By Staff
Simple things an old man like me remembers of years ago.
Like when I bought an oil burner heating circulator in 1951 to replace our old coal-burning stove that sat between our living and dining rooms.
I bought it from Nibs Black's Gambles store and, yes, it was a used one.
I remember it being delivered and installed by Charles "Chick" Mosher, who informed me how to maintain it.
In looking at some of my old pack-rat memories, I found the list of people who sent flowers when my mother passed away in 1959.
I found flowers were from the Gamble store, plus another display from Nibs and Chick, two of my good friends for quite a few years.
I also remember buying our first refrigerator from Nibs.
It was an old-timer that had a big, round cylinder on top.
The fridge was what replaced our old oak ice box on the back porch. I remember making a wooden rack to hold two 50-gallon drums for the fuel oil.
Chick came and hooked up the copper tubing from the drums to the stove.
I bought my fuel oil from Leo Parker, who at the time delivered fuel oil locally.
It was not too long a time when I decided to buy a furnace.
I bought a Lennox from Lang and Son.
Well, the "Son" was my growing up boyhood friend and neighbor.
At night Gordy Lang and I did the whole job of installing the furnace.
This was done after spending the day on our jobs.
We put in six heat runs and two cold air registers and we had put a "metal-bestos" pipe up through the walls to connect to the blocked-off old chimney up in the attic.
This job caused the demise of our old coal-burning stove, thank the Lord.
At the same time of Gordy and I doing the furnace, we also put in my first hot water heater.
Oh, boy the way, that old Lennox lasted 44 years before I replaced it. Boy, it was nice to have friends like Nibs, Chick and Gordy back in those days, as it put my mother and I in "dog heaven."