March 31, 2020
Stories of our youth from Nancy Hyde Seyfried (Dan’s sister)
That pot-bellied stove was a character in a Hyde Halloween saga. I was probably 12 years old and Halloween was coming and Mom no longer sewed elaborate costumes out of crepe paper for me (You could buy patterns for costumes. Once l was Little Bo Peep.) I digress. That year she bought me a costume, a skeleton.
It was a cold, damp night about a week before Halloween and l was standing with my back side to the stove. I had a dress on and l had scooped the hem up to heat up my butt. And I don’t know how, but I hit the back of my knees on the red hot “popcorn ring” and blistered the back of both legs in the back of my knees.
On Halloween, the village of LeRoy held a Halloween parade at the old athletic field behind the Library and High School. The kids in costume paraded around the old cinder track and the judges would pick out winners. I got picked as a winner even with a store bought costume because they thought I moved like a skeleton. I didn’t tell them that l had bad burns on the back of my knees and couldn’t bend my legs. I had to walk stiff legged. I don’t remember what I won, probably candy.
I tell my grandkids about the square wash tub that we used for baths. The side next to the stove would steam and the other side had ice on it. ☺ It hung outside on the woodshed. The youngest kid Skip (Dan) got bathed first then Dean, then me and with super hard water and Ivory soap it made a thick curd that floated on top of the water. I would try to scoop it off before I got in. You needed to sit corner to corner to fit in. Jim, my boyfriend and later my husband, always threatened to sneak over on a Saturday night and peek in.
Submitted by Nancy Hyde Seyfried