I Opened a Mysterious Cover in My Yard and Found THIS!
September 28, 2024
source: Reddit
There’s something ‘home-grown historic’ about stumbling on ruins that belong to more ancient times than even the oldest person around nowadays. To this day I recall that I was a kid, when I use to playing with my friends in the yard of the grandparents house and there was this strange metal cover on the corner. That is what they told me when we took a tour around my grandparents’ emptying home: ‘That is the old septic tank?, just like it was nothing out of the ordinary’. For me, it was a thing left undefined, at the same time it was something that does not belong to this world, but belonged to another in some way.
Fast forward to present day and most of us get similar oddities when acquiring homes that have undergone a renovation/ restoration project. Recently, I uncovered what I thought was an old well or cistern on my property, only to find out it was something even more significant: a long-forgotten septic tank. In fact, outside, the curved wall I inspected inside was an interior baffle – an old-world trick that ensures that the septic system is efficient by separating the solids from the outflow.
The concept of a septic tank therefore came in handy before the advent of those modern plumbing systems we enjoy today especially from areas that are even today considered rural or underdeveloped. Septic systems were a sort of wonder of basic design that offered a clean answer to wastewater management in the residences. It was an efficient system of waste management with the help of mean as simple as gravity, natural bacteria and a few walls like the one which I discovered in my yard.
That interior baffle was no grand sculptural element – it was the forgotten champion of the whole setup. These included floating solid materials such as grease and wastes in the treated liquid which if not separated by the baffle were likely to cause the septic tank to clog or fail at worst. It may not have been big but it was a big innovation especially in homes that depended on their individual responses to waste.
If you were fortunate enough to have your own septic system growing up you might have memories of the stench out in the yard or the dreaded arrival of the septic guy and the pump out. But it was just a norm back then, a kind of reinforcement of the fact that people back then could provide for life’s bare essentials in a way that is unprecedented today.
Even the old septic tank was there to remind me how the family copiously succeeded to be independent and survive even before the day when we started receiving the services of urban sewage systems. It was not uncommon to have a self-sufficient sort of system, wherein independently of the municipal supply you dealt with what the household generated. Septic tanks were part of the larger culture of independence, a culture, which many people cherished so much.
This system did not only affect homes only but was among the changes that led to better sanitation and health in the twentieth century. As time went by and people became conscious with personal hygiene these tanks were constructed to enhance on living standards. Oh, you can bet that at the time these systems were a breakthrough, a small addition to the lives of folks to give them somewhat more comfort and security.
Well, let me assure you, finding something as unglamorous as an old septic tank would not be a bad thing – it is part of history – your history, your home’s history, and the community’s. And it is a sad realization of how things evolved not for the better but for worse and people did so much with so little. Of course, they did not have the kind of sewage and drainage system that is available today but they managed to sort out, somehow.
At the same time, there is contentment for one to embrace that this old and brick constructed septic tank with baffles by all means served a family making sure that everything goes well for many years. Nowadays, it remains a curiosity, an attractant of conversation, and a symbol of the idea that every ordinary object has its history.
This makes me get all sentimental the next time I see some antique item of fashion like this – there used to be things that were created for longevity. The old rusty septic tank to my mind it is possible to recall that people did not simply dispose of objects or change them for newer ones. He installed them, they replaced them, and he created them to last for years, decades, if need be.
It’s comforting to know that this tank did what it had to do in helping someone manage something as basic and as common as waste, for nothing more than a few bricks, a baffle, and the proper design.
So, if you ever come across something like this in your yard, take a moment to appreciate it for what it is: a capsule of d time from a world that was a little different and yet so near. It is a good lesson we should keep our home and its stories safe, even the little things we don’t remember such as a septic tank in the back yard under a metal cover.
Because at some point, people sometimes find the truth by digging through the concrete- strewn tales of their ancestors.