I was born in '48 I remember........
First few years of "conciousness" I remember old cars like my Dad had 2 different Model A Fords, one a dump truck. No heater, really. One of them had a "trumpet" deal that the fan blew air into, around the exhaust/ leaky manifold and into the interior.........with the leaky/ broken WOOD floorboards
I remember our old house in downtown had NO bathroom and only one cold sink in the kitchen. Before we moved out when I was 6, Dad and Gramps put in the sewer, remodeled the kitchen, and put in a bath/ water tank/ toilet/ shower
When I was 6 the folks bought part of the property and Gramps house, that Dad helped build. Wood heat. Had a hand crank phone, and water for kitchen tank was heated by coils in the "trash burner" alongside the small electric range. Water for baths was heated by a pot belly stove in the basement with a home-built convection duct around the stove that encouraged heat to rise up into the bath
When I was in Jr high Dad installed a USED hand fired coal furnace, convection air, to which had been added a power stoker and external blower box. Damn thing took up most the basement. Coal went way up around 68-70, Dad put in an oil furnace--just in time for the inflation of about 73 and fuel shortage. Finally the gas company got going on gas taps---there was a big feeder out past the house---and Dad had a gas furnace installed
My Mom's parents did not have either running water, indoor bath, or a refrigerator until I was in Jr High, about 1960, and they had no real well. My Great Uncle had sold the farm in OR after his brother died, came up here to live with the folks and he had a well drilled, the house remodeled to add a bath. They got their first refrigerator, they had had just an icebox. Grampa used to keep a wash tub in the car trunk all the time, with tongs, so they could haul ice from town.
We had 220V into the house, but it was only something like ?60A or maybe only ?40? Amp service--two big cartridge fuses in the disconnect. The power drop was a LONG way from the road. Whenever the well pump cycled, the TV would suck way in, and usually you had to get up and diddle the vert/ horizontal hold or something
