There’s still a

be.

Except the bath. its attractions
may indeed even have increased,
requiring as it does that one retire
from other company und invite
one’s own indulgence. The
fragrant steam, the water's
benison, all care abandoned, soli-
tude, together they encourage the
ultimate in relaxation.

Developing countries equate
Narth American plumbing with
advanced social structure, and en-
vy same. Baths are not a@ casnal
pleasure in rocky Afghanistan or
Ulan Bator. They require very
complicated planning. As for
towels, well, did you bring your
shire?

| know ail about contrived
bathing, and (eel as strongly as
any developing country about its
inadequacies. The Peace River
country of my childhood knew
not of flush toilets or the embrace
of the smooth white slippery tub.
Chamber pots and wooden-seated

Eleanor
Godley

THE VINTAGE YEARS
outhouses were our familiars, and
the weekly bath was taken, one by
one, squatting in a corrugated
wash-tub in front of the opened
oven-door of the kitchen range.

The water had first to be got
from the cistern, then put to heat
in the huge copper wash-boiler,
then finally poured into the tub.
The child was then inserted,
sloshed, rinsed with the dipper,
and dried, goose-tbumps and all.

In time, we returned to so-so
civilization in Prince George, in
1927. still not a sophisticated
milieu by any means. We did,
however, have basic indoor plum-
bing, nothing fancy, but one
could lie right down in the tub
with its licnesque feet. One could
practise turning on the hot water
with one’s toe, and could rise
without a design imprinted on
one’s bottom.

A word about our tub which led
a double life. Oh yes, we heard
that some people were making gin
in theirs around that time, but
ours was put to more sober use.
fts smooth rounded shoulders
made a perfect venue for steaming
turn-ups into the toes of skis.

/
‘UOQUIDATION WORLD

i CLARK DR, VAN." 55-1222
19957,404TH AVE. SURREY 589-7111

little ‘‘frisson’’

Every fall our resourceful stepta-
ther would usurp the bathtub for
this purpose, which took hours, as
the boiling water had to be
brought up from the kitchen time
after time, Whatooa hot-plate
would have done for him! And
for us. He took unkindly to inter-
ruption by desperate family
members.

When | was 20. and a certified
schoolteacher, [ was again per-
force reduced to the knees-up bath
and the shaky outhouse. One of
the five families who provided the
14 children for the school contriv-

OFFER EXPIRES NOV 4, 1990

Nothing beats a bath

JOY FADES. Could be the seats are harder than they used
to be. Could be the perfections of the past still hover.
for a nicely turned ankle, or
a nicely turned phrase, but a lot of it ain’t what it used to

ed a spare bedroom that would
house the school marm. No
oven-deor coss comfort, though, |
was decently secluded in) my
bedroom into which my landlady
introduced the tub plus succeeding
buckets of water. There were three
sears of that sert of accommoeda-
tion until the weight of experience
bore me back to town to inside
plumbing.

My affection for the well-
known bath tub is therefore deep-
ty ingrained, and | have difficulty
with people who casually take
shower baths. That they can bear
to make compromise with an
overhead spray. mither than snjoy
the silky. soft, sudss surrender to
a tubful of hot water escapes me.
And how do they tend to all their

See Bathrooms pare 22

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Sunday, October 28, 1990 - North Shore News - 21

Tiny Tu-Tu’s for Two

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Includes.

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starts November 15

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te