Chapter Nine - The Old Red Mill

Chapter Nine
The Old Red Mill

When we first moved to the home on Fillmore two blocks down at 17th St there was an active grain mill. I guess we lived close enough to the Southwest edge of Topeka that farmers could bring their grain in to the mill to be ground and bagged. However, it closed down soon after we moved to the Fillmore home. For awhile it was an adventurous place for the local boys to explore. Advancing time was soon to cause its demise and it was torn down.

Another relic of earlier times was the street itself that we lived on. It was constructed from hand laid bricks. By the time we moved there asphalt had covered over the center of the street with bricks only being visible at the edges. One thing I remember about that street was the Bauchman’s ice cream wagon. I don’t mean a motorized van vehicle. I mean a horse drawn wagon with bells on the horse’s collar. It was like a Norman Rockwell painting. He would have four or five gallons of ice cream in a compartment behind where he sat driving the horse. Between scooping out ice cream cones for the kids, he would spit out some of the tobacco he had been chewing on. Fortunately he would miss the ice cream. Bauchman made some good ice cream.

We also had a man in a mule drawn wagon loaded with country produce come down our alley about once a week. He’d have corn of the cob, watermelons, potatoes, string green beans and other items. Like the old red mill advancing time took its toll.

Another relic that lost out to modernization was the coal burning furnace that we had in the basement to heat the house. There was a coal bin in the Southeast corner of the basement that would periodically get filled with coal delivered to the house. I don’t remember too much about filling the furnace with coal, but I do remember that Gary and I had as one of our chores to carry out of the house the cinders left over after the coal burned. When dad and mom upgraded and replaced the coal furnace with a natural gas furnace our chore changed from taking out the cinders to making sure a water reservoir was kept full. The water was added to the heated air so that there was a comfortable amount of humidity in the house. Of course, there were times when it wouldn't get filled and it would be a matter of “it was your turn – no, it was your turn.” Dad wouldn’t be happy with either one of us.

A lot of things happened in the basement. Californians for the most part don’t know about basements, but you go anywhere East of the Rockies you’ll find that most homes have a basement. I remember helping my mom can fruits and vegetables in the basement. I remember canning tomatoes, pears, peaches and strawberries. With the strawberries we would make preserves. I remember getting bushels of apples but I don’t remember what we did with them. The others, we would peel, cut up and cook and then put them into a Mason jar. At the top of the fruit you put a layer of paraffin which would seal the fruit/vegetables and then put a seal type lid on top of the jar. Later on in the fall or winter when you opened up a jar of strawberry preserves and put it on toast you really had a treat. Good enough to make Smuckers jealous. Sometimes dad would make grape wine in the basement. That was interesting.

While we’re on the subject of household activities, let’s take a look at doing laundry. Again, down in the basement, we had a washing machine. However, in those days the washing machine was just a tub with an agitator driven by an electrical motor. When the clothes had finished the wash cycle, then you would put them through a ringer which was attached to the top of the washing machine and could be rotated to different positions. The ringer was two roller with a crank handle on one side that you turned to force the clothes through the turning rollers. You would ring out the soapy water and put the clothes in a tub of clear water and swish them around to get the soap out. Then you would put them through the ringer again to get the clear water out. Put them in a basket and take them out to the back yard to hang on the clothesline to dry. At least you didn’t have to pump quarters into it.

Another activity in the basement was more entertaining. We had a ping pong table and we got a lot of play out of it. I don’t remember mom playing but dad did. Also, Mr. Cayhill our Prudential Insurance man would come by once a month to pick up the insurance premiums. Then he would come down to the basement and play ping pong with us. I remember him more as a friend than a sales rep.
Next chapter we’ll go to The Hood Topeka Style.