My first personal memory of cold was when I was five. My dad got a brick heated it on the wood stove and wrapped it in a towel, then put it next to my feet. I can still remember the radiating warmth from my feet up my legs.
I remember in the 1990's a fad came through to make rice heating pads. I made several for the family. The Hero would laugh and say, 'Hey, I like this, keeps your cold feet off." Funny man.
When the unexpected cold came through two days ago, I went to look for a heating pad for my shoulder. Would you believe, anything that had to do with heating was sold out with in a 25 miles radius of the farm. Back to my own resources, I cast around in my mind and remember the rice heating pads. I pulled out a scrap of piggy fleece I had bought in memory of my favorite aunt who collected pigs, and made myself a rice bag and one for each of the toddlers. The 3 year old did not appreciate it, but the grandson said "yeah! my legs are cold and took hers too.
My mother made us some of those rice warmer thingys...we liked them too! Hub's grandmother's house was always cold--she never updated her house. They still used an outhouse when Hubs was growing up! But hey, she lived to be 103 so maybe there's something to those cold houses?
ReplyDeleteYou are resourceful and have a good memory. I had forgotten all about those rice warmer bags.
ReplyDeleteYour post makes me cold just reading it. We had a floor furnace that we stayed close to in winter, but mom never turned it up unless she was cold; and being that she was not skinny, she didn't get cold very often. We would wait miserably until it was cold enough for her to want some more heat. We just wore our coats a lot in the house back then.
ReplyDeleteLove that pioneer stock! Smart and resourceful.
ReplyDeleteI still tuck a rice warmer at the foot of my bed every night through the winter.