Olden Days

Well, the Thanksgiving cooking marathon is finished! Love those leftovers - wouldn't have to cook for a couple more days....

While peeling potatoes I was thinking about the first house that I remember living in. I was around 5yrs old when we moved to Lacombe. The war had ended, Dad was newly out of the Air Force and had started a business selling and repairing radios and appliances. The house he rented for us was tiny by today's standards. It was wood framed and two stories. The living room, dining room and kitchen were downstairs and the 2 bedrooms were upstairs. Where were the bathrooms? Well there was a one-holer outside in the back yard.

We did have running water in the house - a pump by the kitchen sink. Yes a pump just like you used to see at the more primitive camp sites. The sink drained into a bucket under the sink that had to be emptied regularly or the floor got washed with, well you get the picture. There was a big black stove in the kitchen. I think it used coal but for sure we used wood kindling as I remember a chopping block and hatchet outside in the back. Put the kindling in the stove, get the fire started then put in the coal. Not a fun chore in the middle of winter in subzero temps. There was a big reservoir on one side of the stove and that was where we got our hot water. It got filled up after the fire was started. I seem to remember that Mom would get up in the middle of the coldest winter nights to check that the fire hadn't gone out as that stove provided heat for the house.

Since we didn't have a bathroom, we washed up in the kitchen. Faces and hands at the sink and baths every Saturday night in a washtub on the kitchen floor. This washtub was pretty darned big as I could sit comfortably in it. Mom would put the washtub on the stove and put some water in it. When the water was warm enough the tub was put on the floor and my sisters and I were summoned to the kitchen for a top to toe scrubbing. It always felt really good to be that clean and our faces shone in church the next morning.

Speaking of washtubs, that was exactly what it was used for - doing the wash. Imagine having to take all the dirty clothes and wash them essentially on top of the stove. The tub would be put on the stove and filled with water. When the water boiled the whites went in. The water was brought back to a boil and the clothes were stirred up until Mom felt that they had enough. I think that stains were tackled first on the washboard in the sink. After the whites were removed the darker clothes went in for their boil. The water wasn't changed, just boiled. After a rinse in the sink, the clothes were hung outside on the clothesline. Now this was no problem in the middle of summer but in winter the sheets were almost frozen by the time the clothes pins were in place. And talk about cold fingers!!! Why bother you ask? Well the humidity was pretty darned low when it wasn't snowing so some of the moisture was evaporated. Of course if the clothes weren't dry by nightfall, lines were put up in the kitchen and the clothes were hung there to dry. I seem to remember dodging diapers for a few years. Must have been after Sylvia was born.

Wow! I will no longer complain about having to do laundry and you now understand why central heating and TWO bathrooms seem like such luxuries to me.

As a kid, however, there were benefits to this arrangement. Where did the "slops" and dirty water go? In the summer they went into the garden in the back yard. That garden provided us with a bounty of fresh vegetables in the summer and the excess was canned or "put up" for the following winter. In winter that garden was transformed! It became my personal skating rink. Of course it was a bit bumpy and potato peels stuck out of it here and there, but that was the place that my love of skating was born. Imagine just walking out your back door to skate! Purest luxury.