Ben,
I’m not familar with the Timbertoes magazine or the Golden Guides, but you’re a good deal younger than I am, so maybe we didn’t have them during my youth. My favorite kids books were the biographies about famous people. I read them all. And yes, I agree, sounds like our parents were very similar. I’m very grateful to have been raised by them and during the time I was raised. It’s served me well throughout my life.
I remember those screw in fuses well. When I was first out on my own most of the rentals I lived in were old and they all had them. One place was a duplex that was probably built in about 1920. I had a Maytag A50 Twin Tub, and whenever I used the spin tub, if I had much else on, like a lot of lights it would blow a fuse. And the fuse box was outside, under the eaves with Ivy all around it and no lights. Once it blew at night, while it was raining. I had no ladder, and the only chairs I had were three leg Danish Modern, so I was outside, on that precarious chair, in the rain, flashlight in hand and the new fuse in my mouth, changing the fuse. After that I never did the laundry after dark again while I lived there.
The house we lived in just before my Dad died in 1962 had radiant heating in the slab floor. The house was built right after WWII and materials weren’t the best then due to shortages. Anyway the boiler would often overheat and start to clang. There was a pressure gauge, and since I was the oldest kid it was my job to turn off the boiler when it started to clang. My Dad told me to get out fast if the needle of the gauge was in the red zone. That used to scare me a little, but I did it anyway. I was only 11 years old, but I already knew what responsibility was. I also knew how to relight the water heater, and did so often.
Sorry to bore the “app cray” out of everyone, but I suspect that my early childhood experiences are similar to many other members of my generation.
Eddie
