Now & Then: Things to like about the old ways - wood heat

One of the most constant characteristics of life is that things change.

When a person lives a long time, they see lots of changes. Some changes are so welcome that one whole-heartedly appreciates them, and certainly wouldn’t want to go back to the older ways. Some changes are not welcome, and one wishes to go back and live as before. Other changes are seen as desirable, and one wouldn’t want to go back to depend on the ways that were necessary before, and yet there is an appeal to the old ways that doesn’t go away.

Sometimes I feel that way about our electronic gadgets. I have embraced many of the electronic gadgets as they were invented.

I’m thinking of the computer and the cell phone.

I have worked with computer languages to write programs for computers, and I like writing these articles with a computer over working with a typewriter;

but there are times when I just want to sit down with a pen in my hand and write on a piece of paper in the old-fashioned way. I like having a cell phone, and being able to call almost anybody anywhere just like that! But I still like sitting down with a person, looking them in the eye, and having a face-to-face conversation. I know we have these drive-in banking things around banks these days -- you don’t even have to get out of your car; you can see your teller on screen, and you can talk through the electronics.

But I still like getting out of my car, going inside the bank, seeing the teller across the counter, handing my deposit to a person and exchanging some direct words as we transact business. I hate it when we call a business, and a recorded message says, “To reach accounts, press 1; for loans, press 2, or if you know your person’s extension (which you hardly ever do) you may enter it now, or please enter the first four letters of the person’s name.” I hate it, too, when a recording answers my call and continually assures me that “Your call is very important to us. All our representatives are currently busy. Your call will be answered in the order that it was received.

In the meantime, listen to this awful music until the recording comes around again to reassure you how important your call is to us.” (Ok, they don’t necessarily say all that.)

There is much to like about our nice centrally heated houses. You just set the thermostat and the system keeps the house at an even, comfortable temperature. Of course, when the electricity goes off, it is a different story. Then you get to discover just how cold a cold house can get.

I am one of those people who has fond memories of the old house heated with a wood stove. Heating the house with a wood stove was a lot of trouble, but there are some things to like about it. I like remembering the coziness of the heat from a wood stove in the living room. Compared to a gas heater, or an electric heater, there is just no comparison. The heat from a wood stove just seeps all through you. Then there was the special equipment on the old wood stove, like the rails along each side.

Those were there for baking your feet before you went to bed.

Then there were the sounds of an old wood stove. When the wind outside is freezing, and the fire in the stove is roaring, there is this feeling that things are going to be ok.

From time to time the fire snaps and crackles, and the wood shifts as the fire burns, and the sounds keep saying, “Relax, some things are right with the world, rest, and you’ll be ready to take on tomorrow.” I even liked the clang of the stove door and the scraping of the latch when you opened the stove to add wood, or to stir the fire with the poker.

I liked the rattle of the vent as you adjusted the air flow down low in front, and listened to the blaze as it came alive again after burning low.

Unlike setting the numbers on a thermostat, there were skills to be learned with an old wood stove.

There was a challenge for the scouting spirit in a person, which wants to say, “I bet I could learn to do that!” One learns that in starting a fire, you don’t just throw the wood into the stove any old way. You need dry kindling. And, it needs to be arranged so that when it catches the fire, its flame will set some larger sticks afire above it and around it. In laying the fire there is a knack to be learned. Yes, some things about an old wood stove just meant plain hard work. Cutting logs, sawing wood, splitting wood, gathering kindling, carrying in the wood, it was all work; but it sure was nice warming around the old wood stove.

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Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.