"Them DG Folks ain't gonna like hearin' this..."

TC think you could how do you feel about parachutes?. Ernie

HAH!...Just watch where you land, tc!

I think I still have the flag on top of the Cave Bean teepee...it'll help guide you in, telling you which way the wind is blowing!

My Granny (who was a widow before I was born) had one of those stoves too. She could cook up a storm on it too. I remember all the wonderful times way back when I would go stay with her when I was little and I continued to love staying with her until I was 17 years old and got married. (My family lived in LA and she lived in TN. She hadn't gotten electricity when I was little so she did things the hard way. She had a pot bellied coal stove in the living room that got "plumb red" on the sides when it was chugging away on a cold winter day. She had a big old feather bed on the bed that kept us from freezing. Oh, how I loved to snuggle down in that big old bed! In the winter time if there was any snow blowing outside it would be on the floor where it had blown in through the knot holes in the walls. There was no insulation in that house! No storm windows either and the windows didn't fit all that well either. There was also a problem with the doors fitting well. An old rug or blanket was always put in front of the crack under the door so the wind would not blow right in but it didnn't help a whole lot. Her old wooden house with no paint on it just had two walls, the outside one and the inside one. The floor was only one layer of wood and the knot holes were a nice place for us kids to put things through and they would drop to the ground. We called it our bank and we never withdrew anything from it. LOL! She had to iron using flat irons (I have those) and the house would be so hot in the summer time because she had to heat them on the cook stove. She washed outside using water from the well and a big old washpot that was heated over a wood fire. She scrubbed the clothes with the washboard that I also have. The icebox was her only means of keeping fresh meat and milk so she was elated when she got electricity and got a GE refrigerator. (The ice man would come by and be able to see the sign (from way out on the dirt road)on the porch telling how much ice he was to leave for her. I have one of those signs but not hers.) That was the only "frigidare" she ever bought as it lasted a jillion years. They don't make them like that anymore. I helped her dump that old ice box in a sinkhole. I would give a buncha dollars for it now but I can remember her joy at getting "rid of that old thing".

She would listen to the "Grand Old Opry" on Sat. night and not use the big old battery up by listening too long. She also liked the Barn Dance from Chicago. When the battery played out she could get a bit more use from it by heating it a bit in the stove. Of course all of this listening took place while sitting in the living room and looking at each other by lamplight. She didn't have a bright Aladdin lamp but only had the cheaper ones. I have those too, by the way.

Now, Shoe would tell me to write that down. I just did, Shoe! I really must do more of that!

"'Chutin in to see Shoe" has a nice adventurous ring to it don't it?!

Elena, yes! you should do more of that kind of writin. How else will those of yer next generation hear about the simple life? After seein your songbooks, I know a family remembrance book that you wrote would be a great treasure to hand down along with those!

By the way Shoe, you inspired me to write a little essay I'm callin "The Wood Stove." I just may post it up in the Media forum when I'm through.

TC...

TC should we put on our boots while we read it. Ernie

Ern, not unless you read with yer toes. ;~)

TC...

Great words, Ellen! Thanks!
By the way, is this the same Grandma that rode the wagon train thru "Indian" territory?

I can see that lifestyle. I wonder if I was fortunate to be a part of it (w/GrandParents in the mtns) or was I deprived. Naw, I take that sentence back...I was blessed.


I can see that coal stove in the living room! We had one, too! (Sometimes we'd not have any coal tho, and had to put in wood.) My cot was behind the stove so I could stay warm while we had our evenings. (Eventually we got a "TeeVee" and I watched it many nites peering out from behind the coal stove!)

Tc... I keep telling Ellen to write these things down! She needs to if she don't want a whippin'!

I am beginning to write little journal entries in a WORD Doc. No paper and pencil for me or I might not continue. Shoe, you are my inspiration and thanks for staying "on me to do it". Yep,that is the Granny I write about, Mary Lou Ora Finley Beaty. She was awesome. A finer Christian never walked the earth, she could sing like a bird but she was a tough gal. She had to be as life was so hard for them. When she was a young girl they went from Arkansas to Oklahoma with a wagon group to see if things were any better there than they were in the rocky Ozark Mountains of Arkansas where the family had been for many years. (That is now prime tourist country. The old folks would have never believed that.) They found that things weren't a bit better and so they worked their way back to Arkansas. They didn't have any money by that time and were dependant on the jobs they could do along the way to earn enough to feed the family. Pretty soon they heard about the wonderful bottom land farms near Memphis. My grandmother's father and his family pulled up stakes again and headed to TN and remained there from that day 'till they all died. Some of the family remained in Arkiansas in the same area where we go with Melody and Keith to sing each fall. Two of the brothers and the widow of one brother decided to try their luck in Oregon and those family members' descendants still live in Oregon. They were all musically inclined and that heritage has been passed down to many of their descendants. That is why I love music so much as it is a part of my heritage. My grandmother used to tell how they would have people over on Sat. nights and would put the furniture along the walls and make room for the musicians in the middle of the room. Some folks even clogged but my granny wasn't a dancer as she liked to play her guitar or accordian and sing better than dancing.

