IT'S ALL TREW

How many of you carried teakettles of warm water outside to pour on your car windshield to melt the frost away? This was before plastic ice scrapers and credit cards, so we used metal putty knives and kitchen spatulas. You had to be careful though, or you would scratch the glass.

Us farm kids knew better than to stick our tongues to cold metal where it would freeze. However, we did try to sit by a window on the school bus. Seated there, you could blow your breath onto the glass to make a peephole from which you could watch the winter landscape going by.

I missed the time when travelers heated bricks or soapstone to carry along under heavy blankets in order to travel in cold weather. I think I remember when our car had a gasoline heater underneath the dashboard. If you remember such a device, let me know how it worked.

Well, guess I'll close this article and go turn up the thermostat. I'm also glad all my vehicle's antifreeze tested okay as now I'm ready for winter.

- Delbert Trew is a freelance writer, retired rancher and supervisor of the Devil's Rope Museum in McLean, Texas. Contact him at Trew Ranch, Box A, Alanreed, TX 79002; (806) 779-3164; e-mail: trewblue@centramedia.net