The "Doing the 'Wave'" Story

It was an ordinary day. Watching a show on Home and Garden Channel and just before they went to a commercial they had a trivia question. Who invented the waterbed? Answers were: (A) The Romans; (B) The Ancient Persians; (C) The Egyptians. OK, have you made you guess? Answer: The Ancient Persians. The first water-filled beds were goatskins filled with water, used in Persia more then 3,600 years ago to conduct fertility rites. And in 1873 a different version of the waterbed was used for the treatment and prevention of bed sores. In 1895 the British store Harrod's sold beds that looked like a very large hot water bottle. But the modern day waterbed was invented by Charles Hall in San Francisco in 1969. So what, you say! Well, I say because I have a story to tell you about the waterbed that we had for years. In the mid-70s, while living in the Grandview area of Lancaster, we needed a new mattress for our bed. While looking for it we came upon the waterbed. Pretty neat! "We bought a bed frame made for them and them purchased a "waveless" waterbed. The "waveless" had chambers built into it so there was less wave motion. I tended to get motion sick so the last thing I wanted when I conducted our fertility rites was to get sick. Boy was it great. Hop in bed on a cold winter night and it was warm to the touch. We filled the bed by running the hose from our outside faucet up the side of the house, into the bedroom, and then into the waterbed receptacle. Had to put special chemicals into the water when you filled it, but I can't remember why. The waterbed was made of polyvinyl chloride and it smelled for quite some time. Before we filled the waterbed, we placed a special heating pad under it so we could control the temperature of the water by means of a thermostat. Found that the temperature is pretty critical. Don't want to lower or raise the body temperature, which can happen if you are not careful. I remember the time Carol and I went out for the evening and our daughter layed on the waterbed for some time watching TV. She turned the temperature up and forgot to turn it back down when she went to bed. The next morning I awoke and told Carol I felt sick. I was sweating and felt really warm. I showered and started to feel better after getting out of the shower. As I left the bedroom to head to work, she told me she was also sweating and thought she had a fever. Ah, Ha!! We checked the thermostat and found the reason for our illness. We were lucky, since it can really make you ill. One time our pet cat was trying to escape our pet dog and bounded on the bed and put a hole in the mattress with her claw. Wow, what a mess. had to drain it, patch it, and get out the hose again. I must admit that we had many nights of restful sleep on that waterbed. Research has proven that when sleeping on water there are less pressure points on your body, which means you don't have to toss and turn as much. Gives you a deeper sleep, therefore you need less sleep. Eventually our youngest son bought a waterbed with his own money and set up the frame and mattress in his room which was on our third floor. Biggest problem was getting enough water pressure through the new, longer hose we had to buy. Both have gone by the wayside, but did give us some wonderful memories. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.