A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

they kept the hose running water over the porch floor to keep it cooler for me. I was awfully sick andeveryone worried about me. That is one of the times I remember Miss Rose, Father Diehner’shousekeeper, coming over with special dishes. She was always good to me.Another memory that comes back is when Gertrude Deters, who worked for Miss Miles in the drygoods store, got too close to the little gas stove in the shop and had her dress catch on fire. She took sometime to recover from he burns and I think she went back to work for Miss Miles. I remember hearing thatMiss Miles was a descendant of the Miles family in Mt. Healthy for which Miles Road is named.When I was a little older I used to roam all over the hill. One day another girl and I decided we weregoing to make our way across from the end of Hillcrest to the traction tracks. We forced our way throughhigh weeds until we came out at Howard’s stone quarry down the traction line. We talked to a lady in oneof the houses and she gave us a drink of water. She had a piano and wanted me to play. We then madeour way up to Groesbeck Road and went home.Another time I will never forget-I had gotten the soles of my feet covered with tar from crossingHamilton Pike to go to the library in my bare feet, so I couldn’t wear my shoes to go to the farm. TheBauer’s daughter and I were chasing around in the orchard when I ran a wire into the side of my foot.Mrs. Bauer made a poultice for Mother to bring home and she said it would draw out the poison. Bit Inearly got blood poisoning. Mother called Dr. Howard and he cut open the side of my foot and cleared upthe poisoning. In the summer time usually we would hear a bell ringing and knew that the scissor grinderwas on his way. Mother would get her knives and scissors to be sharpened. He carried the grindstone in awooden frame on his back. We also had occasional tramps ask for a meal.We didn’t get electricity until 1918. I remember that you were only allowed a certain number ofoutlets and mother had one more than she should have, so she placed a hassock in front of the one in thefront hall until the inspector had examined the house.We had gas lights until that time, gas pipes running up some of the walls to lights on the side-onesuch was in the pantry. Those lights wee odd, a white jet made the flame flare out like a fan-these werealso in some of the closets. The light fixtures had a mantle-a sort of mesh shaped like a small bag, which Iwould light with the lighter after the gas was turned on. Mother had a water powered washing machine-awooden tub with a wringer on the side. She would connect up the hoses to the faucets and I could hear theclick, click of the machine as she did the laundry. She had just gotten a new ice box when Dad decided toget an electric ice machine for her, so she wanted it installed in her new ice box. It was a water cooledFrigidaire, with the unit in the basement in the bottom of the old fruit closet and the box in the back of thepantry. She used the old sad irons, which were heated on the gas cook stove in the kitchen.The hot water tank was just inside the door leading from the hall into the kitchen. Gas pressure wasvery uncertain in winter, one time getting so low that Mother couldn’t cook our supper in the kitchen-Iwent down the cellar with her as she broiled a steak over the coals in the furnace. By this time Dad had aModel-A Ford and drove back and forth to the foundry. He worked in most of the iron foundries inCincinnati during his lifetime. We always had a little garden in the back yard, tomatoes and othervegetables growing there. We also had a pear and a peach tree. Mother would make preserves and jellies.I also remember that she would make her own cottage cheese. Letting the milk clabber, putting it in acheese cloth bag and letting they whey drain out into the sink. She also used cloth bags to put fruit in tomake jelly and let the juice drain out the same way. About that time Dad decided to get an oil burner putin the furnace-that lasted about two or three years-it wasn’t satisfactory. Then we got a stoker to fire thefurnace with coal again. Dad was always looking for gadgets to make Mother’s work easier. Earlier,before we got electricity, we had a strange vacuum cleaner-you pulled the handle up and down on the sideto create a vacuum to pull out of the carpets. We had many unusual things that Dad discovered. He wasalways interested in new things-we got a crystal set radio and I remember sitting around the dining roomtable with sets of ear phones over our ears while he manipulated a sort of wire whisker over the crystaland we heard far away voices or music. He also bought any new medical discovery he heard about-thereis still an old violet ray set in the attic that was supposed to help your health.There was no lunch room at school in those days so we went home for lunch. I was an only child andI adored my mother, so time spent with her at noon was a joy. One of my favorites for lunch was a catsup235