1930 - Annual Convention Report

              S I X T E E N T H A N N U A L C O N V E N T I ON 75
As has been explained the parlor was warmed, not heated, by the exposed
side of the big box- stove. Before this arrangement was made, there stood in
the centre of the room a metal stove that one can never adequately describe,
because the foundry- man who had designed it must have just let his fancy
run wild. Standing out in bold relief on its metal sides, top and ends, there
was a most grotesque and yet interesting network of figures of no familiar
imitation, except for the truly welcome lions' heads at different corners. The
designer must have gone to work again before he had recovered from the
D. T's. Speaking of stoves, it may be stated that this was before the advent
of what was called the '' base- burner," that very attractive stove, with its
wide circle of mica windows to show the glowing coals within. A Glengarrian
once told me that they used to put a lantern inside the base- burner during
fall and spring months, and let mental suggestion do the rest.
If the parlor were generally dim, the parlor bedroom or spare room was
always dark, because the blind was not rolled up even when visitors came.
It was entered from the parlor, but was not entered oftener than was neces­sary.
Its floor was covered by a rag carpet, and it contained a bureau and a
washstaud as well as the bed. As there were few clothes closets in the old
houses, the parlor bedroom was always hung, on one side at least, with some
of the family's spare garments, although three hooks would be cleared if the
visitor was going to remain over night. As our house was not among the
largest, this parlor bedroom was not so very uncomfortable in winter, if the
door were left open, but in some of the large brick or stone houses this
inevitable parlor bedroom was often just about as comfortable as a morgue.
H o w stuffy it always seemed in summer time, and of course the feather tick
on that bed was always of double thickness. The window could have been
raised higher with nothing less than a crow- bar, and to monkey with that
y e l l ow blind was a task not to be undertaken lightly. As the visitor lay and
sweated the night away, he was obsessed by the conviction that several mem­bers
of that family must have passed out in that bed, and before morning he
had an overpowering suspicion that he heard the parlor floor creaking, in a
manner that was disquieting to say the least.
There is only the cellar left. While in summer it could be entered by the
stone- walled cellar- way, this could not be done in the winter, because the
passage would be closed and banked. It was then necessary to light a lan­tern,
and to descend by the steep steps under the stairway, if one wished to
get anything out of the cellar— and there was a lot there to select from.\ The
cellar was as large as the main house, whose foundation had gone down
deeply enough to leave a stone- wall seven feet high, and in this cellar was
stored during the winter, food supplies that needed protection from frost or
from d e s i c c a t i o n^
There would'be two or three bins of potatoes, piled on the earthern floor,
and there was at least one bin of apples and this had a temporary floor of
boards underneath; besides this latter there would always be some barrels
and boxes of special apples. Opposite to the apple supply was a low bench,
on which stood two or three barrels of good old salt pork; the district coat
of arms, if such be ever designed, should contain a pork barrel rampant,
surmounted by evaporated brine, encrustant. From the beams hung three
wooden shelves; one long shelf held rows of bottles, filled with maple syrup
and stoppered by a piece of corn cob. that had been sealed over with some
home- made wax. A strongly built shelf held the pickle jars, containing green,
sweet tomato pickles, sour cucumber pickles, and best of a l l . semi- transparent,
sweet, ripe, Cucumber pickles; there would sometimes be a few bottles of
home- made ketchup, and it is a standing mystery why none of the present _
day ketchup seems to equal it in flavour. A third shelf held what the o l d'