Things were quite different then than when our children married. We had none of the later conveniences. We pumped our water out on the porch, used a little house down the lane instead of a bathroom, had a rocker washing machine until I finally got one with a gasoline motor that had a rope pull. After wearing myself out I'd have to hunt Russell to start the thing. We had had natural gas when I was growing up which we used for lights and heat. One day before I was married it went off and before that the men would go to the well father east on the county line and thaw out the pump and I would go along for awhile but this one day it didn't and that was the end of that. We had to rush around for a coal heating stove and lights to replace the gas appliances and I believe we went to a kerosene stove. After we went to house keeping Grandpa gave me the coal range they had since they were then staying with Aunt Mary so I cooked on that and it heated the kitchen as well, summer and winter. We had an airtight wood stove in the dining room and a coal heater in the living room. We used kerosene lamps, part of the time at least, that had to be filled and cleaned each day. We had a Rayo lamp that burned gasoline and had to be pumped up. Dad had an electric generator in the basement he had taken in on some stock he had bought in the Hurst mail order company that flopped. You could hear that motor when it was running as far as Castleton, I'm sure. It was O.K. when it worked but you never knew whether you would have lights or power or not. When the juice was low the lights were dim. It was anything but satisfactory and you also had to have different watt bulbs and connections. We used an ice box and the ice man came two or three times a week. A card was placed in the window telling him how much to leave. We always had a trail of water going to the ice box and before we had a drain to the basement it was a mistake to forget to empty the pan underneath that caught the water.

          end of part twenty-four

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