Bathtub Luxury

When I waked up, the great time Grandpa and I had enjoyed yesterday was still in my thoughts - especially the fun at seeing Hurricane Shoals again. That special place never fails to fascinate me. I decided that I would make a special effort to be nice and helpful to Grandma. I really appreciated the effort she seemed to be making to be good to me. She still won't let me wash the dishes, and I will enjoy that time while I can, but I am sure that will change soon.

I walked into the large kitchen with the huge old stove, and found Grandpa and Grandma finishing their first cup of coffee leisurely while waiting for me to come downstairs.

"Mornin'!" I said cheerily. "Grandpa and I had such fun yesterday. Your Pastor's house is so beautiful and it is so much like yours." I said showing what a good mood I was in.

"Good morning to you!" Grandpa and Grandma said in unison. The smiles on their faces was worth the extra effort. Grandpa and I filled Grandma in on the activities of yesterday.

Grandma asked, "Did you get to see Guy?"

"Oh yes Ma'am. He is such a nice man and a great electrician. I am rather proud to be his cousin," I said nicely.

"I'm glad. Marie raised a fine family. All of them are kind and considerate, but each has his or her own brand of a sense of humor. Their Father, Roy, had a marvelous sense of humor and I guess he passed that on to his children."

"While you ladies discuss the rest of our forty grandchildren, I have to go to work!" Grandpa smiled as he finished the last gulp of his second cup of coffee. Grandma and I watched as we followed with our eyes the trail of red Georgia dust that meant Grandpa was already speeding toward Maysville.

Grandma turned to me and said, "How about another cup of Kettle Tea?" (That was a Great Depression concoction consisting of hot water from the kettle, about one-third cup of milk and two teaspoons of sugar. Most children and some adults enjoyed this often.)

"That will be great. I was listening so hard" I didn't really get to enjoy my first cup." I said politely. "By the way, Grandma, while we are having our second cup--"

"This will be my third cup of coffee." Grandma interrupted.

"Okay, what I would like for us to talk about is your own special bathtub. Mickey and some of the others have told me how it was made, but I would like to hear the story from you," I said sweetly but sincerely.

Grandma's face lit up when she started talking about her special bathtub.

"First of all, you have to take into consideration that your Grandpa built my bathtub when he built this house for us soon after we were married. That smooth as silk finish he accomplished then is still just as smooth today, after all these years. My tub was then and is now a wonder to have in a country house with no other plumbing facilities."

"You have heard correctly from everyone how Grandpa painstakingly and lovingly, I suppose, molded my bathtub with his own hands. When he had it in the exact shape he wanted it, he left a drainage hole (like modern bathtubs). Before he molded the bathtub, Grandpa had connected a drainpipe to the outside near the horse trough. When he connected that to the tub, it was obvious he thought of everything possible to give me the privacy I craved. He really built me a beauty!"

I was fascinated by Grandma's story - not so much because of what she was saying, but that she could call forth so much emotion in her voice in the telling!

I said quietly, "Thank you, Grandma, for telling me the real story about your awesome tub."

Not willing to leave her magic mood so quickly that had caused Grandma's unexpected emotion to surface, I said, "One more thing I'd like to know is how you get hot water to fill your tub when you are ready to take a bath."

Grandma still looked contented as she proceeded to tell me about the massive old iron stove that had been in her family well since they moved into this house. "You see, these huge old stoves have a large water reservoir on the side that keeps water hot after meals have been cooked. It takes a lot of stove wood to get the stove hot enough to cook properly. The heavy iron construction of the stove keeps the water hot for many hours."

Grandma continued with a smile at one corner of her mouth that us kids seldom saw. "I remember one morning when our children were young. After I had served breakfast, your Grandpa had to leave early for work and the kids (our three girls and six boys) frantically managed to catch the school bus, I sat down to enjoy a second cup of coffee. I decided to take a long, leisurely bath in my own special tub."

"Granted it was a little inconvenient for me to transport the hot water from the reservoir in the stove, but I had done this so many times, I scarcely noticed.

"I'll use the new scented soap the Watkins salesman sold me last week, I decided. Usually, I only buy vanilla extract and such items from him, but the soap smelled so nice, I couldn't resist. Anything would be an improvement over the homemade Lye soap!"

Grandma said with a wistful grin on her face, "Sometimes I wish the Watkins man and others would carry more of the items we need so that I wouldn't have to hitch up Nellie Belle so often to go into nearby Maysville." When she thought further about this, she added, "Since my trips into Maysville are the social highlights of some weeks, I guess I shouldn't complain."

"I was in frail health for several years, and your mother, Ethel, had to start helping with the cooking," Grandma said.

"I know. She has always reminded us how she started making biscuits when she was nine years old. She insists she had to stand on a stool," I said.

"That she did. It wasn't long before she wanted to start cooking other things, too. My other two girls were older than Ethel, so they almost took over the household chores until my health improved," Grandma said softly, remembering.

"Even Aunt Flora," I said before thinking. "She seems to hate housework."

"She does now, but back then, she would make beds that would make an Army sergeant proud," Grandma said.

"That left the cleaning and the ironing to Aunt Ruth, right?" I asked.

"That's about the size of it," Grandma finished.

"Grandma, when I looked very closely at your tub, in the back, I saw Grandpa's name and a date."

Grandma smiled broadly. "Your Grandpa signed his name to works he was proud of. Many of the large homes in and around Commerce have plaques on the corner stone saying, 'Built by Jasper M. Reynolds' and a date. He is probably the most respected builder around these parts today." There was that crooked smile on Grandma's face again.

Pride welled up in my chest to think that my beloved Grandpa was so well-known and respected for his building sturdy attractive houses.

"It takes a lot of stove wood to get the stove hot enough to cook on, as I said, but, once it is ready, hot biscuits and/or corn bread bake in the oven while a meat or two and several vegetables can be cooked on the top surface in old iron pots. The warmer above keeps bread and potatoes wann for a long time."

"In other words, you can put as many things on the top of the stove as there is room, because it is hot all over the top surface, right?" I asked with interest.

Grandma was about to agree with me when she suddenly looked out the window and nodded her head. Before I could wonder what was going on, the side door burst open and the twins, Mary and Cary rushed forward to greet me! I was so surprised, but excited as I thought they were staying in Commerce at an aunt's house for two more days. "We talked our Aunt into bringing us home a couple of days early when Austin told us you were here already," Mary said quickly.

Cary smiled broadly as he too seemed glad to see me.

"Aunt Ellen packed us a lunch with enough to include you, Katie," Mary said. She turned to Grandma, "Please let Katie go with us now to our house and I'm sure Woody can make some lemonade to go with these ham sandwiches. Pretty please, Grandma. We haven't seen Katie since last summer and we have so much to catch up on."

Grandma smiled and said, "How could I say no to such a plea? Go ahead, Katie, but be sure to be back before supper." To herself, Grandma said, "I'll have to wait a little longer to start instructing Katie on chores and how to learn to manage a household. Bud was right - she is just a little young. I'll have to make her want to do them. I'll start with churning. She'll enjoy that."

Grandma graciously said, "Good to have you back kids. Now run along - I think I'll take my rest early today."