Welcome To Topix Too Forum

Wow! you had electric in yours, that's neat.

The day I came home from school (2nd grade) and found that Ma was driving Pa to the hospital 30 miles away and all of the windows blown out of the house.

My brother had put a almost empty gas can next to the open motor washing machine.
Pa came in and started the washer and "boom" the gas can exploded.
It blew him out of the laundry room...through the kitchen and into the kitchen sink.
He ended up with five broken ribs, his arm broken in two places and all the hair on his head and face burned off.

Well, my comfort zone reaches a limit.
We still had to pee in the bushes, tho.

He was lucky. My dad who knew better was tinkering on the tractor, he forgot to set the brakes on it and it rolled over on him. He was very lucky it didn't kill him. He looked like he had gone 5 rounds with Mike Tyson.

I remember travelling to the Eagle River Valley of B.C. to spend holidays with my Grandmother (father's side).  A town of 300 people at the time. My Grandma did laundry for the Canadian Pacific Railway Crew & worked in the local Post Office to provide for her family during the days. My Grandfather died at an early age from a tragic accident when my father was only seven.  They both arrived from England, along with a friend.

The space in the home was limited, and I wondered how we all fit in the two-bedroom house.  I had to sleep with Grandma.  The boys slept on the floor in the living-room.  Mom & Pa slept on a hide-a-bed. The friend, Uncle Jack, occupied the 2nd bedroom.
There was always a fire kept burning to keep the home warm as that was the only source of heat.

I thought it funny at the time - Tea was always brewing & sipped from the saucer only.
Food was cooked on a woodstove, and the only washroom facilities were that of an outhouse.
Laundry was done by washboard.  I kid you not..

I remember the snow being so high that it reached the top of the windows.  The men would wake early to shovel a path to the outhouse.
Bathing was done from boiling water on the woodstove and put in a stand-up bathtub.  Us kids would draw straws as to who went first..

At night we played board games - Go Fish, Old Maid & Monopoly by candlelight as the adults strummed away on their musical instruments.
And yet some today, still complain about having to take laundry from the automatic washer to put it in the automatic dryer.

This life made me appreciate the simpler things in life.

I'd like to hear about some of your childhood memories when you are ready to share, Cyg.