Tubthumping: A shower person reflects on bathtubs

“There are two kinds of people in the world: bath people and shower people.”
— Yoko Ono

We’re in the midst of preparations for — finally! — replacing the little bathroom attached to our bedroom. The shower hasn’t been used now for years and years; we’ve been trekking instead to the main bathroom around the corner, which we upgraded last fall.

Now it’s the turn to get this project, a can that we’ve kicked down the road for years upon years, completed. We’ve been looking at fixtures, putting tiles against one another, getting nitpicky about the details.

I revisited this quote from Yoko Ono (cited here in a BBC compilation in 2002) because it’s kind of amusing: another way to group people together.

I like a good shower. I’m certainly not opposed to baths, although it’s been a long, long time since I’ve been in the habit of taking one. Being tall (I’m six-foot-six), it’s not that easy to fold me up comfortably into a bath, and honestly, that’s the drawback.

I have another bit of planning to do involving a bathtub — and it’s one I’ve known for a very long time.

Before I sold my parents’ St. John’s property last year, we asked the movers if it was possible to salvage the old clawfoot tub that was in Mom and Dad’s main bathroom upstairs. This was the tub that I was plopped in through childhood; I remember a few times when Mom wondered if she would ever scrub off the mud I was covered in from play around the neighbourhood.

Martha and I have a plan for the tub as a planter, but so far, we’ve not yet followed through. There are some drainage issues to solve, and we will get to it. Maybe not this year. We’ve got some other cans that have been kicked far enough!