This Month's Story

I was just taking my things out of my suitcase and putting them in various places in the motel’s room, when I realized it was six o’clock. Things might be different here in Monterey, but at my home in Mississippi I had a habit of religiously watching the local news at six, so I paused momentarily to turn on the television.

What came on wasn’t what I expected.

Evidently there was a serious local water shortage in Monterey and the local television station was broadcasting live a meeting of the town’s water board and a large group of irate citizens. They were in the middle of discussing the recent decision of the water board that the week previous had approved a local vineyard’s request for 900 gallons of water to irrigate a small area of valuable young wine grapes that the vineyard had recently planted.

The vineyard’s argument was that newly planted vines plants desperately needed that water to survive till the rainy season started in one or two months. When they had made that request the previous week, the water board had approved their attaching a line to the nearby local water supply to get the needed amount of water. Now the TV was showing a live broadcast of a meeting of enraged townspeople opposed to that approval.

There were a lot of people at the meeting and the water board was giving a chance for anyone to voice their opinion. At the moment, the person speaking was vocally irate that he wasn’t being allowed to flush his toilet but twice a day and here they were allowing water to save a bunch of plants. The people around him yelled loudly in agreement and it was taking a few minutes for the board chairman to restore order so that the next person could voice an objection.

I sat on the motel’s bed entranced by what I was watching. What was most interesting was that the TV station was switching every so often from the water board meeting to a view of the small place in the vineyard where the young grape vine were planted.

When they switched from the board to the vineyard, the screen showed that a backhoe had dug a trench from city’s water line to a vineyard tank. A pipe line was lying beside the ditch waiting to be pushed into the trench. A close up by the television camera showed that the pipe line was already connected to the city’s water line and that a water gauge and a valve were already in place on the line to release and control the amount of water released to the vineyard.

When the TV screen switched back to the board meeting, it showed a view of pandemonium. The chairman was shouting to restore order. This took a few minutes. He began waving a piece of paper at them. For a moment the room became still or at least long enough for the chairman to be heard.

He began telling the assemblage that the board had heard enough of what they had to say and that the board members were unanimous in thinking that the board had made a mistake in granting the vineyard’s request and that they were going to stop the vineyard from getting the requested water. The audience roared their approval.

Now a strange thing happened to the TV screen.

As I watched the screen switched to a split screen. On one side, the split screen showed and heard the water board’s chairman speaking to the crowded meeting room. The other side of the screen showed (without benefit of sound) the pipe being attached to the vineyard’s water tank.

Now that he had their attention, the chairman stated that the paper he was holding was an order from the water board to the vineyard to immediately cease any further work on watering the young vines. With this he put the paper down and with a flourish signed it. He then passed the paper to the members of the seven man board. Each member carefully read the document and then signed it (actually there were six men, one member was a woman. But she signed the cease work order as well).

When all had signed, the chairman held it up for the audience to see and stated that the paper would be rushed by special carrier to the vineyard and work to provide water to the plants was to immediately stop.

There was a loud applause from the audience and they slowly began leaving the room. I’m sure the people leaving were happy. After all they had got the stop order they wanted.

With all this however, the silent part of the split TV screen remained on. It showed the water line being connected to the tank and then the split screen shifted to a close up showing the valve being turned on. With this, there was a rush of water from the city’s line to the vineyard’s tank. Then the scene shifted to show a nearby part of the vineyard where water was starting to gush into each of the small trenches that had been dug for the young plants.

All this happened many years ago, but I have always wondered how long it took the special carrier to reach the vineyard.

I like a good wine.