Mayor’s Row…..by Ned Mitchell
It had to happen and I suddenly realized that the day I had thought about and
forgotten so many times had arrived. You see the day started out just fine, a
Saturday morning in Sesser. There was a good amount of snow on the ground and
the temperature was warming up. I made a test run outside to check the snow to
see if it would stick together and found that conditions were just perfect. I
gathered up 2 and a half year old Carrigan and asked if she wanted to help make
a snowman. She jumped with joy and said yes and I could see and hear the
excitement in her voice and expressions.
We loaded up to head to the local grocery store to get carrots for the snowman’s
nose. On our way I suddenly realized that coal for the snowman’s eyes and mouth
would be a hard object to find. Impossible is more like the word I was looking
for! I remember as a child making a snowman and being able to go right to the
coal pile and pick of pieces of stoker coal to add just the right touch. A trip
by grandma and grandpa Mitchells found grandma suggesting that we use prunes for
the eyes and mouth. A worthwhile suggestion but as soon as I discovered a bag of
prunes was about $4.00 I quickly ruled out that idea.
With necessity being the motherhood of invention Carrigan and I rolled up the
big snow balls to form the snowman and stacked them up. We stuck the carrot for
the nose in place and then shared a raw carrot as we admired our work. My black
scarf in the garage floor was a welcome find as was the garage broom. We found a
black plastic pot holder that made a neat hat and sticks for arms. Still we had
no eyes and no mouth on the snowman. We discovered some black plastic landscape
pegs that we pushed into the snowman’s head the serve as eyes and mouth and
viola, we were finished with our snowman masterpiece. The snow sculpture was
finished off with Carrigan’s own rendition of “Frosty the Snowman”.
It was all about memories and I am sure that Carrigan will remember her first
snowman and I am certain I will remember that day too. Memory is a wonderful
thing and the snowman brought back memories of my childhood and I have to tell
you it was a great feeling.
I well remember our home being heated with a Warm Morning stove that sat in the
living room. The living room was comfortable but the farther away one got from
the stove the colder it was. We had plenty of cover piled on the beds to keep us
warm once we got snuggled in for the night. Dad would always bank the fire at
night and he would be the first up in the morning to get the fire stoked up so
the house would begin to warm by the time the rest of us got out of bed.
As we began to modernize one of the first things we got was a coal furnace with
a stoker. A special room had to be built on the house to have a place for the
furnace. My dad and uncle Lowell Dame tore down a house in West Frankfort and
helped each other build additions to their respective homes with the used
lumber. Our furnace room was built complete with a coal bin storage room so the
coal could be shoveled inside for the convenience of keeping the coal dry and
not having to go outside to bring in coal. We now had warmth in every room of
the house and no longer did we have to stay near the Warm Morning stove to be
comfortable. What a feat it was!
My grandma White had what was called a Stokermatic which was a small self
contained unit that had a little stoker coal bin on one end that fed into a
furnace on the other end. Her coal pile was out back in the shed and it was my
job to get coal in every day and take ashes out. Grandma was not nearly as
modern as we were with our in house coal bin and I often grumbled on my way to
the coal shed near the alley behind her house. Still it kept her house pretty
warm as the Stokermatic was strategically located in the center of the house and
had a forced air blower to spread the heat around. It was a vast improvement
over a Warm Morning stove with no blower to circulate the warm air.
We continued to progress in life and later installed a gas furnace as did
grandma and everyone else in town. No longer did we have the mess of hauling
coal in and taking ashes out. We converted the furnace room into a family room
and the coal bin is now the laundry room.
All of those memories came back to me on a Saturday morning building a modern
day snowman with little Carrigan and our search for a few pieces of coal. I
simply had no idea where to even begin looking for coal. I suppose I could have
made a trip to one of the abandoned coal mines in the area and searched through
the gob pile for a lump or two of coal. Carrigan is still trying to figure out
exactly what coal is. Coal is no longer a part of our daily lives in Southern
Illinois and I found that our first hand building a snowman in 2008. Carrigan
will not have the memory of using coal for the eyes and mouth of Frosty, she
will remember our search for something small and black that would serve the same
purpose. I don’t know if her memory will be as good as mine about her first
snowman but perhaps in my attention to detail I almost missed the main memory of
us building her first snowman. It was a good day!
Cyril Smothers is home recuperating as is Lucille Kirkpatrick. Congressman Ken
Gray is in the Herrin hospital after a fall. My mother Rose Mary had an
overnight stay at Herrin hospital and is home doing better. If you have time
drop a card or make a call to these folks. Aunt Marjorie Dame celebrated her
92nd birthday this week.
Make plans now to attend the play “Barefoot In The Park” which opens Valentine’s
Day at the historic Sesser Opera House. We have a special dinner that night and
area residents are encouraged to visit us in Sesser for a fantastic meal and
then see a great play as we bring community theater back to the area in a
historic setting. This is a great family play and we are excited about live
theater in Sesser. The Opera House was originally built for such entertainment
and we are recreating history when we bring another show on stage. The
performers and stage hands have worked long hours getting their lines memorized
and the set constructed for our enjoyment. We need you to attend! Call 625-5322
or 927-0860 for advance ticket purchases and dinner reservations.
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