OVER MY SHOULDER

‘Come holler down my rain barrel---Come slide down my cellar door’---yes we had a rain barrel and a cellar door. ------Well as I recall, sort of a rain barrel. I remember that when they thought that it would rain, Mom or Dad would always set a wash tub under the eaves or the down spout. Sometimes, they would set a couple of tubs out. I recall that some of the neighbors did have actual wooden stave barrels in which they would catch the rain water. Nearly every family had a rain barrel of sort. It was great fun to catch the wooden stave barrel when it was nearly empty, stick your head down in it and ‘holler’ or talk just to hear the echo.

‘Wash tubs’ may be a foreign word to today’s generation, but they were large-- usually round---- galvanized tubs that were used on wash day. They were used to contain clear water in which the clothes were rinsed. I remember when I was very small---before Mom could afford a washing machine, that one would serve to hold the hot wash water, in which a wash board would be used to scrub the clothes. (a wash board was a flat piece of metal with ridges that was framed with wood) If you ever used a wash board, you will not soon forget what it looks like or how it is used.

After Dad traded for the old gasoline ‘Maytag’ washing machine, the tubs were used to put the clothes through two rinse waters. It seems to me that Mom would put ‘bluing’ in the water in one of the tubs---I believe that it helped to make the white clothes whiter. I do remember that prior to the Maytag, we had a hand crank ‘ringer’ through which the clothes were wound through to remove as much water as possible after each wash or rinse process. The Maytag had a ringer attached.

Rain water was a precious commodity, as it was ‘soft”---required very little soap, and was ‘safe’ to replenish the water in the car battery. As I recall, Mom would use it to wash her hair, and to wash ‘delicate’ things that required careful washing by hand.
I also remember that the actual rain barrels which were larger would have water in them longer than the tubs---perhaps all summer in a good season, and would often have mosquito larva wiggling around in them.

I can recall how much fun it was to ‘slide’ down the cellar doors, and how much time that we invested in this activity when I was quite young. Most every homestead had a cellar (or cave which ever you call it), or a basement. Either way there was always the large wooden double doors that enclosed the stairs down into the cellar or basement. Once you were at the bottom of the stairs, there was usually a second door to assist with the temperature control in the cellar.

I recall that our cellar (cave) was a poured concrete enclosure that was about half under ground. Mom said that Grand Dad Murrow had built it years ago. That must have been quite a feat, as this was before ‘ready mix’, and all of the concrete mix had to be mixed either by hand or a concrete mixer---I would guess he mixed it by hand. There was a set of concrete steps, enclosed on both sides with a concrete wall, down into the cave proper---the cave itself was about 8 feet or so wide and about 10 or 12 feet long---it had a flat concrete floor, the sides were straight walls up 36 or 40 inches, and a domed ceiling under which an adult could walk. In one corner of the floor was a sump basin from which we would during wet periods have to dip and carry out the water daily---if we had a heavy rain the water would run into the cave and sometimes be 2 or 2 1/2 feet deep.

There was a loose rock wall that had been laid up by hand around the cave--- perhaps 25-30 inches tall. The 12” void between the concrete wall and the rock wall was filled with dirt. The dirt continued over the outside of the dome of the cave ---probably 10 or 12 inches deep. I would guess that the dirt provided additional insulation to assist in maintaining an even temperature inside---cool in the summer and warm in the winter. On occasion some of the outside wall would ‘give way’ and we would have to relay it and reinstall the dirt.

I recall that the top of our cave was covered with a good stand of ‘flags’--- I believe today we call them Iris. I also remember that it would be the job of one of we boys to keep the ‘big’ weeds off of the top of the cave. The out side of the cave was a natural place to play ‘King of the Mountain’----whether there were 2 or 20 kids.

The inside walls of our cellar were lined with shelves---some with ‘hail screen’ bottoms to hold the potatoes after they were dug, some just the correct height to hold quart or one-half gallon jars of canned fruit and vegetables---or empty jars as the contents were used over the course of the winter. Also in the cellar were the large 5 gallon stone jars filled with chopped cabbage---which would within a few days be sour kraut. Melons and cream waiting to go to the creamery (and even a bucket of minnows in the summer--waiting to be taken to the creek fishing) were also stored in the cellar. Of course one of the major uses was a place to go in case of severe weather or if it looked like a tornado might come through.

I see a lot of old caves around the country----some are still in use--with perhaps a wooden entry way built over the steps. (I always thought that this robbed the young kids of a lot of fun) Many of the caves however are on old abandoned farm homesteads. I rarely pass one of the sites that I do not suffer pangs of regret that it is no longer a viable homestead.