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When I was five, we had to move from our rented house to the country where we had only an outhouse for bathroom facilities and a pump just off the kitchen outdoors; a stockpot was kept filled on the counter overnight to use for priming the pump each morning and, in the winter, it had to brought to a boil before carrying it outside to pour down the gravy boat-shaped throat to thaw the leather plunger diaphragm.

We did have gas and electricity and heated the rooms with small ceramic elements mounted in rows over a jetted pipe mounted in a compact metal stand.

We would place the Christmas tree adjacent to the one in the living room at Christmas to fool Santa Claus.

But I outgrew Santa Claus and I haven't a clue how to dig a well, but I'm sure that when the time returns that I need one I will be able to hire cheap labor.

It sounds like you had an early childhood similar to mine, i.e., outdoor toilets, draw-well water, fire place for heat and a propane heater to heat water. However, if I had seemed to imply that I lived in a colonias, I have to apologize. I did not. My experience was as a U.S. Department of Agriculture representative where I had to meet with colonias leaders to discuss their health concerns for a USDA/Texas pesticide application program. I may have had it pretty rough as a kid, but these colonias people had it really bad.

Muleteam1