 |
| Halmeoja home in Rock, Michigan |
This is an excerpt from "Homes I have Lived In"
Written by Elsie Koski Waterman
Written by Elsie Koski Waterman
When I was born in 1929, I believe my Mother and Dad were living in the “summer kitchen” right next to the Koski home in Carlshend. I think that was an unhappy time for my mother. When I was a baby, my mother moved back home to Rock to live with her mother. She went to Chicago to do some housework in order to earn a little money to send home.
The home there was the farm on which my grandparents had homesteaded. I have a picture of that farm which I cherish. The house was beautiful even though it had no running water (just a hand pump in the kitchen.) It had no inside toilet and no refrigeration. Aiti used the basement to keep things cool, and of course, in winter it was no problem. Aiti’s nice house had hardwood floors throughout. She varnished them regularly. We used a lot of homemade rag rugs. The house had a kitchen with an attached pantry, a dining room, a parlor, and a living room. The upstairs had three bedrooms, no closets. There were eaves in which there was some closet space. The living room downstairs had a floor furnace which heated the house. In winter, the upstairs rooms were really cold. Sometimes, when I lived with my grandmother, we slept in the downstairs living room on a pull out leather couch. My grandmother had to make wood throughout the summer in order to have enough for the winter.
The parlor had a player piano in it. My Dad used to be able to play that piano by ear. There was also a 9 x 13 carpet in the room. However, we had no vacuum cleaner. We used to just sweep and pick up lint that collected on it. We probably took it out and hung it on a clothesline and beat it also.
When I was about four, my Mother and Dad reconciled. Divorce was a really dirty word in those days. My father had built a 3-room house for us to live in. It had a kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom. It had a little pantry in the kitchen and a cellar door. My mother would keep things cool in the cellar. There was no closet that I can remember in the bedroom. Each of the rooms was about 9 x 14 in size. It had no running water (a pump) and no inside toilet (just an outhouse in back.) My Mother used to heat water on the kitchen stove and wash her clothes by hand with a wash board. She would boil them, rinse them, and hang them out to dry. In winter, she would hang a clothesline across the kitchen as she would bring the frozen clothes in to dry. Having a white wash was the measure of a good housewife. Also, when you had a baby, how early you got your diapers out to dry. One reason I got going on this again is that I read Willa Cather’s Obscure Destiny which included a story about oilcloth. They mentioned oilcloths on the kitchen table in all the houses at the time. I had an oilcloth on the kitchen table in my first apartment. My first memory that is clear in my mind is having a 4th birthday party at Koski’s house. My Aunt Fiina had either made or bought a small cake for me with four candles on it.
Excerpt from "Homes I have Lived In"
###