I used to visit some of our cousins in the Shenandoah Valley in the early 60s. They lived in tenant farmhouses, very old fashioned, and they had coal-fired water heaters.

I can remember to this day the sound of their father stoking the coal fire at oh-dark-thirty in the morning, and the smell of the coal burning when the air was still and the smoke didn't go very far ....

Hurrah for the Rural Electrification Agency!

Lannis