At night in winter on weekends we would sit around the kitchen table and play cards or monopoly until the fire died down and the kitchen got cold. Then we would go to the outhouse or use the indoor accommodation (pot with lid), and then run upstairs to bed and jump in under the covers as fast as we could. There was no heat upstairs except for the heat that came from the downstairs stove’s flue pipe. These pipes were very dangerous because if an article of clothing was left against them, the clothing could catch fire. There was one home in the community that burned down because of this. We were always very careful not to leave our clothes by the flue. When we went to bed, mother would always yell, “Make sure there are no clothes around the flue.” If we took a glass of water upstairs, it was sometimes frozen in the morning. We had plenty of very heavy quilts and blankets, so we were very snug once we got in bed. A few times we took hot irons (not the electric kind) up to the bed to help warm our feet.
Julie Baker says
makes me appreciate my electric blanket!
Lloyd Jr. says
What card games did you play? Did you have a favorite?
Aunt Lolly says
We played old maid, authors, pitch, my favorite was authors, and pitch.
Lloyd Jr. says
Authors like this game?
Christina Rowland says
So did you have to say what books the author wrote? Or dry to match them up to other authors?
Aunt Lolly says
Yes Lloyd our deck was just like the first one listed. You had to get four of a kind before you could set them aside. It is fun. I have another deck that is all about authors of this day and age, for my grandkids.
Cleopha Howard says
Does anyone remember the card game where you grabed a spoon and held it to your nose. Or did I just dream that.
Lloyd Jr. says
I remember playing that. I think we just called it, “spoons.” I don’t remember any of the rules except that there was one fewer spoons than there were people playing.
Christina Rowland says
I got to play “spoons” with the cub scouts on a camp out last fall. One person starts by picking up the top card of the deck, he can keep it or pass it along. You try to get four of the same card and when you do, you grab a spoon. Once someone grabs a spoon everyone else grabs one too and the last person to grab a spoon looses. We didn’t happen to have any spoons on the camp out, so we played “spoons” with forks.