Don't forget to set your clocks back this weekend!
On Oct 31, 2008, at 12:30 AM, Cherryl wrote:
The Treasury Department has issued a new one dollar bill.........
Mary Wrote:
Last week I was reminded of a photo I saw when we were studying depressions, particularly the 1930's in school. It was a black and white grainy shot of a woman lighting her stove and using paper money for kindling. I didn't know this in the 50's when we studied such things but the photo was from Eastern Europe.
A lot of people in my neighborhood growing up used pot bellied stoves or other types of wood burning stoves for heat. I think they burned anything. I am guessing a lot of folk burned coal, but wood, paper, yard waste, even garbage could be burned in there. Coal was the most efficient for being slow burning and giving off a lot of heat. Studying the depression and hearing about how folk went around picking up stray coal lumps, was probably more meaningful to kids of the fifties, than it is to kids today.
Wonder if kids even realize how disgusting handling coal could be. Wonder if at Christmas, they don't say "Wow!" if someone says they will get a lump of coal in their stockings. I shoveled a lot of coal and cinders in my childhood, but not nearly as much as my parents did.
We had a coal furnace and a coal stove for our hot water. These were both in our basement. The neighbors stoves were less modern and sat in their living rooms or the center of the house. I always felt deprived because I thought the wood burning stoves were terrific and a sign of affluence. I was either confused or ahead of my time.
I still don't have anything that burns wood in my living room. I do have two electric space heaters though. One upstairs, and one down. Make that three. There is one in the basement too. I only use them when I am actually in the room. Today I didn't need them. I had turned the furnace up to 73 last night because I was sick.
Good thing too, because I went to bed early and forgot to take the garbage out. I woke up at my usual time before six AM, and thought how I let myself sleep in on Fridays because I would wait for the garbage guys to bring their noisy truck. Then I would get up. Trouble is Waste Management INC. put us first on their list shortly after I made that "rule" so they come quite early.
Well, I thought about how living with trash in the garage all week, would be pretty smelly, if we experience the warm up we are supposed to have next week. So I saw that I had not put yesterdays clothes in the hamper yet, and simply put them on over my PJ's and gathered up all the baskets upstairs and down, added them to the bag in the garage. and got it out there. It is quite nice already for six in the morning. Then I decided that the kitchen bag would probably survive the nightly critter invasion, since it was almost morning, so I put the basement trash in the kitchen bag, and out it went too. So, Smelly job is done, and I am ready to go back upstairs and get dressed for real. Or at least take my glucose reading so I can eat something.
Amazing how being sick makes you eat the right foods. I am drinking cold water instead of coffee. I will have a well balanced breakfast, and probably start cooking the cabbage and tomato soup. I don't like being sick. OH, yes, I turned the furnace back down to seventy also. Costs money, and I am not chilled anymore.
Today is a beautiful day. Hope we all have a great chance to enjoy it.
Mary S.
Harrison Twp., MI
The Treasury Department has issued a new one dollar bill.........
I do too.
Mary Wrote:
Last week I was reminded of a photo I saw when we were studying depressions, particularly the 1930's in school. It was a black and white grainy shot of a woman lighting her stove and using paper money for kindling. I didn't know this in the 50's when we studied such things but the photo was from Eastern Europe.
A lot of people in my neighborhood growing up used pot bellied stoves or other types of wood burning stoves for heat. I think they burned anything. I am guessing a lot of folk burned coal, but wood, paper, yard waste, even garbage could be burned in there. Coal was the most efficient for being slow burning and giving off a lot of heat. Studying the depression and hearing about how folk went around picking up stray coal lumps, was probably more meaningful to kids of the fifties, than it is to kids today.
Wonder if kids even realize how disgusting handling coal could be. Wonder if at Christmas, they don't say "Wow!" if someone says they will get a lump of coal in their stockings. I shoveled a lot of coal and cinders in my childhood, but not nearly as much as my parents did.
We had a coal furnace and a coal stove for our hot water. These were both in our basement. The neighbors stoves were less modern and sat in their living rooms or the center of the house. I always felt deprived because I thought the wood burning stoves were terrific and a sign of affluence. I was either confused or ahead of my time.
I still don't have anything that burns wood in my living room. I do have two electric space heaters though. One upstairs, and one down. Make that three. There is one in the basement too. I only use them when I am actually in the room. Today I didn't need them. I had turned the furnace up to 73 last night because I was sick.
Good thing too, because I went to bed early and forgot to take the garbage out. I woke up at my usual time before six AM, and thought how I let myself sleep in on Fridays because I would wait for the garbage guys to bring their noisy truck. Then I would get up. Trouble is Waste Management INC. put us first on their list shortly after I made that "rule" so they come quite early.
Well, I thought about how living with trash in the garage all week, would be pretty smelly, if we experience the warm up we are supposed to have next week. So I saw that I had not put yesterdays clothes in the hamper yet, and simply put them on over my PJ's and gathered up all the baskets upstairs and down, added them to the bag in the garage. and got it out there. It is quite nice already for six in the morning. Then I decided that the kitchen bag would probably survive the nightly critter invasion, since it was almost morning, so I put the basement trash in the kitchen bag, and out it went too. So, Smelly job is done, and I am ready to go back upstairs and get dressed for real. Or at least take my glucose reading so I can eat something.
Amazing how being sick makes you eat the right foods. I am drinking cold water instead of coffee. I will have a well balanced breakfast, and probably start cooking the cabbage and tomato soup. I don't like being sick. OH, yes, I turned the furnace back down to seventy also. Costs money, and I am not chilled anymore.
Today is a beautiful day. Hope we all have a great chance to enjoy it.
Mary S.
Harrison Twp., MI
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