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CURLING IRONS
My mother and my sister
used a curling iron, or curler, for their hair. It looked something like a
large pair of shears, except that it had no cutting blades; instead, one
working part was round, about three-eighth inch in diameter and perhaps
five inches long; the other was a concave piece to fit snugly on about
half the diameter of the round part. The two parts were worked by handles
and were held together by a spring. The curler was usually heated in the
glass chimney of a coal oil lamp, so placed that it contacted the flame.
When the iron was hot enough, it was placed at the end of a tress and the
tress was wound upon the hot curler. When it was withdrawn, a few minutes
later, it left a soft curl in the hair.
I could never figure out
why mother and sister spent so much time with a curler: the curls lasted
only a short time! And I can still smell the kerosene lamp, the hot metal,
and the scorched hair!
THE CANNING SEASON
When fruit and vegetables
began to ripen, in August and September, the housewife found herself
"putting them up" for the winter. She had quite a task.
Her equipment was very
crude, when viewed by present standards, but it was the last word in its
day. My memory goes back to the time when earthen jars were used. These
were about half way between a crock and a jug, with a mouth, about three
inches in diameter, that was closed by a round piece of baked clay, made
to fit. The jar was sealed by filling the top, around the lid, with
parafine or sealing wax.
The housewife did her
cooking on a coal stove, using large iron kettles - occasionally a copper
one. On a hot day in late summer, the kitchen was a very warm place. The
preparation of fruit and vegetables, the cooking and placing in jars, made
a very busy kitchen. Often, because the work was too much for one
housewife, the neighbors came in to help. The canning season, with its
hustle and bustle, its many pleasant smells, its opportunities for
tasting, and its promises of food for the coming winter, remains a
pleasant memory of boyhood days.
Blower, Arthur H. Akron at the Turn of the Century 1890-1913. 1955.
Digital Rpt in
History of Akron & Summit County. Ed. Michael C
Cohill and Jeri D Holland.
Mar. 2006. <http://akronhistory.org>.
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