clean country air did its share to minimize our natural body odors.
I love American showers Fast forward forty years.
While I look back on these years on the farm with great nostalgia, I certainly do not miss those hand baths.
And I regard the long, hot American showers as a hard won indulgence that I am not willing to give up.
I love the gushing of water, the washing away of the impurities of the day, the warm cocoon of the shower, where for a few minutes I can let my body relax.
It is my daily version of a cheap massage.
A luxury I am taking for granted.
Of course, I am well aware it may not last.
Water is going to become the new oil, a resource so precious that people may wage wars because of it.
For now, I am not hearing, or seeing anywhere in my radar screen, that I am to stop taking long, hot showers.
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