On Tinas, Bañeras & Bañaderas
“There must be quite a few things a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them. Whenever I’m sad I’m going to die, or so nervous I can’t sleep, or in love with somebody I won’t be seeing for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say: “I’ll go take a hot bath.”
Sylvia Plath — The Bell Jar
In Mexico a tub is a tina, in Argentina it is a bañadera and in Spain a bañera.
One of my earliest memories when I was perhaps 6 is of a Buenos Aires bathroom with an old tub and the always present bidet. I have memories of being in that tub while my mother (so I thought) would remove her eye with a green coloured cup so as to wash it. There is no little boy who has not wondered what bidets are for and opened a tap to suddenly get a strong stream of water shoot to the ceiling.
In this century folks eschew tub baths for being dirty and opt for that shower. The only shower I ever liked was the horrific one in Psycho.
In my memory (a more recent one) is a colour photograph of Kim Novak in her tub and with a large window on the side of it showing a seascape with rolling waves.
No Argentine my age will not know that Jorge Luís Borges pondered on the reality of his dreams while in a hot tub. Or that many of his stories were finished while submerged.
My grandmother would laugh at my thought that a hot tub is one’s return to the womb. She would say to me, “Alex you have a medical degree from F.W. Woolworths’s & Company.”
In our Kits tub
Our present little Kits home has a very nice bathtub and both my Rosemary and I succumb to it at least twice a day. We have all sorts of bubble baths and scented (lavender or eucalyptus) bath salts. My youngest daughter Hilary gave me a special rack last Christmas that rests on the side of the tub so I can read books or the NY Times without fear of water damage.
The only negative feature of the tub is its narrow lip. In our former Kerrisdale home our cats all found refuge on the tub and accompanied us. In our bathroom now, both Niño and Niña being unable to do that, linger close or sprawl on the wicker clothes basket in the corner.
