The Pot Belly Stove

We had a pot-belly stove in the middle of the store to keep it warn in the winter. If you have ever been around a coal or wood stove before you already know this, that you are very warm standing in front of it and cooler on the other side.

We burned coal in it mostly, but we would also burn the card board boxes that groceries and other items came in. It would be fired up each morning and kept hot all day and we would let it start to cool off in the evening so we could cool the fire off at night to keep it save inside the store when it was closed.

We kept a small bucket of water beside the coal bucket for just that purpose at night.

One day someone decided that they would play a little harmless prank on whoever was closing and instead of water in the bucket they put kerosene. Everything was going along as usual and then Till poured the water(but it was kerosene) onto the fire and it died down until he shut the door and then came the loud whoosh.....

We thought that the stove was going to melt down it got so hot. First it turned red hot and then it turn between a light gray and white. After it finally cooled down enough my dad went to the restroom and got some water and put it on the fire and got the fire out. He took some more water after a few minutes and cooled off the stove on the outside so we could finally close the store.

By: Palmer Waters