Heat is an essential part of our lives when we live where we have cold winters. There are different ways of heating our homes. Record what kind of heat you had in your home and compare it to the heat you have now. Have you had any times when you didn't have heat? What did you do during those times?
When I was growing up we had a coal-burning furnace. It had a hopper that had to be filled with small lumps of coal. Depending on how cold the weather was, it might have to be refilled twice a day. That was one of the chores I remember doing. If we forgot to fill the hopper and it ran out of coal, the furnace would start to smoke. Instead of nice warm heat throughout the house, there would be smoke. We would have to evacuate the house, open all the windows and doors, and wait for the smoke to clear out. I did like the warmth of the coal fire. The heat vent was right beside my bed. I liked to stick my feet out of the covers and over the heat vent when the blower turned on. It was so nice to have warm feet.
My grandmother had a coal-burning stove in her house to provide heat. When we would visit with her, it was nice to sit close to her stove and get warm. One winter when I was attending college in the city where she lived, I would go to her house on my lunch break and bring in coal for her stove. My aunt checked on her in the morning and at night. That was a wonderful time that I got to spend with my grandmother.
When I first got married, we moved into an older house that had two natural gas floor heaters. They provided pretty good heat, but with a baby, learning to crawl, it was scary that she might get burned. We soon replaced the floor heaters with a central furnace that provided heat to each room. We also installed a wood-burning stove for backup heat. I was grateful for that stove one October when a heavy early snowstorm took down tree branches all across the city. One of the trees in my yard took down the power line to my house. So many power lines were down across the city that it took three days before the power company could get to my house to repair my line. So I built a fire in the stove, and we were able to stay in our house despite the freezing temperatures outside.
Now I live in a house with radiant electric heaters in the ceilings. It is easy to just turn on the heat when the temperatures get cold. I do have a fireplace so I could use it as backup heat if needed. But sometimes I do miss that warm coal heat we had when I was growing up.
Record your stories about heat as part of your life story.
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