A conversation with Grandpa Van

My paternal grandpa James Thomas Vandeventer died in 1929 at age 85 long before I was born. Imagine that we are sitting on the patio drinking some iced tea and talking.

“Boy, where did you get this funny shaped ice and why do you put it in tea?”

“Out of the freezer. We can have ice any time we want to today.”

“We only had ice in the winter and we never put it in a drink

“How did you keep your food cold?”

“We kept our milk and cream and other things in the spring house.” “Spring house?”

“A spring house was a little house or box that we built where the spring comes out of the hill. The water was cool and we set things in the water. “How long could you keep food in the spring house?”

“Oh, butter and milk would last a couple of days maybe depending on how hot it was.”

“Here it is late October and we have more ice than we can use. We can keep food cold for weeks and months and it never spoils. We get ice from the icemaker in the freezer. You never owned a refrigerator did you? In fact you never had electricity in your life.”

“No, we didn’t. We lived way out in the country and nobody had electricity outside of town. Most places did not get electricity until the 1920s or later. We went to town once in a while. I know what electricity is and seen it work. I don’t know how it works though.”

“I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’m not sure I know all about how electricity works either. I just use it and I am glad for it. Come in the house and let me show you the refrigerator of today. See, this box is powered by electricity and it keeps food cold. In the top here it is cold enough to freeze food and make ice. Most people have icemakers. If you had had one of these you would not have needed the spring house.”

“Yes. Come out here to the garage.”

“Well, at least I recognize the garage.”

“It is wired for electricity too; for lights and tools. See these large doors?”

“See this little gadget here. It is a garage door opener.”

“A what?”

“A garage door opener.”

“You mean to say that you use that little thing to pry open those doors and push them wide enough to drive a wagon or car into the garage?”

“Take this gadget down to the end of the drive and press this button.”

“Well, by doggies the door is going up. How does this thing work?”

“It has a battery that sends an electronic message through the air to this device up here in the top of the garage. That activates the electric motor that turns and pulls the door open with this chain.”

“Press it again.”

“The durn thing is shuttin’ up. How does it know?”

I wonder what my conversation would be with my great-great-grandchildren in about 2100.

[Larry Vandeventer. Go to my two websites – Larryvandeventer.com and wjrambler1956.com – and purchase my books. I grew up North of Calvertville and graduated from Worthington High School and Indiana State. Contact me at Goosecrick@aol.com or 317-839-7656.]