Water can be a source of life or a destructive force, and Jayber Crow experiences it as both at defining points in his life. Water, specifically in the form of the river, becomes a symbol of the passage of time and significant change in Jayber Crow. As a young child, Jayber watches the steamboats on the river with awe. With the emergence of more modern ways of transporting goods and people, the grand paddle boats fade away, and Jayber recognizes he has witnessed the end of the great age of steam boating and the end of an era in American history. “I knew this river first when I was a little boy, and I know it now when I am an old man once again living beside it—almost seventy years!—and always when I have watched it I have been entranced and mystified” (35). When the river swells into the Great Flood of 1937, Jayber witnesses a historical event but also follows its crested banks to find his way back home to start a new life. He finds Burley Coulter on the river, who leads him to his barbershop and becomes his lifelong friend. The river symbolizes a path back to his roots and a baptism into his calling.