Water Towers, a childhood memory

I’ve always been fascinated by water towers and reservoirs. To get to my elementary school, I walked up a steep hill, past 2 huge cisterns, then up another hill to walk past the [open to the air but fenced in from us] reservoir. The squat cylindrical tanks looked just like 2 giant metal birthday cakes with pale pink icing, and the reservoir was a giant forbidden swimming pool on a hot day. (No, we never scaled the barbed wire fence to get in, but it sure did look inviting!) The water gushed into the reservoir from a gigantic pipe, so swift and strong that you could almost feel the power. After school as we walked down the hill, we would walk on the broad pink pipes from the grassy bank to the building itself. The metal rivets helped us keep our footing. If you put your ear to the tank, you could hear life inside in the form of swishing water.

screenshot from google maps

My kids have had the experience of walking up the steep hills from my childhood home and seeing the path I took to school as a kid, but sadly we had to forgo the experience of walking on the water pipes. These days,  the tanks are fenced off from young children and those who would inflict vandalism.

More on water towers this week…