Appalachian Word of the Week -- SHAKER

You may call it something else, but in my house we called it the SHAKER.

What's a SHAKER? It's a piece of metal (usually iron) that came with whichever stove your family used to heat your house. We had one that fit the pot-bellied stove when we first moved to Loyall in 1957. In about 1962, Daddy bought a Stokermatic and got rid of the pot-bellied style. The Stoker, as we called it, had it own special SHAKER.

When you build a coal fire in a stove, you naturally have ashes as the coal burns. The ashes don't start out as ashes--they start out as chunks of glowing ash. You have to get rid of the burned up coal, so the fire can continue to burn and keep the area around the stove warm.

Notice I said the area around the stove. We had one stove in our house and believe me, the warmth did not spread out to fill the other rooms. The only fairly toasty spot was the sofa the was placed directly in front of the stove with a pathway of about five feet between them. We huddled on that sofa most of the winter.

Clothesline in the living room for winter

We also had a clothesline hung in that room. That's where we dried the laundry (worsh) in the winter. Or when it rained on washday (worshday) any time of the year.

When the ash gathered in the firebox, Mom got the SHAKER and opened the bottom door to the stove. She'd hook the SHAKER into a special slot and shake that SHAKER back and forth until ash came through the grate and landed in the bottom of the ash box. Her face turned red and she grunted like those wrestlers on the TV. When sparks started dropping, she knew it was time to stop.

I guess that's why they call it a grate. You grate the ash like you would grate cheese or nutmeg.

I think my mom enjoyed using that SHAKER. It was a way to work out all her frustrations. We all have to have some way to de-stress, I guess. Later in life, when she worked in Receiving at Belks, she would take all the burnt-out fluorescent bulbs to the burn box and throw them inside, smashing them to smithereens.

Diamonds in my coal bucket

After she used the SHAKER, she got her little shovel and shoveled the ashes into a coal bucket. I don't have ashes in my coal bucket. I have coal and diamonds in my coal bucket (wink). Then Mom took the bucket of steaming ash outside, down the steps, and into the driveway to dump them. Did I tell you my mom was a mere five-foot tall and petite? She was strong.

Those ashes helped to keep our gravel driveway from developing deep mudholes. It was a lot cheaper than buying gravel.

I loved watching her dump the ash when there was snow on the ground. They mixed with the cold snow and made steam rise up from the driveway.

Did you grow up with a coal stove? Who had to use the SHAKER in your house? Did you call it a SHAKER or something else?

I'd love to hear your stories.