Fire

                                               Week 15: Fire

                                          April Smith Hajjafar

This is in response to the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks from the Generations Cafe group.

I will mention a few instances where fire or the hint of fire in a name played  specific roles in my family’s history. My mother was born in a little house on Furnace Branch, or as they said it; Furnish Branch. It was located in Clay County Kentucky where there used to be many salt furnaces. Furnaces, of course, require fire.

We take salt for granted today as something that we can pick up at the grocery. Most of our food has so much added salt/sodium that we have to be concerned about getting too much salt in our diets. Back in the days of our ancestors, folks grew their own foods and raised their own animals for food. They didn’t come loaded with sodium as flavor enhancers and preservatives. Our ancestors also worked hard and lost much salt in their sweat so the salt that had been produced by those furnaces was important for their very lives.

Fire touched my father in a way that nearly took his life. When he was just a toddler and learning to walk, he fell against the hot coal grate. That fire burnt the side of his face, around his left eye. For several months, his parents were faced with the uncertainty that he would even survive, but survive he did and his eyesight was unaffected. When he was eight, he went to stay with his sister’s family in Dayton, Ohio briefly so he could have a skin graft around his eye. He bears the sign of his injury to this day

Another specific example of fire touching the lives of my family involved my aunt. I learned of this story when I was writing a little biography about my great-grandmother who everyone called Granny. No one said anything even remotely “bad” about Granny except for my aunt. She told me that Granny had been mean to her when she was young. I asked her what Granny had done that was mean and my aunt told me that Granny had knocked her down onto the floor. This did not sound like the granny that I had known and the Granny that other folks had known.

Later, I told my mother what her sister had said and asked her how she could say that Granny had knocked her down. Then Mom told me that Granny had “knocked” her down onto the floor. My aunt had been standing close to the fire in the fireplace and her gown tail had caught on fire. Granny pushed her onto the floor and rolled out the fire before it could harm my aunt. It seems that the fire department may have learned “stop, drop, and roll” from Granny!

So, this is two ways that fire touched my family in a bad way. One caused a permanent physical scar and nearly took my father’s life. It seems that in the other case, it may have caused a lasting mental scar, because in the mind of a young girl being pushed onto the floor could not be a good thing even when it may have been life-saving.

I can’t help but imagine how fire has played such a huge role in the lives of my ancestors. Fire provided a means for them to cook their food. Glass jars filled with the harvest from the garden could be placed in a laundry tub filled with water. After letting that tub simmer over a fire for a few hours, the bounty of summer could be preserved for the lean times of winter and spring. Fire under large tubs of sorghum cane juice or sugar maple sap could provide sweet treats in the form of sorghum and maple syrup. Fire could be used to burn off beds for tobacco crops and garden spots. Fire could be used when camping out in the woods to provide some welcome light in the dark of night and to provide warmth against the chill of a cold breeze. It could also fend off wild animals.

Of course, fire has provided warmth, light and comfort for my family ever since fire became a tool for man. It has done the same for all mankind. We must remember to respect it because even though it has become a useful tool for us, fire can never be completely tamed by man. It can help, but it can also harm.