My recently departed father clung to the familiar in his final days. Including his attachment to a little electric heater he must have bought in the 1950's. He used it to keep the pipes warm in the drafty old collection of garage and gas station buildings on a downtown corner in my hometown.
I ended up inheriting this little piece of Americana. I gave it a first try in my garage this past weekend shortly after the snow storm. Actually still worked pretty well. Using his tools, working an old car and truck of his vintage, I get a bit nostalgic. Remembering the 'quality' time with Joe under the hood.
There was a time of optimism, innocent and unbridled, when this nation dared to dream large, going to the moon and building the interstate highway system. When a small manufacturer in Indiana wrote poetry about an electric space heater.
"If you dislike a chilly bath,
Let Arvin dissipate your wrath.
With fan-forced heat that fills the room
So fast there is no cause for gloom."
-Larry
2 comments:
Beautiful post Larry
Space heater poetry under the hood of an old car.... Thanks, Larry, for capturing memory and moment so succinctly. It's a fitting memorial. --Kari
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