Soapstones and corncobs

Folks, the other night when the norther blew in, Betty and I woke up to a cold house.

No problem, I just went to the thermostat and flipped it on heat and immediately the heat came on.

What a contrast to the days of my youth!

The farmhouses I grew up in had no central heat. We had a large cooking stove in the kitchen and a stove called a heatrola in the living room. The bedrooms were upstairs and had no heat. My mother would heat a large flat stone, which was called soapstone, and put it in my bed to help keep me warm. It did the job and I appreciated the warmth, as sometimes the outside temperature would drop to 30 degrees below zero.

Dad was always the first one up in the mornings. His first job was to get fires started in both the kitchen stove and the heatrola. I played a part in this also as it was my job to have kindling split and corncobs available for starting the fire. Dad would lay a base of corncobs and kindling wood, sprinkled with a bit of kerosene. After this got going good, he would then add the coal. It wasn’t long before the stoves were giving off heat. My part in the fire making was to have the materials to start the fires. I would go down to Dan Blosser’s feed mill and get corncobs and put them in the coal bin to dry. Once dry they made an excellent material for starting a fire.

All this kept running through my mind when the norther came in and the temperature dropped.

Folks I am just waiting for the first kid that says, "Mom, I’m cold. Turn up the thermostat." They are going to get a lecture about how rough I had it when I was a kid. Folks, I am sure they will appreciate my lecture.

Ha! Don’t I wish.

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