When I Was a Little Girl

When I was a little girl, in 1939, we moved to a farm on Sap Bush Road near Chenango Forks. Dad and Mom rented the farm on shares (splitting the profits with the owner).
We lived in a house down the road from the Brewer's home, in a house without electricity. We had a pitcher pump in the pantry and kerosene lamps. When I was 6 and had just gone into second grade we got electricity. I came home from school that day and Mom showed me how the lights turned on.
She was especially glad to have an end to the lamps as I had overturned one when I was younger and set the tablecloth on fire. She saw the flames and tossed the lamp and tablecloth out the front door.
Until the advent of electricity in our house she used sad irons to iron our clothing. They were heated on the kitchen stove which was woodburning, of course. She got an electric iron and the sad irons became door stops.
We had an ice box and went to Cutler's Ice Company to get ice if the ice house was empty.
Dad and neighbors would cut ice from a wide spot in the creek and fill their ice houses. Sawdust insulated the ice. The ice house adjoined the milk house near the barn. Ice was used in a milk cooler to keep the cans of milk cool until the milkman picked up the cans each morning.
When I was seven Mom & Dad bought the farm from the Brewers. Then we moved up to the big house that had been the home of the Potters and Brewers for many years.
We had a phone, bathtub and lots of rooms in that lovely old house.
More in my next post about living in that house.
Chris