In a semiarid rural region of Northeast Brazil where I have conducted fieldwork, people would frequently incorporate objects into conversations to recount their past experiences, guide me to visit old water-structures and items in their backyards, and talk about water bodies no longer accessed. In this presentation, I examine the role of water-access-related objects, structures, and places in evoking memories of times of hardship. The “time of difficulties”, as my interlocutors often referred to the time when they or their parents were landless workers underemployed by local farmers, was a time of distress in accessing water for everyday consumption. In contrast to the hardships of the past, the present is associated to the “facilities” resulting from land ownership opportunities, the implementation of federal and local water-access policies and federal cash-transfer policies. The past and the present are commonly separated and framed in different qualitative times. However, the past, with its intertwined feelings of nostalgia and hardship, was made palpable when my interlocutors showed me water containers, such as gourds and barrels, and talked about the scarce bodies of water of the past. Both contemporary water-related objects and structures (e.g., wells, water cisterns) and those from the past coexist within households, backyards, and communal areas. Although water springs and small dams from the past are no longer used, and some of them are off limits, they remain integrated into the lived spaces of older generations. This paper explores how the “time of difficulties”, with its inherent ambiguity, persists due to the (actual or remembered) presence of objects, structures, and places that bridge the past and present. Talking about the difficulties of the past is also a way for older people to educate younger generations on the possibilities of the repetition the past. Consequently, I also explore the pedagogical aspects of remembering.