Avoiding a Big Bang: A Memoir

Avoiding a Big Bang: A Memoir

By: Phyllis Nash

Even after the oven glass broke, my mom still used a 2-burner kerosene stove. She would place raised bread dough in the separate oven. She would sit the oven on top of the burners of the kerosene stove and bake light bread that was great when served hot with butter, or even with the oleo that we used and had to color. It was tough being without a big oven, but at least we still had a stove!
Years later, my late husband told me how his mother had what was called a fast recovery kerosene stove that must have cooked food a little like our gas stoves. But my mother’s kerosene stove took a long time, about 15 – 20 minutes, to get to a full flame. I remember going with her to get wicks from the local hardware store.
Also the tank had to be replenished, and I think it would only hold about a gallon of kerosene. My Mom & Dad called it the “oil stove”. She was the one who would go to get the kerosene, but one day, a well-meaning neighbor called out, “Mrs. E., why don’t you have gas yet?” After that, I don’t think my mom went to get kerosene until after dark; she was embarrassed.
None of the older children could go to get the kerosene. They were not living at home or working, and Mom wouldn’t send the younger kids. I hated to see my mom feel humiliated, and I was old enough to go (about 13), yet I also never wanted to be seen with the jug and get asked questions. So I asked my girl friend if she’d go with me after dark. She was delighted to do so, and it became my job.
One time I think we were mistakenly sold gasoline for kerosene. My mom got suspicious and asked the neighbor man what he thought, and he agreed that it smelled like gasoline. She may have saved our lives or kept a potentially dangerous situation from happening.
Eventually my mom got a gas stove, saving us those trips to the gas station and the hazard of possible fire. I remember a special Dutch decal on the new, modern gas stove with the oven inside.