ANNA MONICA / L’Observateur / August 2, 2000

They say that most of the world is made of water, the human body is mostly water and if you are stranded somewhere, they also say you can live longer without food than you can without water. This subject may be all wet, but itcannot be denied that there is a fascination as well as a need with water among humans.Isn’t it Disney World that has “The Living Seas,” which is alsowater? Remember when the 1984 World’s Fair was in New Orleans? The theme was about water and how important water is. That was appropriate, especially forus since we live along the Mississippi. With all the water surrounding this areawe live in, it is easy and natural to be associated with it and we make great use of it. Many who live here fish, swim and go boating in it, live on it, drink it,clean and stay clean with it.

Clean with it, as in mopping the house and as in having a tub bath or shower for our bodies? That’s normal, usually, but not being able to bathe or shower one night last week was an unpleasant prospect for some of my tennis friends. My partners for our Tuesday night tennis league were DawnYderstad, Toni Ruiz and Rhonda Rutledge, all residents of LaPlace, and the news was out that the water was to be cut off at a certain hour. Theweather, as you know, is hot and humid and a tennis game will ensure that you feel it and produce plenty sweat or some other unpleasant aroma. Someof the players on other courts had earlier matches and were rushing off to get clean before the dreaded hour of turned-off water.

My partners, though, had to “tough it out” and finish our match which went considerably later. So we just made a joke about having no water when theygot home. I invited them all to shower at my house in Garyville where thewater would still be running but wasn’t surprised when the idea didn’t appeal to them. They were all good sports and didn’t let the idea of using a lot ofdeodorant or sleeping apart from the rest of their families daunt their enthusiasm for the game they were playing.

Sure, that night they all won more games than I did, but I figured I was a winner in the water and cleanliness department. I left the court feeling smugabout the shower I would soon enjoy while others would not. My sister,Cookie, later told me she believed the water was not cut off after all. I don’tthink I’ll mention that to Dawn, Toni and Rhonda who, I am hoping after they got a chance to clean up, forgot all about my superior attitude.

Otherwise, when it comes to water, we really need more of it to come from the sky right now. It waters our dry gardens, fills the reservoirs – and it’sfree! It would be best, though, to have it come in smaller doses, like all-day rains, and not from storms, tornadoes or, especially hurricanes, which season may well escalate in next couple of weeks. After all we don’t want tomake up our rain deficit all at one time. We just want to be able to havewater to use when we need it after fishing, swimming, and, for some of us, after a tennis match.

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