Chuck’s Corner

Water, Water Everywhere!

By Chuck Langlois

Bellingrath Water Company

Of course everyone around Central knows me as the water guy, but the fact is my family’s life has been tied to water in many ways that have nothing to do with the water company.

For one thing my dad grew up in New Roads in a house across the street from the Mississippi River. My grandparents told all of their children that swimming in the river was taboo. The river was dangerous, and the kids were not allowed to swim in it.

Of course, my dad and his brothers and sisters paid no attention, and swam in the river nearly every day in the summer. My dad became a strong and fearless swimmer, and that saved his life more than once. My dad said they would run their horses really fast on the levee so their hair would be dry by the time they got home.

During World War II my father was on three different ships that were attacked by the Japanese and sunk from under him. Each time his survival depended on his exceptional skill as a swimmer. He made it home from the war only because he grew up swimming in the Mississippi.

When we were growing up, we owned a home on the beach in Galveston and every summer we went there for vacation. That’s where all five of us kids learned to swim, and that led Dad to install one of the first swimming pools in Central at our home. All of us five children taught other Central kids to swim every summer.

Water has always been a big part of my family’s life, and then there’s Bellingrath Water.