This message was edited Nov 16, 2003 11:47 PM

That is so interesting Elena. I'm glad you're puttin it all down in words! PLEASE, and PLEASE again, DON'T FORGET TO MAKE BACKUP COPIES OF ALL OF WHAT YOU WRITE!

TC...

Elena and TC, you might enjoy browsing the Lehman's website. It is an old fashioned hardware store where the Amish shop. You might see some of the wood stoves and iceboxes you have been talking about.

http://www.lehmans.com/

Noh20 I bought some cultivator handles there cheaper than buying the wood to build them with. It has a lot of neat old stuff for sale. Ernie

TC, you are right, backups are a necessity. Thanks. I listened to my grandmother a lot but wish now that I had listened and remembered better. I guess my grandkids will feel that way too someday as I am trying to tell them tales of the past now. This is something new and my own kids are wondering why the stories are just beginning to be told. They will say, "Why, you never told us that!" I just tell them that is because I am old now and that is how old folks are supposed to act. They give each other "that look" like we know you aren't going senile so what gives? It is kind of amusing. I never tell them that Shoe is responsible for me starting to tell the old tales. LOL! That will just be our little DG secret, huh?

HAH! Go ahead and tell him, Ellen! Then they really will look at ya funny (you know a guy named Shoe?)!

Keep putting them memories on paper (or puter). I hope everyone does.

Shoe,
They all know about you already. (You've met 3 of them at Roundups) You are not a Well Kept Secret with my family. They all know what admiration and respect I have for you. I am going to work harder at putting my memories on the computer.

TC,
Thanks to you also as you have been instrumental in getting me to start writing my memoirs also. I have got an external hard drive in the den waiting to be installed when my son finds time so that will be used for all backups and be unplugged the rest of the time.

Excellant Elena! I'm in the process of choosing external storage now, gettin lots of help over in the puter forum pickin the right one.
What's the brand of the one you're gonna install?
And by the way, you don't owe me any thanks but I humbly accept your gratitude anyway.

You and a lot of other folks here on DG are an inspiration to me as I continue with my chosen career in writing.

NoH20, Lehman's has all kinds of neat stuff I'd need should I ever decide to "get back to where I onced belonged!" Thanx for addin the link to their site. I saw several selections of wood cookin stoves that were awful nice, awful expensive too. But they'd probably pay for themselves in the long run. Wood is a renewable resource, unlike gas and oil!!

TC...

This brings back memories of a stove in mother's kitchen. Somewhere on the front was the word "Kalamazoo" (sp?)and we children would spell out the "funny" word and ask mother what that meant. It had 2 warming ovens above, a hot water reservoir on the left, a large baking oven and some interesting extra little doors to open to clean out ashes/soot every year or so.
The first chore the young child in the family learned was to bring in corn cobs for starting the fire. Then one graduated to carrying in the wood supply as the next youngster became ready to assume the chore of carrying cobs.

Thanks for jogging the memory, seems I can almost see that stove again. :-)

-So many years ago, so much water under the bridge since then.

Cool memory, farizona! For so many it was "the" normal way of life (and not necessarily an easier way).

Farizona, more of my memories jogged by you in that post. Thanks!

Hey I remember those wood stoves also. Shucks it was only yesterday, or so it seems. Now that was some good cornbread cooked in those iron skillets. Speaking of cornbread when I was a growing up boy I used to take corn meal and put it in a pan and put in the oven for a spell and sort of give it a roasted taste and play like it was snuff. Hey it had a good flavor. I can't remember if it was Bruton or CC brand. LOL
Bitter or sweet.

Long ago does get to seeming like just yesterday doesn't it Jim? Do you think we are getting old???? LOL!

Horseshoe how well I remember the old wood stores and their little supply of wood stored for burning or backside burning if you get my drift.

Ours had a hot water tank hooked into it. Water coils kept the water hot and it was kinda of a bummer if you wanted a bath on anything other than a cool day because that meant no hot bath without building a fire and waiting. With little luck you could get a luke warm one though. Ernie

JIM! No way! You "made" your own snuff! I missed all that!

Ernie, I get your drift! (Ouch!)

