Claire V. Bogdanos

Here I am so full of experiences and stories that I never know where to begin but I think today I will tell you about canaries, the yellow kind!  When I was a girl central heating only existed in the homes of the well- off and then not always!  Fireplaces, pot bellied stoves, Ben Franklin heaters, and black iron stoves were alive and in use!  Windows were large with thick glass and solid wooden frames and in the winter were heavily draped and curtained to keep the cold out and the heat in.  Often however results of this effort were dangerous invisible fumes called carbon monoxide which killed whole families in their sleep throughout the north.  In the early and mid 1900’s people kept birds in cages, canaries always sang, messy as blazes, but always chirping away!  During one of the frequent mini-depressions, my Nana decided to raise birds in the sunroom of her house to supplement their income.   My mother was designated chief bird cage cleaner and birdseed scraper upper, seeds took root quickly in the cracks between the floorboards.  This was her after school job daily!  I wonder if this responsibility had anything to do with her being married at 15?  My grandmother had a burgeoning business due to the cardboard sign displayed in the window, “BIRDS FOR SALE” “25 cents each”.  The point being, if you awakened to no chirping you were in trouble, remember no smoke alerts of any sort existed!  Chances were if your canary died so did you!  And my mom frequently remarked that she was “especially” affected by her schoolgirl chore, her words precisely, “I hate those damned  canaries!”  So we had guppies, dogs, cats, never birds!             Sincerely,                 Claire B.