The Slice: Modern Stone Age fam-i-ly

I’m not sure how or why I was chosen for this honor.

But I have had to conclude that the shower heads in my home have become the repository for all of the sand and gravel in the city water system.

No need to thank me. I’m happy to provide this service for my fellow citizens. Really, I am.

I like to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

It’s just that, well, I’ve heard of hard water. But this is ridiculous.

Is this what people mean when they describe Spokane as gritty?

Oh sure, it might mean having to remove the shower heads with astonishing frequency to clean out the rock collections. But that’s a small price to pay for the uplifting knowledge that I am bearing the brunt of this for my neighbors.

I mean, with all the gravel that collects in my shower heads, there can’t be any left to clog other families’ plumbing fixtures. Right?

So there’s that.

We have lived in our 1950 house for about 20 years. And I do not recall anything in the 600 forms we signed at closing that said our shower heads would act as the filter for all of Spokane’s water.

But there’s no sense being bitter about it. If I can do this small service for my fellow Spokanners, I’m happy to oblige.

Besides, it’s sort of a thrill to take a shower after the head has been cleaned out and reattached. Love that water pressure.

Wouldn’t want to miss out on that.

Warm-up questions: 1) Assuming you have ever done it (and that it was not strictly a behavior found in vintage sitcoms), when was the last time you borrowed a cup of sugar or a stick of butter from a neighbor? 2) Because of the prevalence of a certain ingredient in the classic dish, a gentleman in my extended family used to refer to the meatloaf his wife prepared as “Onionloaf.” What was the culinary-labeling equivalent of that in your family? 3) Ever been serving yourself directly from a pan on top of the stove and had some slippery food (perhaps featuring tomato sauce) slide off the spoon or spatula and plop onto your new fuzzy slippers?

Today’s Slice question: Do you regard the presence of all the annual fests and other every-year events on the Spokane calendar as somehow reassuring or do you sometimes have more of an “Oh, here we go again” reaction?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Thanks to Ted Redman for the picture of his car with the UW MAN license plate parked next to the pickup truck with the COUGGUY plate.