The Icy Cold Weather Took Me Down Several Memory Lanes

When I was an infant, my father told me they were so poor, the walls were actually just wall paper hung up to divide the spaces, and that we had a pot bellied stove to warm the drafty one room house. He said he would get up to put more wood in and clean the ice crystals off the area I had breathed on. 

 

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.