7-Minute Showers

I attended my denominational Bible College in the late 70’s in Minot, North Dakota, of all places.  Let me just say, anything you have ever heard about how cold it is in North Dakota did not really tell you how cold it is in North Dakota!

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The education you get at Bible College isn’t always about the Bible.

While there, the school’s Buisiness Administrator, dear Brother “H”, we’ll call him, issued a call to limit showers to 7 minutes in the dormitories to save on resources by lowering water usage.  There was a lot of grumbling about this.

But I?  Law keeper that I am?  I followed the rule and had it down to a science.

In fact, I never quite got over it and and have actually nagged my own family and shaken my head when I have heard some one running more than a 7-minute shower, tsk, tsk.  Because despite everything a woman my age has to go through to be presentable, that’s right –  I can still do it.

I can shampoo and condition, suds-up, lather, loofah, pumice, slough, wash, scrub, shave my legs, and rinse all within the 7-minute time limit, doggone it!

But I don’t have to, right?

I am 50, for crying out loud.  I have been around the block a few times and if I want to take a longer shower, I am going to do it.  I have saved resources!  I have re-used, re-cycled, and re-purposed things carefully over the years. I am prone to frugality and finding a deal on the most mundane things.  I ebay and craigslist and utilize coupons (sometimes) and am rather gifted at seeing the beauty in things and people that others might not and am not afraid to invest myself and a lot of elbow grease in restoring and refurbishing and giving new life. I’m no waster!

Surely by now I deserve time exploring the fancy massage shower head Dave installed a couple of months ago.  With all due respect to Brother “H,” I plan to take it up to 10 or 12 minutes this winter. And by spring?  Who knows?

3 thoughts on “7-Minute Showers

  1. Brother (that sounds so funny) Huwe must of gotten over the 7 minute shower thing by the time I got to NW Bible College. By then he just decided that only giving out $5 a week of your work study money was way more profitable. :)

  2. I am a water waster! My baths and showers are MY time. Nothing more relaxing than reading a book in a steaming tub or having the spray hit my shoulders and wash over my face. A 7 minute shower is a travisty!

  3. Ha! That is the EXACT number we use in our house, too… 7 minutes. You know, when the teenager actually remembers to set the timer, or the 11-year-old doesn’t set it somewhere OUTSIDE the bathroom where he can’t hear it at all when it goes off. Weekends, when no one HAS to take a shower in the next hour, 10 minutes is a gift… a splurge. But I have to be honest, in our household of 6 shower-takers, it’s not about conserving water, it’s about managing to get in the shower with some tiny amount of hot water left. :)

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