All this cold weather makes me think of different ways of keeping a house warm. Growing up, we had furnace heat, plus a fireplace. The furnace kept the whole house pretty warm, but we'd make a fire in the fireplace if we wanted that extra warmth and "ambiance." I well remember how to build a fire and light it. I also remember standing in front of the fireplace, with the side towards the fire roasting and the other side cold! I'd turn back and forth like a chicken on a roasting spit.
One time we got a can of granules that you could sprinkle on the fire and make colored flames. That was certainly intriguing to a kid!
One grandma's house had a gas stove, the other grandma's house had a floor furnace. That floor furnace was sure nice to stand over when you were cold. My own family and I later lived in a house that had a floor furnace - we should've just somehow sat a chair over it. It was sure nice to warm up over.
Right now we have a gas heater for our main heat, and it has a blower on it. It's about as good as a fireplace or floor furnace to stand by and warm up!
One thing about our furnace when we were growing up - it had a wide heat pipe that went out the top of it. If one of us kids had a sore throat, Mom would take an old sock and wrap it around the bottom of that pipe and let it warm up good. After slathering our throat with Vick's, she'd then put that VERY TOASTY-WARM SOCK around our throat and pin it with a safety pin, and we'd sleep with that all night. The thing was that it was PLENTY warm when it came off that pipe! After it cooled down a notch, it was nice and comforting for our throats. I don't think I've ever put a warm sock on my own kids' throats, I don't know if they'd let me!
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