Lemmon, South Dakota

[vkhmini]

What a wonderful old memory! The days before electric heat. My grandma had an oil stove in the dining room, which was the central room of the house. I remember the smell. And she always had an old iron tea kettle on top, keeping water hot for tea.

[I Remember]

We had kerosene lanterns which did smell bad to go out and do the chores early in the morning and after school. With the snow, it seemed to get dark way to early. It seemed we were always running out of wicks for the lanterns. Then of course the gasoline lanterns had wicks that if you just touched one, it would fall apart. At least it gave out a real bright light.

[vkhmini]

Originally Posted by I Remember

We had kerosene lanterns which did smell bad to go out and do the chores early in the morning and after school. With the snow, it seemed to get dark way to early. It seemed we were always running out of wicks for the lanterns. Then of course the gasoline lanterns had wicks that if you just touched one, it would fall apart. At least it gave out a real bright light.

Doesn't it feel good when that sunset starts coming a little later every day? I hate the short days! I suddenly noticed the other day that we're getting about an hour more daylight than last time I noticed! Still months away from leaving the windows open all night, however.

[I Remember]

Originally Posted by vkhmini

Doesn't it feel good when that sunset starts coming a little later every day? I hate the short days! I suddenly noticed the other day that we're getting about an hour more daylight than last time I noticed! Still months away from leaving the windows open all night, however.

Yes pretty soon the time would come to set out vegetable seeds during the day in containers then take them in if a frost would hit for early planting. In another month, we would start to look for the winter wheat to start coming up. During the winter months, it seemed everything was done in the dark except for school and weekends.
When us farm kids went to school, we would stink up the classrooms if we didn't have time to change shoes from doing the chores in the barns.