Before Electricity

How was it before electricity? On Oil Creek in the 1940s, according to Carolyn (Hintzman) Ramsay (See the April 8 '06 entry The Stutlers of Oil Creek), my grandparents had kerosene lamps. Of course they would have had a pump and an outhouse. The entry on ( ) talked about how laundry was done by boiling before electricity.

Around 1900 towns in the Orlando area got gas. At their Orlando house in the early 1950s Grandma had a gas refrigerator, gas space heaters (See May 12 '06 entry No Central Heating) and gaslights. Don’t know why she didn't have a gas stove back then, but I remember that she still had a wood stove. I know the women used the old pressing irons that were heated on top of the stove. (I was too young to iron then.) The laundry was boiled, as I mentioned in an earlier entry. She may have had a gas powered washer but prefered to revert to boiling as our being there meant large loads of sheets and clothes.

Water was pumped on the back porch and brought in in pails. Most homes had the pump right in the kitchen, Don’t know why grandma didn’t. There was an outhouse (a 2 seater). We bathed in a big anodized aluminum tub that was set in the kitchen. The water was heated on the stove.

In the 1950s my grandparents got electricity. The old house was less scary with electric lights. A year or so later came indoor plumbing.