Skating in the basement of the McKay Street home was mostly a rainy day or a winter exercise. The furnace was located beside the steps toward the front down there with the steps descending from the center of the house. Skating around the basement took careful counting of left, right, and glide but we managed and enjoyed the process when there was snow outside.
The coal furnace kept us warm on those days and we were very much occupied in the after-school hours circling our concrete playground.
When our order from the Eherle Cool Company arrived, whoever was home at the time gave the truck driver instructions to sprinkle down the coal with the garden hose before shoveling it through the outer coal bin door. That kept a fine coal dust cloud from circulating throughout the home. Coal bins have long since been put to different uses. In its day, a coal furnace was a comforting friend when temperatures turned chilly at the beginning of autumn.
I do not recall the salesman’s name but I do remember the gentleman who called for our order of coal was paralyzed and bedfast. Somewhere in my collection of memorabilia is a lump of coal that my sister Jean retrieved from the Eherle Coal Company property before its Preston Street location was closed. Long before that closing, our Mother had the old coal furnace converted to gas. It is still interesting to drive around town and note the ages of homes just by seeing the coal bin doors of another era.