More rooms in the house that Grandpa Ottley grew up in.

Just inside the south door to the left was Fred and Abbie's room.  It too had rag carpeting over straw on the floor, a south-facing window, and white lace curtains.  A large wardrobe served as a closet, and there was a chiffonier and a bureau.  A treadle sewing machine must have also been in this room.  On the wall from an oval frame Aunt Matilda looked down, holding a child, Freddie who was Abbie and Matilda's younger brother - drowned in childhood.  Pressed flowers from his grave were mounted under the glass in a corner of the frame.

Kitchen and Summer Porch

Going from the front room to the kitchen through a door just past the stairway wall, one met a hubbub of activity at all times.  This was where the family truly lived from sunup to sundown, winter and summer.  Here, it seemed, Grandma (Abbie) was always present, the center of magical aromas from roasts or chickens cooking, bread baking (everyday) and often fruit pies underway.  The wood-burning, ornately patterned, silver and black cast-iron cook stove was a functional marvel.  It held warming ovens above the huge cooking surface which heated irons as well as food, a reservoir kept water hot for dish washing, laundry, and baths, and the cook stove had an enormous, yawning mouth of an oven for baking.  There was a firebox on one side and an end grate for removing ashes or warming cold feet.  The burning coals were soothing to watch from the nearby rocking chair while being rocked on a mother's aproned, lap.  Simmering in a kettle on the back of the stove some days were be Grandpa's (Fred H.) grain mash for the pigs.

A large table, besides being used to serve meals, was used to mix bread, can, preserve, prepare fruits and vegetables, stack ironing on and wash and rinse dishes in two metal dishpans.  During school time it was used for homework and family prayers were said around it.  The kitchen also held a tall dish cupboard with drawers for "silverware."  A wash bench and table held a bucket of water, dipper, and wash basin.  All water was carried from a pump installed near the well. Above the bench hung an ornate tin comb and bush holder, a shaving mirror, roller towel bar, and Grandpa's razor strap.  In summer the wash-up corner was moved to the summer kitchen and at times the cooking range was there also.

A large open walk-in pantry ran along the west kitchen wall.  It had a tall window and storage cupboards.  Dishpans hung on the wall, the flour bin had a hinged, slant top, and an indoor dirt potato pit was dug under the floor, opened by double hinged doors.  A pie tin safe was used to keep butter, eggs, milk, and cheese fresh.  Floors were covered with linoleum and were always scrubbed each Saturday.  The walls were originally papered with newspapers and the children would play guessing games about a word, subject, or drawing from the newsprint.  A lean-to porch was enclosed to make what was called the summer kitchen.  It held milking buckets, separator, outdoor clothing on  nails, a table for meat-cutting and food preparation, the wooden washing machine, washboard, copper boiler, and galvanized tubs.  In summer washing was done out on the small open porch adjacent, where lye soap was also cooked in tubs.  Often the family sat here to snap beans, pod peas, and scrape new potatoes.

Upstairs

Above the closed-in, short and steep staircase was a tiny landing papered in a red/maroon color.  A turn to the left entered the girls' bedroom and to the right the boys' quarters.  Also to the right of the stairs was a curtained storage area where rags and rug materials and old clothes were kept.  Earlier, nails had sufficed for hanging clothes and a box was used for a lamp table in the girls' room.  Then a dressing table-shelf with a chintz skirt was added and a curtained closet.  Boxes were used to store treasures and keepsakes under beds.  Etta and Alice shared one bed.  Teggie and Celecta shared the other.  Thirza took turns sleeping in both beds, having no assigned spot.  A window faced West here.  In the boys' room in wintertime sometimes the stove pipe would get red hot, but this was backed by a wall made of brick.  Fred and Henry's bed was in one corner and Lewis an Ewart shared the other bed.  The window in this room faced East.  In both bedrooms beds held straw mattresses, feather pillows, and bedding entirely homemade.  Again, newspapers covered some of the rough limber walls, later replaced by wallpaper and floors were bare wood.

Hardships were not remembered when the "children" in their seventies and eighties were interviewed about their home.  They recall the good times, the love, and the closeness of a life whose style is gone forever.  As Ewart said with tears in his eyes, "Our real heritage is the memory of those dedicated parents who made it a home to us all."