We had two large springs in Ponca that we carried water from. The nearest one we used for washing, scrubbing floors etc., the other one we carried water for drinking and cooking. There was an outhouse up on the side of the hill above the first spring so Mom would not let us drink that water. The 'community refrigerator' or spring box was built in the run-off from the spring. It was a large box with a lid on it so we could keep our buckets or jugs of milk to keep it cool. We also put our butter and leftovers from dinner to save for supper. To us back then we had dinner in the middle of the day and supper about 6 p.m. Lunch was something you carried to school or work in a syrup bucket. If you did not punch holes in the lid of the bucket then you had a soggy lunch.

The washing maching on the porch was gasoline powered and had a long exhast pipe running from it. A dog did not touch that pipe with it's nose but one time and he was cured of sniffing for a while.

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