{This week, What Pegman Saw goes to my neighbor Georgia, to a site outside Albany, know as Radium Springs. Water cures including mineral water, have been popular since the 1850’s, but there was apparently a craze in the twenties and thirties that promoted water including radon or radium.
Many other devices and products contained what we now recognize as dangerously unhealthy, radioactive ingredients. The “ReInvigorator” was one of these products.
The article I linked to also included a quote from Dr. C.G. Davis, in the American Journal of Clinical Medicine, from this period: “Radioactivity prevents insanity, rouses noble emotions, retards old age, and creates a splendid youthful joyous life.” Do NOT try this at home!}
Lidia lugged a ceramic jug across the dusty attic. Her bangs stuck to her brow.
“What was Grampa thinkin’, June, keepin’ all this junk?” Her sister, downstairs, creaked up the ladder.
“Oh, you know Grampa.” June’s frizzy head appeared just above the attic floorboard.
“Yeah, but why keep this? It says ‘Reinvigorator!’”
“Ain’t nothin’ gonna reinvigorate Grampa, now.” The teens giggled, then quieted, ashamed.
“Found his tiny braces, too,” whispered Lidia.
Lying prone, she vigorously polished, until a window shone, transparent.
Down that road, she knew, lay Radium Springs. Famed, for an odd radioluminescence, bathing everything, nightly, in green.
Blue, healing waters. Indifferent to parched Georgia fields. To beseeching children.
Unswimmable, turquoise waters. Where, as a child, Grampa had, nonetheless, swum, and soaked his twisted bones.
“But why scatter his ashes there? You’d think he’d wanna forget!”
June sighed. “Maybe he’s tryin’ to extend his half-life. So we won’t.”
Loved the imagery from the window.
Im glad you could picture her peering out the attic window. That image was very strong in my mind and felt like the very picture of wistfulness.
Knew when I read it, Andrea, that you have a clear picture in your mind. <3
To be continued…?thanks for the glowing praise!?
Enjoyed these characters and their world very much. While the story is great, it left me wanting to read the whole book! And to see those luminous waters….
I guess the water glows a bit in this place. That’s why it was named sky water. Good story!
Just inferring from the radioluminescence of a watch hand, that the glow is green. Have not seen the phenomenon myself, though I would like to!
You’ve found a lovely relaxed style for this story that suits its subject matter very well. You made me feel I wanted to hear more from June and Lidia.
Nice writing!
Thank you Penny!
What a quaint tone this piece has, Andrea, almost idyllic in something which obviously wasn’t. Nice light-humoured touch.
Thank you Kelvin! Yes far from idyllic. Makes you wonder what we are unknowingly engaging in now, that is just as lethal.
Absolutely. The first thing that springs to mind (sorry for the pun) is the dangers of Social Media in the young!
We are just rats in the middle of a huge social experiment, I think!?
I know. If only I could find that cheese! ?
Thank you for transporting us to a beautiful place with a bizarre history! I read the first couple paragraphs of the article you linked to about radium cures. All I can say is, holy crap!
Well put. ?
My grandfather in his old age (he seemed old to me, in any case) used a diathermy machine to alleviate his rheumatism. The machine had several interchangeable glass tubes that glowed in different colors and made various buzzing noises, but they all used microwaves to create heat. I don’t think there was any radioactivity involved, but I’m sure it was risky, nonetheless.
Wow thanks for sharing. It is fascinating to see what passes for medicine, through the ages!