Middle age plus 10/2

Thursday, October 2, 2003

Our furnace/air conditioner has to be changed behind a panel when we turn from cool to heat. It isn't a hard job to do, but we often put it off until it is getting very chilly inside. In the 'old days' when we had to put up a stove it was a big ordeal. We would have to bring the stove back in, get the pipes to fit, and settle into the routine of bringing in wood or coal, keeping the fire going, and of course, taking out the ashes. It caused messy footprints from the one bringing in the fuel, and it caused dust from the ashes. But there is something primal in being able to bring a visible source of heat into our living space. Nothing feels quite so good as backing up to a cheery fire when you need a little warmth. Standing over a hot air register can do almost the same thing, but in our house, most of them are in places that are hard to get to. This week when the temperature dropped, we spent one evening and night without the benefit of our furnace. Nothing was wrong with it, we just hated to acknowledge that it was that time again. We thought that when the sun came out the next day, we would be quite comfortable without turning on the heat. I love to sit in the sun when it is cool enough that the warmth of the sun spreads all through your body. There is much to see outside at this time of year with the changes in the trees, birds and other wildlife. And if it is a bit chilly inside I have a very good excuse to just go outside and sit in the sun for awhile. In the morning when it was warm in the bed but chilly in the room I began thinking back to the heating systems in my lifetime. One of the early morning routines in the wintertime was for our mother to come into our room and shut the window before it was time for us to get up. She believed strongly that everyone should sleep with an open window in the room. After she shut the window, she would leave the bedroom door open and we could hear our father going down the stairs to the first floor and then around to the basement stairs to put more coal in the big furnace in the corner of the basement. I think he was able to bank the fire before he went to bed and just stir it up and put on more coal in the morning. Being the youngest, and a girl, I was not involved in the mysteries in that corner of the basement. In fact I was not supposed to go into the coal bin for fear of tracking coal dust on my feet upstairs throughout the house. Since my father traveled a lot, I guess one of my older brothers did this fire chore or maybe my mother did it herself when he was gone. But Ellen and I just stayed under the covers until our room began to get warmer. I always enjoyed the days that the coal was delivered. There was a small window in the basement right by the driveway and the coal truck would drive in and put a chute in the window and load the coal into our basement this way. Sometimes some pieces of coal would escape the chute and we could find a nice piece to put in a pan with the old wash-day bluing compound on it and watch colored formations appear. Our gas is delivered in a big white truck and put directly in a big white tank. I hope none of it escapes because now that I am involved in paying for our source of heat, I want to save every portion. And I don't think gas and bluing mix very well.

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