Plus, the nature of hydrogeology would lead one to doubt that an aquifer would be tapped at the top of the hill rather than the well being situated at a lower lying region.
Outside of San Saba, Texas, there is an artesian spring that erupts on a hilltop. Over the years it has scooped out a series of, IIRC, 4 descending terrace pockets/pools, all over 20ft deep and crystal clear.
Friends of ours, the Tiesdales, used to own the place. The elder Tiesdale collected antique firearms and I remember as a child setting on his back porch, which over hung the main pool slightly, looking nearly 40ft down through the crystal clear water at a giant catfish while Mr. Tiesdale and my grandfather striped a 1901 Springfield.
My question is why some fool built the well on top of the hill? It just means that much more digging before you hit the water table. Granted, I’d rather walk down the hill with buckets full of water than uphill with buckets full of water, but it does mean a lot more digging. I have to assume that the well is a figment of the artist’s imagination and that they were going up the hill to a stream. That way it’s not full of whatever filth the people in town are dumping in it. THE WELL IS A LIE!
Well, it never does say in the original that they went to a well. It just says they went up a hill to fetch a pail of water. So it was probably a pond or a stream or a mountain spring – which would have clear water, no Brita necessary.
Somewhere around 200 million people, largely children, mostly girls, spend their entire days hauling fresh water. They walk from their homes and back carrying pails that weigh 10lb-25lb. They walk an average of five miles per trip, each way.
It’s a major impediment to getting their families to let the girls be educated. They simply can’t spare the labor. If the girl is not there, the household has no drinking water.
Meanwhile, we take clean, abundant drinking water so for granted we crap in it.
Jack and Jill had it easy.
The setup for the nursery rhyme date back to the days when people in the English speaking world also had to constantly fetch and tote water for their households.
Jack and Jill didn’t have it ‘easy’ just because it was ‘easier’ than what people who live in crappy deserts have to do. It still sucked for them. That is like saying ‘Oh, drowning victims have it easy, because some people die for lack of water.’ One thing might suck more but both suck.
The poem of Jack and Jill came from a Viking legend where two people, a slave and the owner where trying to get to the fountain of knowledge beneath the tree of life. I think that would be very creepy considering that Odin threw his eye in the fountain to get knowledge.
You would think if the water was on TOP of the hill someone would install a trough and gate with a rope attached to the bottom so you could pull the rope and get the water to come down the trough to you instead.
Can’t help relating the dead squirrel in the water bucket to the five-second-rule cartoon last week….
But who goes UP a hill to find a water source anyway?
Well, Jack and Jill do
Worse, it’s diet dead squirrel.
^ like
Ahhh another small percentage of my childhood ruined by the internet haha
Plus, the nature of hydrogeology would lead one to doubt that an aquifer would be tapped at the top of the hill rather than the well being situated at a lower lying region.
Outside of San Saba, Texas, there is an artesian spring that erupts on a hilltop. Over the years it has scooped out a series of, IIRC, 4 descending terrace pockets/pools, all over 20ft deep and crystal clear.
Friends of ours, the Tiesdales, used to own the place. The elder Tiesdale collected antique firearms and I remember as a child setting on his back porch, which over hung the main pool slightly, looking nearly 40ft down through the crystal clear water at a giant catfish while Mr. Tiesdale and my grandfather striped a 1901 Springfield.
Good times.
And even if that water was up the hill, it would be so much easier to siphon it off with a hose, right?
My question is why some fool built the well on top of the hill? It just means that much more digging before you hit the water table. Granted, I’d rather walk down the hill with buckets full of water than uphill with buckets full of water, but it does mean a lot more digging. I have to assume that the well is a figment of the artist’s imagination and that they were going up the hill to a stream. That way it’s not full of whatever filth the people in town are dumping in it. THE WELL IS A LIE!
Well, it never does say in the original that they went to a well. It just says they went up a hill to fetch a pail of water. So it was probably a pond or a stream or a mountain spring – which would have clear water, no Brita necessary.
Somewhere around 200 million people, largely children, mostly girls, spend their entire days hauling fresh water. They walk from their homes and back carrying pails that weigh 10lb-25lb. They walk an average of five miles per trip, each way.
It’s a major impediment to getting their families to let the girls be educated. They simply can’t spare the labor. If the girl is not there, the household has no drinking water.
Meanwhile, we take clean, abundant drinking water so for granted we crap in it.
Jack and Jill had it easy.
The setup for the nursery rhyme date back to the days when people in the English speaking world also had to constantly fetch and tote water for their households.
Damn, I’m a buzz kill. Sorry about that.
Jack and Jill didn’t have it ‘easy’ just because it was ‘easier’ than what people who live in crappy deserts have to do. It still sucked for them. That is like saying ‘Oh, drowning victims have it easy, because some people die for lack of water.’ One thing might suck more but both suck.
The poem of Jack and Jill came from a Viking legend where two people, a slave and the owner where trying to get to the fountain of knowledge beneath the tree of life. I think that would be very creepy considering that Odin threw his eye in the fountain to get knowledge.
You would think if the water was on TOP of the hill someone would install a trough and gate with a rope attached to the bottom so you could pull the rope and get the water to come down the trough to you instead.