Can we at least turn the water fountains back on?

Today’s vent will be …

I’m Bill Rice … and this is my world.

Author’s note: Since I have longer screeds coming, I’m going to post a shorter vent today.

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Here it is, January 10, 2023, and my kids’ elementary school still hasn’t turned its water fountains back on. 

I haven’t asked, but I guess “Covid mitigation” is still the reason. You know, let’s mess with the students a little more. Show the little rascals and their science-denying parents a little more of our superior virtue and wisdom ….

Anyway, the effect of this safety measure is that Mom and Dad have had to fill up the kitchen cabinets with water bottles so our kids can actually drink water at school. (“Hydration” probably is necessary for public and personal health.)

First, I had to buy all the water bottles, and now I have to wash them every night and stuff them into my kids backpacks every morning (okay, my wife does this or, check that, my kids).

“Have you brushed your teeth? Brushed your hair? Have you loaded up your water bottles?”

Loading the backpacks has actually become quite a challenge as kids like mine take a pass on the cafeteria-served lunches, which means we have to buy out Piggly Wiggly’s selection of Lunchables.

(For months, I think kids actually ate lunches in their classrooms as it was proclaimed dangerous for them to queue up in the cafeteria line and then sit next to their classmates at the cafeteria tables. I don’t know about you, but my fondest school-day memories were shooting the bull with my buddies at lunch - and that’s been taken away from our kids).

Back to my vent …

Little Jack, who just turned 7, is now lugging 40 pounds every day in his backpack, which is over-flowing with his lunch box and clip-on slots for his water bottles … plus his books, which at least his school still uses.

As another aside, I’ve also learned that my old school no longer has lockers. I guess kids were using them to hide their drugs or guns or maybe this is a virus-safety measure as well. But the effect is students HAVE to have backpacks, which makes me wish I had bought stock in the backpack companies.  

At least my kids don’t have to wear masks anymore, like they did for two years. There’s no telling how much we spent on cute little designer masks, which we also had to wash every now and then.

I say forget Covid, what’s the environmental impact of constantly running the washing machine to wash Covid masks and constantly running the dish washer to wash the water bottles?

And what about the families that can’t afford dish washers? Are these parents sending their kids to school every morning with dirty water bottles full of dangerous bacteria?  (Have you thought about that, Mrs. School Principal?) 

They say, “follow the money.” Well, what company makes all the water bottles?

Ah, my own water fountain memories ….

I’m getting up there in age, but I can still easily remember my own school days. And I remember the water fountains. 

There were water fountains that weren’t that great and then there were two or three that were really good. The water was very cold and produced some of the best water I’ve had to this day. In between classes, I’d stop at these fountains and drink and drink and drink. 

I hadn’t thought about it until today, but this probably helped me make it through those long school days and helped me become the A-B student I was. 

In high school, I played football, where the coaches made us lift weights and run year-round.

I can still remember the water fountain next to the coaches office that my teammates and I panted our way to when those torture sessions were over. That water fountain saved my life many times.

In fact, that Charles Henderson High School locker room water fountain is still there. But it’s turned off!

Not to brag, but I was actually elected class president of my freshman class.

Before my senior year,  I ran for class vice president. (I thought this would look good on my college resume and I wouldn’t have to work as hard as the president).

Well, heck, I got beat. By three votes. I actually did no campaigning and just assumed I would win on my name ID. (Maybe some of my constituents still remembered how I botched the homecoming float project three years earlier?)

But if I was a high school student running for political office today, I would win. Because I’d have a real campaign issue. Turn the damn water fountains back on!