When my mother died a couple of years ago and I was cleaning out the house I found two bottles. Each one labeled “rainwater” and a date from the mid 70s. I of course I had to wonder what the hell this was all about. I thought at the time we had lived in the desert so my mom had collected it from there. I ended up asking my dad and he said it came from the neighbor near my grandmother.
Since then I’ve tried to figure out ways to use said rainwater. I asked my old college professor if they would want it, I majored in geography, he sent me to the lab. The lab didn’t want it and he sent me somewhere else. That place said they would be interested in it, but then I never heard back from them again.
So now I have two mason jars of water sitting in my basement. I have no idea what to do with them. I thought of selling one on eBay, but I’m not sure you can send water through the mail. It might be an interesting auction, but I’m also afraid I’d get idiots bidding up and not paying.
So what do I do with two jars of water? They seemed to be sealed pretty well, my father told me the person who collected it did it every time it rained. I was thinking I would get rid of one and keep the other just to leave my kids. I can see it now, the kids find 70 year old bottles of water, that should be good for a laugh.
I suppose the problem with doing any analysis with them is you can’t be positive the vessel didn’t have some kind of contamination, however slight, beforehand.
If you’re just looking to get rid of them in some constructive fashion, do you have any plants your Mom owned that might benefit from a nice drink of pure, chlorine-free agua?
For that matter, seeing as how some folks add a little branch water to their bourbon, do you have that or a good scotch that might benefit from the addition of your rare, sentimental stash? (If age or religion or personal convictions is an issue, feel free to disregard this suggestion)
I can’t offer up any advice, but I just wanted to say that I’m quite impressed that the seal on those mason jars are good enough that the water has not evaporated in over 30 years!
I’m guessing that this is part of the problem, but I would have thought they could still have a look at it. The last group did tell me the water I had would be a year or so older then the water they had.
That’s a rather odd suggestion, not one I would have thought of.
As am I. My mother’s house had no AC so it gets very hot over the summer. She had lived there for almost 25 years and the water probably sat there the whole time. I’ve had them in the basement and they haven’t lost any water in the last two years. I also can’t believe that I can’t subtract, it is 30 years old and not 20.
Did you take it to a climatology lab at the University? A friend’s father happens to be a world famous Paleo-Climatologist. He looks at CO[sup]2[/sup] levels and other such things in ice core samples. Dated rain water could at least be interesting for them to look at, even if it’s in no condition to be part of a scientific study.