Saturday, June 30, 2012

Just think....

What if we still had to cook our meal on a stove like this....in the heat we have been having.
When I was a young girl, my mom cooked on stove much like the one above...you can see what is left of it HERE....I think I was in about the 3rd or 4th grade when my sister bought her an electric stove.
We also heated with a coal stove, but not like this one. In fact, I have looked for an image similar to the one we had with no luck at all.

Anyway, these were at Patton's corner in the 'house'...and no not the shack showing on Time Stand still today. I will post the 'house' another day....either here or over there.

Remember before I mentioned that we all had to carry in wood and kindling for the stoves. One time, my brother that is next to me in age was chopping kindling. Apparently it was a piece of lumber...for he had it laying on the ground between his feet splitting it. I don't know what/why it happened, but he chopped his foot instead and had a big gash in it. He was using a hatchet instead of an axe....

To the best of my memory....there was no visit to the doctor. I bet today he would have gotten stitches. I don't even remember him complaining afterwards.
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When we were kids, we were certainly not rich. And I don't know how or where it came from, but there was always boards/old lumber in the woodshed. If we wanted to do or make something, we could usually find what we needed. And there was always nails...now if we needed bigger nails like size 12, 16, etc--we might have to go get them. Though there would usually be a few. But we typically had some #8's and maybe #10's on hand....

And we even saved old nails if they weren't too bad and would straighten them out to re-use on occasion. When have you heard of anyone doing that?

12 comments:

  1. Well my childhood was not like that, but my husbands parents were very much that way. I loved them dearly too.

    Think about that stove, the heat, and no a/c. Phew.

    sandie

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  2. daddy did the same thing, saved old nails and old wood. we burned coal in our stove to heat with, my job to haul it up from the basement. i love that stove in the pic and would like to have it but not to cook on it

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  3. that's a cool stove but not one i'd want to use in this heat. both these stoves have such character and remind one of how it used to be for others to live. i think everyone does what they can to make ends meet when times are harder. no shame in that. i think that shows people are self sufficient where others lack. hope all is well. have a great day~

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  4. I adore these old stoves, especially the first one! But you sure do have a good pint about cooking in this heat! Great reading your childhood memories, too.

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  5. Oh my goodness reading about your brother chopping his foot really made my blood run cold.
    Fine memories you have of your family.

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  6. I love seeing the old stove but with our 110 degree heat this week, I sure would hate to cook on it!

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  7. I cannot imagine cooking on that old stove! I only remember gas and electric stoves from my childhood.

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  8. When I was growing up, we heated the house with a gas heater. It sat in between the living room and dining room. There was a register above it, on the floor of the second story. We would keep the register closed during the daytime and open it at night to warm up the upstairs bedrooms. I remember placing pans of water on top of the heater to add moisture to the air. I remember, too, sitting on top of that heater, when the burner was turned way down low, to take the chill off if I was cold.

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  9. A fine nostalgic post of interesting pictures. My mother baked with one of these cook stoves which had the burn box on one side, oven, and water reservoir on the other. I can't image how she judged the baking time for bread, cakes or pies.

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  10. I love the old stoves. "Back in the Day", things sure were different than they are now! I'm not so sure we're better off, either.

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  11. If I had to cool on that stove, I would eat a lot of raw stuff in this weather :-) Veggies sounds great at the moment! I'm sure that stove heated the house nicely. Everything was so much more work back then. We complain so much and have so much more!

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  12. Yep, my Dad saved old good nails. I can't imagine cooking over a stove like that. My Grandparents had a wood burning stove, and I remember her cooking on it. Also a wringer washer and then everything was hung on the clothesline. It was awesome for me as a kid to help!

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