Our water tank wasn't very big (from what I remember). Then again, a bath every day wasn't a necessary thing back then. Either Sat nite or early Sunday was the time for baths. If for some reason we didn't go up the mtn to the chapel we even got to skip baths! (The Chapel was open air, and often cool-ish.)

Last summer, on the way to the Tenn Roundup, I took my DD to where I went to Church. Pic below.

Horshoe I believe I could fly a glider from the spot in the picture. Looks pretty lofty to me. Ernie

Shoe,
......Wow, what a view. Reminds me of my scooter trip throught the Smokies this summer.It was great!!!!
I hung over the saftey rail on one of those high points to get this....a bunch of copperheads sunning on the wall straight down from where I stood....so KOOL !
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Ahhh ! Take me back........
.......Folks, meet "Thunderpony" =)

Pleased to meet ya Thunderpony!
And that's quite a shot of all them snakes Scooter!

Shoe, when we visited Little Granny in the summers we'd get to take baths in a big ol wash tub. We thought that was one cool bathtub!

TC...

ernie, you definitely could! (If you could get it thru the chapel! Course now, the chapel was open air, no walls...only a roof.)

Scooter, nice bike! (Those are belt-driven now-a-days, aren't they.) I've ridden SuperGlides but have spent more time on a Sportster. Bet you had a great trip!

TC, I spent many a bath in them tubs. There is a pic of me somewhere here at DG laid back in one. Can't remember the thread tho...something about old plumbing maybe? Maybe later I'll take a look for it.

Look for it Shoe, 'cause I wanta see it!!!Please!

I wanna see that foto of a "Shoe-in-a-tub" too Elena!

I'd be willin to bet that Mother probably has an old foto of one of us kids takin a bath in one way back then. I'm thinkin I've saw one while lookin through some old fotos with her several years ago.

Elena, you mentioned sleepin on a featherbed in one of yer posts up there. I too remember sleepin on one when we'd visit Little Granny's place. Mother also said she remembers sleepin on one as a little girl and waking to see light snow on top of the covers that had drifted through the cracks in the roofing of the old house she grew up in.

Ain't that something!? Now days if one doesn't have an electric blanket to use in the winter one practically freezes! I can't imagine what it'd be like to wake up and find a dustin of snow on top of the covers!
But, Mother still holds memories such as that dear to her heart. Never once have I heard her say that they were underpriviledged on account of bein "poor folks."

Stories such as these should make even the most hubris of men just a little more humble!

TC...

http://davesgarden.com/t/4583/plumbing

There it is! Proof positive that our buddy Shoe took a bath!

Hahaha, what a great picture!

Zany, he took a bath when he fit in the tub. When he outgrew it do you think he still took baths? Sorry Shoe! That was real tacky of me! LOL! I just finished reading those old threads and enjoyed them thoroughly. Them thar good ole days were pretty rough. I am reminded of a song, I think Dolly Parton did it. "In the Good Old Days When Times Were Bad...... No amount of money could buy from me the memories that I have of then. No amount of money could pay me to go back and live through it again." My sentiments exactly.

Oh my!....that's all I got to say! "OH MY!".

However, I must admit, I too, like them pics.

Yep, them sure were some memories. Yep. And Ol' Emerson, he's done moved on now, but that man is still with me in my head and my heart.

Now, as for that bath ELLEN~! Don't fault me! I took a bath the other day. It was a hot bath, too! And DW dropped a bar of soap in there and insisted that I not be frugal and I could use all I care to! (She's so nice to me!)

Shoe I think you have nice confused with self defense. Ernie

HAH!!!

I hear ya, ernie! ;>)

Sheesh! You ain't right, boy!

You fit right snugly in that ol water tub Shoe. Looked like you may have been havin a good time too from the bright smile on yer face. Is that you on the "horsemule" too?
Was the "horsemule" actually a crossbreed of the two?

Great old fotos!

TC...

RE: Horse mule....It is the hybrid resulting from a horse mare (F.) and a Jack....and tend to more closely resemble the mare

A Mule is the hybrid of the reverse breeding, Jennet or Jenny (Donkey mare ) and horse sire. The Mule shows stronger charicterisics of the female in this cross also.
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I'm sure I'd fit right snugly in one of them tubs now!

And yes, I'm on the horsemule, that's me in the back.

And by the way, scooterbug, a-hemm!...care to take a look at this please? Any comment? http://davesgarden.com/t/408754/

I think sungly is a bit of an under-exageration, my friend!!!! Besides there needs to be some room for WATER! That is a pretty key element in the whole plan, don't you think?

Shoe................ I couldn't resist....I thought of ya the moment I saw it
&;-D
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