SENIOR MOMENT

By BETTY MUNSEY/Columnist

An old favorite Christmas carol reminds us that “Oh, the weather outside is frightful.” November temperatures are expected to drop significantly after sunset, but the drop seems more drastic after our wonderfully warm 70-degree days just a few weeks ago. Many of us remember huddling close to the family stove, which was fueled by wood, gas or oil. In a matter of minutes we were cuddly warm and our clothes emitted a scent similar to an overheated electric iron. We circled from side to side warming each part of our body just as we flip a pancake in the frying pan.
I loved my grandparent’s old Hardwick cook stove, which was fueled with wood and provided both warmth and cooking space. Grandmother’s stove was larger than most with more cooking eyes since she took in borders to help support Granddaddy’s carpenter business.
Right outside the kitchen door on the porch was a wood box always filled with well-seasoned split pieces of hickory, oak, pine and poplar wood, which was cut to the exact length of the stove’s firebox. Hardwoods such as hickory and oak burned longer and created more heat. Grandmother never allowed the grandchildren to add wood to the stove due to fear of us being burned; plus too high a temperature could damage the stove. She would periodically add more fuel to the firebox while carefully monitoring the temperature gauge on the front of the oven.
One of the chores of visiting grandchildren was toting wood from the woodpile out back to the wood box.  The woodpile was covered to prevent snow and rain from dampening the wood, which could smother the fire and damage the stove. We considered carrying wood a drudgery, but thinking back, what a wonderful experience for young children. We were also expected to keep the bag of kindling well stocked. Some people used corncobs—some of which had been saturated with kerosene—as kindling, but most used small pieces of pine for starting a quick fire. Granddaddy took care of scraping the cooled ashes from the ash box and scattering them as fertilizer on the garden.
Modern-day cooking utensils crafted from glass and Teflon couldn’t stand the heat and wear of the cast iron pieces preferred by our ancestors who depended upon wood cook stoves. Some of the old-timers even preached the health benefits of using iron cookware.
Grandmothers mastered cooking on a wood stove by experimenting and carefully watching their mothers and grandmothers.  Often several generations lived in the same household, so there were plenty of in-home tutors to observe and assist. To this day, Grandmother’s cat head biscuits were the best ever, especially when covered with her sausage gravy or homemade maple syrup. My biscuits cracked open from a refrigerated can pale in comparison as does my gravy mixed with water from a grocery shelf pouch.
As pleasant as our memories of the old cook stove, most of us aren’t persuaded to throw out our smooth-top cook surfaces and microwave ovens for stoking and cleaning the wood cook stove. We may miss the pleasures of warming in front of the stove yet love the convenience of modern heat pumps and Monitor heat systems. Thank God for pleasant memories, but don’t take away today’s conveniences.
A retired Extension agent, Betty Munsey lives and farms in Bland County.