Speaking of Heaters

While growing up in the South. (until I was 11 years ole)
We had a wood stove for heat.
I never thought any thing about it. My brothers would wood hunt and cut every year. I recall Mama and Daddy telling them to watch for rich pine to start fires with.

When the fire was raging it felt so wonderful. My Dad would get up, load the stove with wood while we lay in bed until the house was warm.
It did not take very long, Mama was already in the kitchen making hot biscuits so the oven was also on and that generated heat too. (unless it caught on fire then she had to turn the oven off, we had a gas leak).

When we came in from play we would back up to the stove and warm our backsides then turn to warm our fronts.
I recall holding my skirt up a little so it would not touch the stove and catch fire.
Skirt??? (Yes we were only allowed to wear "Girls" clothes.)
No pants for us.
Then came the day we moved from the little four room house to a much bigger 7 room house.
That was BIG for us.
But remember there were eight children, however it just did not bother us to be crowed into the little house. (in fact I often wish for those days)

Our big house was empty anyway. We lost our Dad the spring before the move.
(Space did not matter as Mama cried herself to sleep most nights. We could hear her soft sobs.)
Mama never openly cried after that spring. She did not want us to see her sorrow.
Years later she told me, "Sue I still miss your Daddy, I have needs too."

The bigger house came with a heater. A Gas Heater.
We still had to back up to it to warm our backsides and turn to warm our fronts.
That never changed.
(But the men never had to haul wood again)
When the cold winter winds hit, Mama would hang sheets to cover the entrance to the back bedrooms, that held the heat in the living areas.
So now you know why I do not sleep in heated rooms.
I never did have heat in the winter unless I crowded up near the heater and that was hard to do with seven other people trying to get warm.
However it was never dull or cold to me.
It was Family.
That is the way it was.

I loved our home.