So I went out to the laundry room to see if anyone had meddled with the thermostat again. Nope.
The heater was leaking and the laundry room was half-way flooded. That explained it. So I called the Manager (after hours, of course) and left a message on her phone. For once she was on the ball.
There are plumbers in the laundry room now, as we speak, installing a huge, energy-efficient water heater. The boss plumber assured me that we would have hot water by this evening. But that got me to thinking (a dangerous exercise here).
I remember when Aunt N and Uncle E (on the farm) didn't have indoor plumbing. Can you imagine going out to the privy at night in the middle of December? I don't think so. That's why we had thunder mugs in our bedrooms. And I found out why they were called thunder mugs. (Oh, use your imagination!)
There was a large wood stove in the kitchen with a water reservoir for hot water for dishwashing and the like. Warm water for "spit" baths. But laundry days were a different matter.
I remember a HUGE washtub on the wood stove, scrub boards and lye soap. First the whites were boiled and scrubbed, then the colors, then the work clothes. Then there was the matter of rinse water.
But after everything was clean, I remember laundry being hung on what seems like miles of clothesline. But, oh, how sweet the clothes smelled when they were dry and brought in to be folded, hung up, or otherwise put away.
Later Aunt N got a gas-powered washing machine. She still had to heat water for the machine, but it sure beat the laundry tub! She had a rinse water tub and a hand-cranked wringer. Still the lye soap. I don't remember bleach of any kind, but with lye soap, bleach isn't needed.
Every Saturday night, we bathed in a huge tub set in the middle of the kitchen. Water had to be heated for the tub, of course. The men were elsewhere when the women were bathing. And the women had other things to do when the men bathed. Can you imagine the amount of water that had to be heated for, let's see...6 people while I was living there, and 5 when I was living "in town."
The summers were different. We took towels, soap and shampoo and went to The Dam. The women went first, and then the men went upstream a ways and completed their ablutions. Then when everyone was clean, we all put on our bathing suits and swam until almost dark.
There was a stream up on the mountain, and Uncle E tapped into that and brought cold, clean water into the kitchen. But no faucets. You wanted water, you "primed" the pump and then pumped like crazy until water came flowing out. That also was the water that was put in the stove reservoir, and the water that was heated for bathing, dishwashing and laundry.
So the next time you have to call the plumber, be grateful you have something to call the plumber for.
Shalom