This is a very rare picture of the kitchen in Dad's House at 6721 Oak Road, Vassar about 1950. I am the boy in the back with sister, Linda, in front of me with Allen Reamy in the lead. We are in my wagon that I left by the road and had stolen. Notice the wringer washer in the background by the door. Mother would slide that out in the middle of the floor about where we are. She heated all the wash water on the stove. We had a wash house out the screen door about 25 feet away. All water was hauled from there up the porch and through the screen door. The country was much darker then. This house had been wired for electricity in 1946, 4 years before. You could hear the crickets out through the screen. They were much louder then. Of course, the grass was much higher then because we wouldn't have a power lawn mower for five more years. Grass was cut by the field mowing machine. The house was heated at this time by fuel oil which ran about $240 per year. Dad paid for the fuel oil with the wheat crop that he raised for several years at this time. The floor was covered with linoleum like all the floors were when I was little. Bathroom facilities were 35 ft out thru the screen door. Life was very different then. We were still listening to the radio every night for entertainment. Dad and Ralph Reamy were both working at Universal Engineering in Frankenmuth where they both had a solid job until retirement about 32 years after this picture was taken. Of course, when this picture was taken, we had four people in our family. Laura would change all that in about a year.
Posts
