It is cool, windy so a good time to write

 

From page 127 of my book comes the picture of our old cook stove.  It stood on the north wall and about three feet from the west wall.  I had a large cast-iron top with the firebox on the left side.  You could burn wood, coal or corncobs in it.  In the fall after we shelled corn we would burn the corncobs but in the winter it would be coal that was delivered and put in the old granary.  Sometimes we got rid of old wood by burning it too.  It stood in the kitchen as if it owned the entire room.  That was where Mom fried lefsa before she got the lefsa grill.  That was where fried eggs came from in the winter.  Really the all time favorite was cutting up potatoes and frying them on the top with melted butter.  Often when Dave and I were playing table tennis on the kitchen table with rounded corners we would cut up some potatoes and have some inbetween games!  AND of course it gave off a lot of heat.  Now that was wonderful in the winter but not so good in the  middle of summer.  I remember when Dad figured that it was time to get it out of the house.  Well really he did not think that way.  It really was not important to him that we get rid of the stove but he had plans for a dark room in the kitchen.  Well you could not make a dark room in the kitchen as the stove took up a lot of space so OUT it went and in came a small gas stove that sat against the west wall. That freed up the entire north wall for a small cube like room that Dad built.  For us kids it was both good and bad.  The bad part was the stove just seemed part of the family and making lefsa, potatoes etc on it seemed great.  It may not have been so great for Mom.  Now for the good part.  When Dad started developing pictures he and Mom would gather blankets etc and cover the windows and then the doors had to stay closed which meant you could not go from the living room to the upstairs as the only way was through the kitchen.  Yes, there would be breaks in their work but for the most part you were in the living room or upstairs and going from one to the other maybe be an hour or more in between times.  So with the new dark room there were no more black outs in the house.  Dad just shut the door to his room and worked on his pictures.  I do not remember the year that happened but am guessing maybe in the late 50s.  I have no idea what happened to the old cast iron cook stove but I am guessing it was just junked.  When it went out it meant the end of the nickels I would get for bring corncobs in for burning.  AND that in turn meant NO money for the fall picnic at Bergen Church where you needed money for an ice cream cone etc!  Once again I guess it is called progress but I am not so sure of that!!!