Yup.
I grew up in the Thumb of Michigan. Almost everybody there drank well water. It was cold, clear, and tasted very good. There were two drawbacks: it was hard water with many minerals such as iron and it had arsenic. Everyone had a water softener and most had a water filter because of the arsenic. We also had a cluster of cancer cases due to the arsenic.
Two miles to the southwest lived my grandparents who were farmers. They had artesian well water. With no well pump, they and their neighbors had water flowing from pipes into their homes and barn yards. It seemed like a miracle to my siblings and myself. The water would flow from pipes into the cattle troughs and the overflow would flow out and into the ditch. This water tasted like it flowed from granite rocks deep in some below ground cave because even on the hottest days, it was cold. I will always remember this tasty water because it seemed to be so clear and healthy. No seat belts or car seats. Metal, unpadded dash boards. Bicycle helmets regularly worn only by the special needs contingent. Candy cigarettes. No cellular phones and completely unchaperoned summer days, just be back home when the streetlights come on. Going organic and drinking from the garden hose.
That last on is a literal killer.
Unless the hose is identified as, “potable safe,” that is. Typically possessed of a white inner liner. Otherwise, there are some seriously nasty VOCs (volatile organic chemicals) in those hoses that diffuse into the water contained therein.
Adding some sunlit heating to the de rigeuer dark green color really ramps up the VOCs leaching out into the agua now-not-so pura
Pink water is probably from potassium permanganate, a chemical sometimes used to treat water systems. It's believed to be non-toxic but might not have been tested on pregnant women (most things aren’t). I don’t think she needed to move out, since it would probably just be a temporary thing, but it’s probably wise to not drink it if you’re pregnant. Apparently it can sometimes set off pre-existing skin conditions like eczema if you wash with it. Oh, on a related note, if something says “Not recommended for use while pregnant” that just means “We haven’t tested it on pregnant women but it might be ok” whereas “Not suitable for use while pregnant” means “We do actually think it’s bad for pregnant women”. That’s a very useful distinction to know about if you’re pregnant. Indoor plumbing that dispenses potable water is one of mankind’s greatest achievements, and marketers have made it sound like poison. There has to be a correlation between the advent of bottled water and the unraveling of our society. I think that’s silly, but I do give you a lot of credit for at least realizing it’s weird. People have all kinds of quirks, and it’s important to know what’s based on fact and what’s based on the fact that humans are running buggy software on error-prone meat computers.
There are certain sounds or sensations that bother me and I have no idea why. But I grew up on hose-water, even drinking from streams from time to time, so it’s not something that bothers me at all.
When I was little, if you were playing outside and got thirsty, go find a hose.
As an adult, if the faucet has enough clearance I’ll drink straight from the tap.
Whenever I do so at my folks’ place my mother compares me to a dog or a cat.
Really the only exception is if it’s city water and tastes like a chemistry lab. I’d rather run that through a Brita filter or something just to change the taste. I don’t mind hard water though. I grew up with hard water so it always had a slight tang of iron and copper, and that actually tastes normal to me.
I also drink straight from the tap, as well as fill glasses from whichever tap is nearest (not necessarily the kitchen). People think it’s weird, but it’s all coming from the same pipe. Do you prefer well water then? As a kid, I lived on well water, and could barely force myself to choke it down, it had so much iron in it.(As a nearly platinum blonde child, I also would start getting red hair from the iron stains of the water!) I would gulp down glass after glass of city water at my grandparent’s place though. It tasted much better there. This was quite fascinating.
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