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Writer's pictureZeke

Modern Conveniences

Updated: Apr 13, 2020

I often look at our modern housing and marvel at the change that has happened in one lifetime. The heating in our house was completely 
handled by fireplaces that burned mostly coal and a large “Heatrola," cast iron stove in the front hall. The kitchen was heated by the stove on which we cooked in the winter time. In summer we cooked on a kerosene stove. The room in which I slept had no direct heat at all but with enough blankets and comforters I only recall the chill while getting up and dressing. More memorable is the unheated toilet 20 yards out the back door on cold morning with snow on the ground. Our kitchen had an appliance that was not in most of the neighbors' homes. It was a manual pump that pumped water from a cistern outside by pushing its handle. Our bath room had no 
commode but it did have a bath tub. It had drain plumbing but no working facets. A bath involved heating water on the kitchen stove and carrying it in a bucket to the bathroom. I remember bathes as being much less deep and certainly less frequent than today. I recall 

the luxury of going to my grandmother Meneffee’s house and having deep bathes with boats and toys.

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