Renovations and reminiscing

So...on the renovations side, Chris and Jeff have ripped out the old and begun the plumbing for the new. It's been a quiet couple of days as Jeff had another project to work on and Chris is taking Brewer on his first camping trip up at Little River State Park (I think Tony and his boys, Cole and Luke were going to join them at some point). Plumbing fixtures have been ordered along with a couple of new windows and work should resume Monday.

On to the reminiscing side...When our family moved back to Maple Hill from Virginia (in the fall/winter of 1950), I had already started the second grade and Stanley (my brother) would have already started the first grade (Forrest remained in Virginia to finish high school). As I recall, plumbing in Poppa John's house was practically non-existent. I distinctly recall a hand-pump and sink on the back porch and an outhouse some 75 or 100 feet from the kitchen backdoor. I think I'm right when I say (and Forrest will correct me if I'm wrong!) that Dad within a reasonably short time of our moving back to Maple Hill, installed a bathroom (in what was once the kitchen pantry) and upgraded the kitchen to include running water...although the outhouse (with its Sears Robuck catalog) still received the occasional visitor.
How well I remember spring, summer, winter, or fall-- Stan and I getting our weekly bath in the ol' galvanized washtub in the kitchen/dining room, with Mother boiling pans of hot water on the ancient kitchen stove.
This whole aside is brought about by a card and poem I received yesterday from my dear friends, Milt and Betty Cochran entitled, 'Ma's Old Galvanized Washtub', which brought a tear to my eyes and of which I'll share a few lines:

Did you ever take your Saturday bath
An' try to wash an' scrubb,
While squattin' down on your haunches
In a galvanized washing tub?
If not, then you ain't missed a thing.
But now I'm tellin' you what's right.
I done it 'til I wuz almost grown
An' every doggone Satuday night!
In summer it was bad enuff
But, in winter it was rough.
Spreadin' papers, buckets and kettles
And all of that sort of stuff.
Getting ready for that ordeal
Was only half the rub
of takin' a bath on Saturday night
In a galvanized washin tub.
Did you ever stand there stripped to the skin,
A wood stove bakin' your hide,
A dreadin' to put your dern foot in
Fer fear you'd be burned alive?
Finally you'd git the temperature right
And into the tub you'd crawl...

Then you'd get out o' the tub...
Next to the stove
And stand there drippin' and shakin'
The front of your body freezin' to death
While the back of your body is a bakin'

Shiverin' 'n shakin', burnin' 'n bakin',
That's the price I had to pay.
That awful ordeal'll haunt me
Until I'm old and gray...

Well, that's it for now, from he annals of Maple Hill recollections...
Til next time--
Hugs all 'round,
Jim