My mother, Parrie Elizabeth “Betty” Murphy Cosper was a wonderful, loving, creative and kind mother. But she was also a go-getter! If she wanted to do something, she most likely would figure out a way to do it. If she wanted to sew or craft something, she’d figure out how to make it. And if she felt like there had been an injustice or she or anyone she cared about had been wronged, she’d take action.
While cleaning out some old papers yesterday, I ran across a letter my mother had written to Good Housekeeping Magazine in hopes of helping to make an injustice right again. The pictures are of her letter, but here is the backstory. I hope you will read her words as well as mine.
When we moved to the country back in 1978, my parents built a new home on land that once belonged to my great grandparents. They had to dig for a well with no success. Then they had to dig again and on the second try, they hit an underground artesian well. On it’s own force, the water came up 200 feet and ran over the top of the well and formed a small stream. They thought their prayers were answered. But not so fast. The water was contaminated with what looked like a petroleum/gas film on the top. How could we bathe in that water, much less drink it or cook with it? But we didn’t have a choice. We had to use the water for our bathrooms, laundry and bathing, but we didn’t drink it. My mom and dad had the water tested twice and the tests came back that showed there was gasoline as well as high amounts of iron in our water. How awful. The iron and gasoline in the water was discoloring all of our clothes and bathroom and kitchen fixtures. My parents even took everyone to doctors to see if we had developed any health issues from being exposed to the water. With an artesian well, it never stops running. It is continual. It still runs to this day, 40 years later. But it is basically useless due to the contaminations.
Our property line backs up to the state right of way as Interstate 20 runs besides us and runs through what used to be part of my great grandparents property. We live three miles from the Alabama state line in West Georgia. In 1980 the state of Georgia built a welcome center less than three miles from us. Guess where they put the water tank that would supply water to the welcome center? That’s right, less than 5 feet from our property line. At this time, Haralson County did not have county water in our community, but when this gigantic blue water tank was put right next to our property, my mother just knew her prayers had been answered, right? All we needed to do was to tie on to this tank. Not so fast. The state would not allow it, but that didn’t stop my mother. She was advocating for our family and for our community as most of the residents around us had wells that had been contaminated also. I won’t go in to where she, and others, felt the contaminations were coming from, but everyone had an idea. (You can read more about that in my mother’s own words in the attached, typed letter to Good Housekeeping.)
My mother felt like since the taxpayers had helped to pay for this water tank and the water lines, then the taxpayers should not be denied clean water. That’s when my mother declared to her family that we were going to have clean water and she meant it. She was going to do whatever she had to do, in her words, either right or wrong. I quote, and for those of you who knew my mother, this is so her, “I was determined as a citizen of the United States and a taxpayer that we were not going to be deprived of something as necessary as water when it came within a few feet of our property.” She wrote letters to county, state and federal government representatives. She made numerous phone calls and all of their responses were the same, “We are sorry but the Department of Transportation will not permit you to connect on the water line.”
I remember my mother called several Atlanta television stations to get her voice heard. This was long ago and way before social media and the internet. This was a big deal. Within two days of contacting the television stations, two stations were at our house interviewing my family. Oh, how I wish I could see those interviews again. Two weeks later, after the television stations aired the stories, we were told we could connect to the water tank.
There were still hiccups after this due to water pumps breaking, the gravitational system not working, etc. but at least we were on our way to having clean, usable water. After we tied on to the water tank, our neighbors who also had contaminated water, would come to our outdoor water hose and fill up jugs of water. They were so thankful to have clean water. My mom and dad and a group of people from the community banded together for meetings, discussions and pleas for a safer water system for our county residents. At the time my mother wrote to Good Housekeeping about this situation, the residents here still did not have a county water system, but that did come a few years later.
I hope that I get my “never give up” attitude and perseverance from my mother and I hope to never lose my spirit to help make the wrongs in life right again.
