Uploaded April 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
17 Steamed up Mirror
1
It might not seem important now,
Between me and you,
But we had no plumbing in the house,
In nineteen sixty-two.
2
We had moved from Yuma to Indiana,
To try our luck on Grandpa’s land,
We had run out of choices,
And we would have to make a stand.
3
Five big rooms and a staircase.
That led to the second floor,
And those second story bedrooms,
Didn’t come with any doors.
4
I didn’t care about the doors,
Or our total lack of heat,
Or the outhouse in the field beyond,
On a path two hundred feet.
5
What I really cared about,
Was the shower that was missing,
I was just a kid, fifteen years old,
And this fact was quite distressing.
6
Finally it was August,
Attending high school without a shower,
The bus picked us up,
And the trip took less than an hour.
7
It was during third period that I saw it,
And it could not have been an error,
It was physical Education,
And I saw that steamed up mirror.
8
It is a side of the question,
That offered a solution,
And as long as we lived on the farm,
Missing PE was not an option.
When I was a kid in 1962 we moved to a little farm in Indiana that didn't have running water. Now I know that 99.999999 percent of all the people who have ever lived did not have the luxury of running water and a shower in the house. But don't try to explain this to a kid just starting high school, and who has never known anything but a shower always there. In the summer I took baths in the creek or river, which means I was probably dirtier after the bath, but don't try to tell a hard-headed kid that. In the end the problem was solved when I discovered Physical Education, and so I could shower every school day. That is what this story is about.
17 Steamed up Mirror
1
It might not seem important now,
Between me and you,
But we had no plumbing in the house,
In nineteen sixty-two.
2
We had moved from Yuma to Indiana,
To try our luck on Grandpa’s land,
We had run out of choices,
And we would have to make a stand.
3
Five big rooms and a staircase.
That led to the second floor,
And those second story bedrooms,
Didn’t come with any doors.
4
I didn’t care about the doors,
Or our total lack of heat,
Or the outhouse in the field beyond,
On a path two hundred feet.
5
What I really cared about,
Was the shower that was missing,
I was just a kid, fifteen years old,
And this fact was quite distressing.
6
Finally it was August,
Attending high school without a shower,
The bus picked us up,
And the trip took less than an hour.
7
It was during third period that I saw it,
And it could not have been an error,
It was physical Education,
And I saw that steamed up mirror.
8
It is a side of the question,
That offered a solution,
And as long as we lived on the farm,
Missing PE was not an option.
When I was a kid in 1962 we moved to a little farm in Indiana that didn't have running water. Now I know that 99.999999 percent of all the people who have ever lived did not have the luxury of running water and a shower in the house. But don't try to explain this to a kid just starting high school, and who has never known anything but a shower always there. In the summer I took baths in the creek or river, which means I was probably dirtier after the bath, but don't try to tell a hard-headed kid that. In the end the problem was solved when I discovered Physical Education, and so I could shower every school day. That is what this story is about.
