Marching the Fruit into the Storage Cellar

Marching the Fruit into the Storage Cellar
There was also a cellar under a portion of our kitchen. For many years the only way to get to it was through a trap door that had to be lifted up every time we needed to get into the cellar. The door to the cellar was on the floor, by the wall on the west side of the kitchen. The trap door was about three feet wide and six feet long. It had a strap so that you could grab it and lift up the door. You always had to be careful when you closed the door so the strap would be on top of the floor and stick out so you could grab the strap the next time you needed to get into the cellar. There was a set of wooden stairs that went down into the cellar where Mom stored the fruits and vegetables she had bottled from our garden. I remember “marching “the fruit and vegetable bottles down the wooden steps with Kyle.

Let me explain what I mean by “Marching” the fruit down to the cellar. After Mom had bottled the fruit or vegetables and they had cooled down so we could handle them. Kyle and I would be asked to take the fruit or veggies, down stairs to the cellar. This was great fun for us! We would get Mom to open the cellar door, then take three or four bottles over to the top stair and set them there. Then we would “March” those three of four bottles down to the second stair, get up, go over to the counter or table and get another three or four bottles and put them on the top stair. Now the fun would begin. We would go down to the fourth step, “March” the bottles that were on the second step, down to her third step, “March” the bottles that were on the first step down to the second step and then go to the counter and get the next three or four bottles and the process would continue. Can you see where this is going? By the time we got all 12 or so steps full, it was time to take the bottles off the bottom step and place them on the shelf in the cellar. This was when the fun really reached its’ climax. Then we would march all of the other bottles down one step at a time until we got to the top step and them go get the next three or four bottles. It was an all afternoon job! But we made it fun by “Marching” the bottles. It taught us patience, and tried the patience of Mother. Sometimes Mom would say, “No marching today. Just get it downstairs!" We hated it when that happened. That spoiled all of our fun! Looking back, I don’t know how she put up with it. Maybe she was glad just to keep us busy so she knew where we were.

It was quite a bit cooler down there in the cellar. I believe it had a dirt floor and even some of the walls were dirt. Later on, I remember Dad boarded up the trap door in the kitchen and built a cement stairway outside on the back of the house that went down to the cellar. It had a regular door with a regular door handle, but no lock.