Keeping down the dust...

The Water Wagon in Suffolk was like this one from St. Croix Historical Society

"And then we...living on Pinner Street at that time. Seems to me the number was three hundred and nine Pinner Street. And it was right across the street from old John, John B. Pinner. He was the peanut man and his son John F. Pinner built a house, built his home right down on the corner which is still standing today-- the corner of Finney Avenue and Pinner Street. And ah, I used to play with Dick Hume. (Hume?) Dick Hume. Richard Hume his name was. H-U-M-E, uh-huh. Edward Everett , Jack Pinner. And Jack Pinner down there... that was...he and Edward Everett, they were somethin'. They had ponies and we didn't have any! (Where did they keep them?) I don't know. They kept them somewhere around there. I don't know just where they kept them. But they rode 'em every day. (They kept them in town?) Right! Sure did! Pinner Street didn't always have that roadway like you see it now. It sure didn't! I'll tell you now crude it was. Ah, this is long before your time.... The water wagon used to come down Pinner Street and ah, a great big water tank you see. And it had like a cup on either side. And the whole spout was shooting down just like it hit into a saucer and that threw the water as you do it like today with a water spigot. They watered the street to keep the dust down (It was dirt?) It was a dirt road! (I'll be damned!) Yes sir! It shore was! (Pinner Street?!) That's a long time ago id'n't it? And, and that how we could ride out there on those horses, so, I had... I guess I rode Edward Everett's horse, pony, and Jack Pinner's almost as much as they did. Because they were the kids I was playing with you see."  ---S. Burch Watson,  from an interview June 9, 1979 about growing up in Suffolk about 1915.