Last week, my not very old refrigerator quit without warning. There is nothing like the sudden absence of something that we usually take for granted to make a genealogist begin to think about what everyday life might have been like a couple of generations ago. As we endured several days without refrigeration while waiting on a new unit to be delivered, I thought often about how much life has changed in the past century.
I remember a time when my grandmother's house had no indoor plumbing. Water was hauled from the well out back, and heated in a kettle on the stove if hot water was needed. Light bulbs hung suspended from the ceiling by an electical cord and turned on and off with a pull chain, making it obvious that electricity had not originally been a part of the home's design. I also remember when a pot-bellied stove stood in the middle of the living room and burned coal in the winter to heat the house. Grandma cooked on a stove fueled by propane, a modern upgrade from the previous wood-burner. It makes me a bit sad to realize that my children do not share such memories.
How many times each day do we flip a switch to turn on a light, or turn the faucet handle to get a drink, and never think about it? What would our ancestors think about such luxury? I wonder.....
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
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Great memories; you just never know what's going to trigger them.
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