and, it's on the screen porch, nice and dry! Cliff says that I start a fire if it gets below 70. I remember growing up that Mom always had a fire going when there was the least bit of a chill. Dad would come home from the hardware store to get it started. They used big lumps of coal most of the time. I think they stopped using coal about the same time the ice house in Monroe closed. There was a coal bin under the house on Highland Avenue. Also, in the house in Atlanta. If Dad wasn't at home building fires, or serving cocktails to the ladies, he was at the hardware store. It was next to the Farmer's Bank. We all had savings accounts there, and on Saturdays I loved to walk up to the store and get my savings book and withdraw a nickel. For many years until the early 80's the bank would sent me statements about once a year. I know they were grateful when I finally closed that account. It may have had $5.00 in it. The Farmers Bank changed names, moved into a new building, and Dad moved out of downtown also, to Davis Street. He had a huge red building with a front stoop big enough to sit on and eat watermelons. There was a refrigerator in the back of the store and always full of cold watermelons, on hand for customers and grandchildren.
