Fire!

When I was growing up in Clanton, Alabama in the 1970s and early 1980s, a fireplace was a necessity in our house. We had baseboard heaters in the bedrooms, but if you really wanted the house to be warm you had to build a fire.

Every day in the winter time after coming home from school my chores were to feed the goats, feed the chickens, feed the cats and dogs, then when I was a little older my dad added making a fire in the living room to my chores.

It was a lot to do before dark and before my parents got home from work. But making that fire meant my day was done and I could chill, do some homework and wait on mom and dad to come home.

Ever since then, I’ve never owned a home with a working wood-burning fireplace. Always wanted one. When Carl Mattison and I bought this little lake cabin around this time last year, one of the coolest things was this 1966 floating fireplace.

We didn’t think we’d keep it, yet we came out one weekend to check on the renovations and the workers had painted it black, so we looked at it and thought hmmm that’s not so bad, let’s hang on to it for a bit.

So today before making our weekend trek to the lake, I went to Lowes and bought firewood, a fireplace set, an ash bucket, the works. And now tonight, on a foggy and cozy Friday night at the end of a busy year, we got here after dark and off I went. Muscle memory from nearly 40 years ago kicked in and voila, we now have the first fire I’ve ever built in a house I’ve owned.

And it’s kinda cool.

I think we’ll keep this little fireplace after all.