Turning Points
Life is a journey. It has a beginning and it has an end. All along its path are events, places
and people who are turning points. Here, I relate some of these turning points in my own
journey. Hopefully, the stories will illuminate and maybe entertain some of those who care
enough to read.
Life is a journey. It has a beginning and it has an end. All along its path are events, places
and people who are turning points. Here, I relate some of these turning points in my own
journey. Hopefully, the stories will illuminate and maybe entertain some of those who care
enough to read.
| Ned Bell March 4, 2006 |
New Haven Kentucky’s departments of public safety and
public works were staffed solely by Ned Bell Johnson.
A stocky man in his forties, blind in one eye, with a
pronounced limp, Ned Bell wore the town marshal badge on
his blue uniform with a pistol slung on his hip. He was gruff
but fair and was generally liked by the citizens in town. Ned
Bell combined his main job of town marshal with operation of
the city water system. The water system consisted of a water
tank tower just north of town and a pumping station near the
railroad bridge over the Rolling Fork River. Ned Bell operated
the pumping station each day to replenish the water tower,
read all the water meters in town every month and sent out
bills.
public works were staffed solely by Ned Bell Johnson.
A stocky man in his forties, blind in one eye, with a
pronounced limp, Ned Bell wore the town marshal badge on
his blue uniform with a pistol slung on his hip. He was gruff
but fair and was generally liked by the citizens in town. Ned
Bell combined his main job of town marshal with operation of
the city water system. The water system consisted of a water
tank tower just north of town and a pumping station near the
railroad bridge over the Rolling Fork River. Ned Bell operated
the pumping station each day to replenish the water tower,
read all the water meters in town every month and sent out
bills.
As small as New Haven was, this was still a pretty big job for just one person so Ned Bell
recruited some help among the more enterprising boys in town, notably Hugh Louis and me.
Hugh Louis was given the job of running the pumping station during Ned Bell’s absence and I got
the job helping Ned Bell read the meters. Walking down the sidewalks and streets of town to each
meter, Ned Bell with his meter book, would stand over me as I knelt on the pavement, removing
the meter hole cover. More often than not, the meter was submerged in muddy water that I had to
dip out with a coffee can before the meter itself was visible. Then when enough water had been
dipped out, I would make a guess as to the reading through the mud smeared lens. In dry
weather, instead of muddy water, crickets, worms and other insects would greet me when I
removed the meter hole covers.
Although Hugh Louis got the job of running the pumping station, from time to time even he was
unavailable and then it fell to me to serve as his backup. The pumping station was a small brick
building built atop a concrete reservoir where the water was stored after the filtration process.
Each day it was necessary to open the main valve of the reservoir and run the huge electric pump
to force water through the underground pipe to the water tower on the other side of town. This
pump, inscrutably, had no check valve. That meant that if for some reason the pump failed, water
would start flowing back through the pipe into the reservoir flooding the entire station. The pump
motor was controlled through a circuit breaker box and when lightning storms occurred while the
pump was running, the breaker would trip and the pump would shut down. With no check valve,
that meant flooding of the pumping station was only minutes away.
Usually when I ran the pump I would start it up and then go home for awhile as it took several
hours to fill the water tank. If a thunderstorm ever came up while it was pumping I knew from
experience I had to high tail it lickety split down the railroad tracks to the pumping station to shut
off that infernal valve and keep the pumping station from flooding.
The pumping station had a mechanical dispensing system that injected tiny amounts of chlorine
into the water as part of the de-contamination process. This system had to be checked daily to be
sure it was dispensing just the right amount of chlorine. The machine itself was somewhat
cranky. When it wouldn’t work right the backup system consisted of a plain old galvanized bucket
with a small spigot that could be set to drip chlorine into the main water reservoir at hopefully, a
suitable rate. We used that bucket a lot.
As far as I know, few people in town other than Ned Bell knew their drinking water supply was in
the hands of a 16 year old and his younger brother using such state-of-the-art equipment.
One evening after dark, we answered a knock at the front door. Ned Bell was standing there with
Bobby who had been apprehended on the water tank tower. I don't know whether he was taking a
dip in the tank or inscribing on the side of it but in either event, Ned Bell brought an end to another
good time in New Haven.
| Copyright © 2005 leoshoemaker.com |
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| And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 KJV) |
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