When I was a kid, and our family lived with my grandparents, one of my favorite places was “the cold room”.

It was at the far end of the 2 room basement, on the back wall of my grandfather’s workshop.  To a little girl, the basement was a scary place -dark, and dreary, only partly finished, with some creaky linoleum in one room,  a b & w tv,  a chair, and a freezer chest ( I remember the cover of that freezer chest coming down one time and hitting my grandmother in the head- she may have had to get stitches!).

The basement had 5 windows, as I recall, 2 in the partly finished room, and 3 in Poppy’s workshop. The windows were small, rectangular casement windows that were above the outside window wells- their height even with the grass. There was not alot of light coming thru those windows, even on the brightest of days.

The best time for me to be in the basement was when my grandfather was at his woodworking bench.  Poppy always had time for me and my probably endless questions, and then, after bothering him a bit, I would wander over to the cold room.

The cold room was exactly that – COLD!!! I later came to learn, it’s real name was the COAL room! The house was built in the early 1900’s, so that little room was where the coal was stored- or so the story goes………

Even as a child, I had to duck my head to go into this little cubby.  Up a couple of wooden stepladder type steps, and down  2 or 3 stone steps.  Thinking back- I now think this space may have also stored all the canning jars of food put up way back then. There were narrow wooden shelves along the walls..they were perfect for stacking canning jars.

During the time my grandparents lived there,  those shelves held what to me seemed an endless supply of BOOKS!!

Worlds to travel to, stories to ignite one’s imagination- I was in cold heaven!!!

This was in the 1950’s -very early 60’s – but the books were from the 30’s, 40’s and maybe some 50’s.

It was here I first encountered Tarzan thru’ the words and imagination of Edgar Rice Burroughs ( and later the tv version with Johnny Weismuller!), the books of Albert Payson Terhune (I think I have read them all), Black Beauty, Bobbsey Twins, Judy Bolton, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and who can forget Maida and her journeys all over the world.

There was also The Wonderland of Knowledge- an ancient encyclopedia set that I used for research, outdated as it was, for reports in elementary school. The encyclopedias were later moved upstairs to a bookshelf in the front foyer for easy access. That’s how I did my “googling”, without a nearby library, and in a  pre -computer world!

That little cold room was my own personal vintage library….

I think Grandma’s book collection set me on a lifetime path of reading – I was an amateur bibliophile in the works- and now, I can’t seem to pass up a vintage book that needs a home!!!

Whenever I open an old book, and the scent of timeworn pages surrounds me- I am taken back to that “cold room”,  good memories of  time spent with  Grandma and Poppy, and the happy memories of escaping to  exciting new worlds with the characters within those  hardback covers……..

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PS- pictures just supplied by my brother, who recently drove by the old homestead- it may spoil your mind’s eye image of the house- it has been changed over the years, altho’ lovingly kept up and updated.If I can find my old pic of the original house, I will add it to this post….

Bottom right of the house, in the foundation is a tiny window- that one was over Poppy’s workbench- the cold room would have been under the front of the house, far left of the foundation in this pic

Front of the house VERY updated- lots of trees and shrubbery are no longer there- all windows have been replaced, bay window added to the front parlor (there were tall individual windows all around that room, replaced by one bay)