In the back room of the basement, stood an old Rival kitchen stove. I was simply in shock to see that it was still there. My great-grandmother purchased it new around 1914 or so, and my grandfather and dad moved it into the basement when the are got propane tanks for homes in 1952, shortly before my Dad went in the army. My grandfather fractured his hand in two places when the stove tumbled down a couple stairs, his hand was crushed....and spent days in the hospital. My grandmother used to keep Postum coffee jars of silver dollars and bicentennial quarters inside, and she'd give us grandkids one now and again.
When my grandmother passed in 1991, and the house was sold, my father had to pay the realtor to move the stove out and scrap it......there was no way that my dad or uncles wanted to try, because they had the memory of my grandfather's crushed hand under the weight of a 400 lb stove. And there it was, after sixty years, right in front of me......
More to come, stay tuned
