Frigid Days Bring Back Memories

by Irene Toverud

Do you remember the days so long ago when there was no central heating, no insulation in houses, cold floors because of unheated cellars? Do you remember windows thickly covered with frost because storm windows hadn’t been thought of yet, wood and coal for heating and cooking; and when on very cold nights, someone had to get up during the night to replenish the fuel?  I’ve even heard that some people did stay up all night to ensure that the fire didn’t go out especially if they had only wood.

    I remember for a few years upstairs in our house, there was only a little heater in my parents bedroom while we (my sister and brother and I) slept in one bed in a room that had no heat. Every night my mother stripped our bed and arranged the flannelette sheets on clothes racks around the heater in their room to warm them up while we warmed our pillows as she remade the bed. Then it was a race to bed while the sheets were still warm. We were cozy and warm all night even though we discovered the next morning the blankets were often frozen to the wall. Then it was down the stairs to get into our clothes beside the warm heater in the living room. It seemed all in a day’s work because we knew no different.

    Dressing for the outdoors was a chore in itself. Our young people today would be aghast at the amount of clothing we children had to wear to school. At that time girls wore skirts regardless of the weather (slacks didn’t come on the scene until the 1930s). Imagine if you can  having to wear fleece lined long johns that after the first washing hung loose around the ankles and looked lumpy under the long woolen stockings. I hated those long johns with a passion along with the fleece lined navy bloomers worn over the underwear.

For more see the Feb. 7/12 issue of the Viking Weekly Review