Richard Thomas Memories

 THE STRAIGHT FARM

When we lived here we only had an outside toilet,  It was OK in the summer time, but in the winter it was not so nice going through the snow, and the wind would sometimes blow through the cracks in the door and make little snow drifts.  I remember when my dad made a small room on the back porch and put in a toilet stool. but no running water so we had to carry water to flush with. This room had no heat but it was better than going out side.  I took my bath in a wash tub in the kitchen because it was the warmest room in the house and that was not the best sometimes.  We had a wood burning stove in the kitchen and a coal burning pot bellied stove in the living room and they would heat the whole house. We would close off any room that was not needed.  When my mother would build a fire she would put some fuel oil on the kindling and sometimes we would have a small explosion, and sometimes she would get that pot bellied stove red hot getting the house warmed up.