The Stove

 

By: Lester Ann Hyde Jensen

It was a cold winter morning and Dad had been up early making a fire in the kitchen stove so the house would be warm when the rest of us got up.  We always enjoyed the kitchen stove.  You could sit on the oven door and be warmed by the stove.  The reservoir on the side kept water hot for bathing, doing dishes, etc.  We sat on that too.  On this cold morning, we brought our clothes from the bedroom and dressed in front of the stove. 

Dad warned us before he left for the barn.  “Don’t get too close to the stove.   You could get burned.”

Shirley was three or four years old, and I was seven or eight.  All the other family members had left the kitchen to go about their day.  Mom had gone into her bedroom to make the bed.  Shirley and I were the only ones left in the kitchen.  For some unknown reason, Shirley climbed onto the reservoir and since she met with no ill effects, she decided to walk across the top of the hot stove.  She was wearing hard soled boot type shoes and overalls Mom had made using fabric that had come from the Sugar Factory.  I was called kelly cloth and mom used them to make everything from clothes to rugs. 

As Shirley walked across the surface of the hot stove, she came to the lids that opened into the firebox.  The rim that was supposed to hold the lid in place had been broken on one side and her weight on the lid made it cave in, permitting her to fall right into the flaming fire box.  There she stood up to her knees in the fire. 

I yelled, “Oh, Mom, Mom!” and proceeded to lift Shirley out of the stove. 

Mom said she heard me call, but she heard nothing more so continued making the bed.  I sat Shirley on the counter and took her shoes off.   As I undid  the laces, they just fell apart in my hands.  The rim of the opening to the stove had touched her leg in two spots and that appeared to be the extent of her injuries.  The canvas material in her overalls was strong enough to protect her legs from further damage.  Thankfully, she had only been in the stove for a matter of seconds, or the outcome could have been so much more serious. 

Mom, who had now heard enough commotion to emerge from the bedroom, washed Shirley’s legs in cold water and applied mentholatum before we took her to the doctor to have her checked.  She had third degree burns on leg, but the burns were relatively small compared to the damage that could have been done.  I shudder to think of how much more serious it could have been. 

We had no electric range, no dishwasher, no vacuum cleaner, or automatic washer or dryer, but we had lots of love.  There were dangers connected to the equipment that was used in our homes just as there are dangers in our homes today.  We are so much more fortunate to have the safety features that make our homes more comfortable and safer today.  The law dictates that electricity be installed correctly and safely.  Smoke detectors protect our homes from fire.  Seatbelts and children’s car seats protect us and our children while traveling in our cars.  Yet, there are so many more insidious things out there we must protect our children from today.  Life was much simpler then.