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When I moved to Crane in 1936 there was no sewer system. Everyone had a cesspool. There were no septic tanks then. Nearly every house had a "one holer" out back. Along the alley behind the businesses the outhouses were lined up. One day the most exciting thing happened there, that had happened in Crane in ages. You guessed it, one of our inebriated citizens fell in. The fire dept. was called and did the required thing, they hosed him down. "Mac" McGuffin had a cafe in the building next to Pat Passur on Gaston. One morning about 6:30 Truman Garrett and I were eating breakfast. It was cold and drizzling rain. Our fire truck drove up out in front and the driver said "Get on, I need some help." We went out to the north edge of town where a car was on fire and extinguished the blaze. I was not a member of the fire dept. and Truman was not either. I went from the back door of the Crane Food out past the Neeley Hotel to go home to lunch. I watched a crew digging a cesspool for the hotel. They got down 22 feet through the caliche. One day I stopped to see what they were doing. Lo and behold they had hit a vein of water about the size of a thumb. They tried bailing to no avail, so Leon covered it up, put in a pump and used the water in his hotel. Mr. Dameron, a few blocks west drilled a well, hit the vein and put up a windmill. |