By: Paige Cline

The hills are still green for the most part, but a little different hue has crept in. A hint of yellow and red can be seen with a little more frequency every day. No mistake about it. It’s fall. 
As you might expect, my thoughts go to the autumns of my boyhood years 
We lived in in a big 2-story house on the Kentucky Side near the railroad crossing. We loved that house, but on a cold night it could be as cold as a refrigerator. 
As small children, we had to wear warm pajamas with feet sewed in to keep the toes warm. When we got older, we felt that these PJ’s were little ones and we were when we graduated to regular sleepwear. Privately, however, i had to admit that I mossed the extra foot cover. The cloth was very warm–I think it was called “outing.’ 
Baths before bedtime were not optional, no matter what the temperature. Randy and I laughed many times about how fast we could dry and make the short trip to our bedroom. 
Our kitchen, as in most homes, was the most popular room in the house. It was usually full of wonderful aromasand there always seemed to be a pot of pinto beans on the cookstove. That also was true in most homes. It was a nourishing food and the kids loved them. That also was true of most homes. Our mother made vegetable soup regularly in cold weather. There was often a huge pot of soup on the stove. The soup was cooked with a big old soup bone if the butcher had one left over. It made good soup even bettet. 
On cold nights, we piled on every blanket, quilt or bed cover we could find. I have even gone to bed with a rubber hotwter bottle at my feet. They were usually kept for sickness. 
The dining room was a big room. It was where Mom and my sisters did the ironing. The reason was simple–from there, Mom could see the kitchen and what was cooking. She could also listen to the radio. Like most housewives, Mom liked her “stories.” They were the radio forerunners of TV soap operas to come later. She liked “Ma Perkins”, “Our Gal Sunday” and her very favorite “Stella Dallas” 
That old place was cold sometimes, but it was our home It is what brought and helped keep our family together. And it was the same in most of the homes of people we knew. 
And, when the sun came up on a cold morning, kids scrambled to get dressed, eat some breakfast, then bundle up and light out for Pineville Grade School. 
At school, we couldn’t wait to fly back home to see what tasty delights from Mom’s kitchen awaited us. We were seldom disappointed. 
Childhood memories of warmth in a cold house when we were ….growin’ up. 
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