Yvonne

Did Grandma ever tell you about that old iron range
that's out there in the trees behind the shed?
It used to be her cookstove in her kitchen on the ranch
and I'll bet it baked a million loaves of bread.

She said that Granddad bought it when the two were newlywed
with money from a Percheron colt he'd sold;
they only had a table and a cot and two old chairs,
and to them that stove was worth its weight in gold.

Sometimes when I stayed with her she'd let me gather wood
and put it in the box against the wall;
Usually, I would drop it on the floor and make a mess
but it never seemed tobother her at all.

Her kitchen was a gathering place for relatives and friends,
for hired men and neighbors stopping by;
she always had a pot of coffee brewing on that stove,
was always bakin' cookies, cake or pie.

She'd use a metal handle to remove the burner plate,
stir the ashes.....add a chunk of wood;
I still can see her cooking on that old Home Comfort Range;
I'll tell you folks, that food was more than good!

She carried in her water from a well behind the house;
on Saturday she'd get her washtub down
then heat a bunch of water; everyone would take a bath;
and later, after chores, you'd go to town.

One night when they had gone to town they heard of R.E.A.
and Granddad bought her a new electric range;
he thought she would like it and they hauled the old one out,
but Grandma never took too well to change.

She didn't use it long before her cooking days were done
and never lived to see how things have changed;
she died a-wishin' she could go back home just one more time
and cook just one more meal on that old range.