Mamie's Soapstone

Today bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs in our houses are heated the same as all the other rooms in the house. If we want heat in a bedroom, we turn a knob on the wall and — heat; or we turn on our electric blankets.

Great Grandma was not as fortunate. The upstairs rooms in Great Grandma's house were not heated. Great Grandma had on her kitchen stove what were called soapstones (pictured here). They were real stones that would be heated by a wood fire in the stove. Before going to bed these stones would be placed in the bed and the heat from the stones would make the bed nice and cozy when you jumped in.

These stones were also used in the sleighs when going out in me cold of winter. They were put in a cloth bag and placed on the footboards, where they would keep your feet warm.