Our big farmhouse was heated only by wood burning stoves until I was in high school. I can remember how cold it got in winter when the fires would go out at night. If we took water up to our bedroom to drink, it would be frozen in the morning. It was that cold! In the morning we would grab our clothes and run downstairs and stand around the stove and dress. Talk about dressing fast! Mother would always have the stoves blazing hot in the morning.
Our front porch had a rail around all three exposed sides. I liked to sit on the rail and pretend I was riding a horse. I got carried away riding my imaginary horse and fell off the rail onto the flowerbed below. I cut a gash in my forehead when I fell. There is still a scar there today. I don’t think I got stitches for that but I did get stitches in the back of my head when I fell against the butter churn. This was probably when I was about 5 or 6. Mother got out her needle, thread and alcohol and stitched me up. You couldn’t just run to the doctor in those days as you can now to get stitches.