Sometimes an incident will happen that reminds me of the so-called “Good Old Days.” Last week, the cold days reminded me of an incident that happened a few years back.
Rudene and I were very good friends with a couple that lived down the street from us for many years. We had a little condo in Gulf Shores and we planned a trip down for Thursday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. We let the management of the condo complex rent our place out, but they were supposed to have this time saved for us. We hit the road, and down below Birmingham I thought it would be a good idea to call the lady in the office at the condo and make sure they had saved these days for us. Bad news. Some people were in our condo and they were good northern customers who come every winter. The lady had tried several places for a room but not a one was available.
After a little discussion, our friend said that he had an aunt who lived about 20 miles from Gulf Shores. Thank goodness, we won’t have to sleep in the car. We arrived at the aunt’s house about 12 that night. It was cold as a well digger’s knee when we arrived and knocked on the front door. No one came. We knocked on the back door. No one came. We drove to town to find a phone and we called but no answer. Driving back to the house we found a light was on, thank goodness.
After going inside the house, his aunt showed us where we would sleep. The two bedrooms were on opposite ends of a glassed-in front porch on the north side of the house. Neither bedroom had a heater. Our friends took the bedroom they wanted and Granny and I took the other one. I noticed several quilts on the bed and I knew this would be a cold room. The lady told us there was a heater on our bed. I looked around for a pan of hot coals to warm the sheets but then noticed that she meant an electric blanket. The other couple was really envious of our blanket until the next morning when we told them that it didn’t work. Boy, that was a cold bedroom!
People who are as old as I am can probably remember visiting their grandparents and going to bed with six quilts on top of them. It seems like you couldn’t turn over with that much cover and you really didn’t want to for fear of losing your warm spot. That was the way it was on this particular night.
With my luck, I got a cramp in my leg that night. I wouldn’t get out of bed for I was afraid I’d freeze to the floor. So, I just stretched, moaned and suffered through it.
We did have a good stay there, and that cold bedroom brought back some wonderful old memories of winter visits with my grandparents.
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