Our Dad Was A Witch

Our Dad was a witch.  No, not a witch with a black pointy hat. He was a water witch, a dowser. Yes, I planned this post to coincide with Halloween, but that was just to mess with you all a bit. He could “detect” underground pipes and aquifers with brass rods or “Y” shaped willow branches.  He was called on occasionally over the years to find the best place to sink a well for a vineyard or winery, but he was one of the lesser known dowsers in this area.

As I contemplated writing about this topic, I sent out a request for related stories to my brothers and my cousin Craig.  And they responded. Have you ever heard a story so outlandish that you hesitated to retell it, even with the disclaimer that you got it from somebody else?  Craig gave me one of those stories, but I won’t go into the specifics.  It seems that the well went dry at a friend’s house, and a group of 5 local, & well known dowsers went to help out.  They detected an aquifer a short distance from the well.  They performed a series of… of… of … actions, to “encourage” the aquifer to change its route a bit and replenish the water supply at the well.

Within a short period of time, water apparently started flowing again and the pump picked it up and all’s well that ends well (yes, pun intended).  And if you find that hard to believe, you should hear the story as he tells it.

Now I’m going to tell you my story, and I’ll swear by every word of it.  In the late 70’s I was working as a carpenter for Glen Bobst, a St. Helena contractor.  We were building a house on Sylvaner Ave in SH for Fred Beringer (yes, of the Beringer Wine Family).  We were in the final stages of construction when we needed to locate a pipe that crossed under the driveway.  It wasn’t a really long driveway, but long enough that locating it by just digging would have been a long, tough job. And since I was low man on the totem-pole, that task would have fallen on me.

Do people still use that phrase: “low man on the totem-pole”?  Hope I haven’t offended anyone. The phrase refers to gender and an ethnic cultural item.  Surely that has to offend somebody!  Anyway, back to the story.

Glen pulled up in his truck and Pep Vulcani got out holding 2 “L” shaped brass rods.  Glen told Pep there was a pipe under the driveway and we needed to find it.  Pep started walking up alongside the driveway pointing the 2 rods in front of him like six-shooters.  And then it happened.  Like magic, with no noticeable movement in Pep’s hands, the rods rotated inward and back towards Pep.  He stopped and backed up a step or two until the rods were perfectly lined up, pointing at each other.  He said “Your pipe is right here”.  Glen told me to get a shovel and start digging -  right there.  In less than a minute, I hit the pipe – Dead center.

At lunch that day, there must have been 7 or 8 of us sitting in one of the larger rooms on the unfinished plywood floor, with our backs against newly hung sheetrock.  I think there was a plumber, a heating & A/C guy and the rest of us were carpenters.  Harold Cole was a soft spoken senior carpenter – A man of few words.  Deward Bobst, Glen’s brother, was the job foreman.  He was the oldest guy on the job, but he was fit, tough, a workaholic and a true craftsman.  Deward (RIP) was also a devout Seventh Day Adventist.  And probably because of that, he was very uncomfortable with what he had witnessed earlier in the day.  Almost immediately after we sat down, the conversation turned to Pep, and how he was able to locate that pipe using the 2 brass rods.  Deward just listened for a while, then he stated very clearly: “I think it’s the work of the devil”.  The room fell silent.  After a brief, but awkward silence, Deward looked to Harold for support.  “What do you think Harold?”  There was another brief, but awkward silence as Harold searched for the right words.  Finally he said in his somewhat southern drawl “I don’t know…   Why couldn’t it be the work of the lord?”  This brought on the 3^rd awkward silence.  Some kind soul changed the topic and it was never discussed again.