The old wood cook stove looked huge compared to the other furnishings in our little kitchen. Just inside the back door, and to the right, set a small wooden table. A metal bucket of fresh water and a dipper for drinking set on top. There was also a metal wash pan and some soap for hand washing. A towel and a mirror hung on the wall. If you opened the back door to throw out your wash water, you needed to look before you threw it. Most people came in the back door and someone might have been coming up the walkway. (This happened one cold winter morning.) Next was a window; our flour and mill chest set underneath. The old wooden butter churn and a straight back chair set in the corner. Dad built a step cabinet (a kind of hutch) on the next wall. It was painted deep yellow and matched the yellow design in the wallpaper. The top of the cupboard had four open shelves and they were filled with necessary items for making good food – sugar, shortening, salt, baking powder, soda, spices, vanilla and walnut flavorings and cocoa. There was a large flat work area and below were cabinets with doors for storage. I can still see Mom standing there at the old kitchen cabinet where she prepared our meals every day. And finally, there was our big wood burning cook stove. It was not fancy, but it served us well as long as we kept a good supply of stove wood ready. The old kitchen wood stove’s main jobs were to cook food, heat the house and heat water for bathing and washing clothes. After every wash day the old flat irons were heated to do the ironing.
One day, my brother Clarence was getting ready to going courting. His white shirt had been washed, starched and dampened down. I was about 12 years old and he said if I would iron it for him he would give me a quarter. I didn’t clean the bottom of iron, like I was supposed to, and stove black came off on the front of his white shirt. We tried to get it out as good as we could, but I didn’t get paid.
When I was very young I watched my older sisters – Orba, Carrie and Pearl getting ready to go to a box supper. They covered the boxes with pretty colored paper and decorated them with ribbons and flowers. Then they made fried chicken, biscuits and apple pie to fill their boxes. The box supper social and fundraiser was to be held at the Old Helton School House. There would be music and cake walks. Pretty young girls hoped that their favorite fellows would pay the highest price for their box and eat with them. After the boxes were fixed, their hair had to be perfect before they got dressed. My sisters had a pink handled hair curling iron. The straight metal rod was heated in the fire box of the wood cook stove, cooled a few minutes and then they curled their hair with it. A metal clamp held the curl in place. Sometimes I could smell hair scorching, but it usually turned out looking good.
I have talked of the more serious jobs the old wood cook stove had to do. It also made it possible for my sister Pearl and her friends to have taffy pulls. The taffy candy was made from molasses. After boiling, it became very thick and sticky. They had lots of fun pulling the taffy as it cooled. Then it was cut into small pieces. It was so good. They also popped popcorn in a kettle on the wood stove and made popcorn balls, using molasses to hold them together. Those were good times. Our kitchen was a hub of activity, centered around the old wood cook stove. Three meals a day were cooked or heated on it, winter and summer. It was a big part of our everyday lives.
