Window Pains

[Julie & 6pt Dave]

One of the benefits of joining a forum is the information that is passed from those of us who know to those of us who want to know.   Well in this case I NEED to know.  I've seen these windows enough times to strongly suspect that this is not a mistake.  To my fellow forumites ( yes we can just make up words ) could you please educate me on why windows like this exist?    Thanks to all.

[Henry]

Hi Julie,

Our old house on Fairfield Ridge had a slanted window like the one shown.  It was to give light in a bedroom, I assume with as big a window as possible.  The upstairs in the house had slanted ceilings that started a couple feet from the floor.  In the back of the house they had some little windows at floor level, but they didn't give much light as they were just below the eaves.  In order to look out of them, you had to lay on your stomach.  The slanted window you see is apparently in the main part of the house, while the other window is apparently in what looks like an addition that usually didn't have a cellar and was used as a summer kitchen.  The summer kitchen was just that and usually sported a 3 burner kerosene stove instead of the big old wood cooking stove in the kitchen which was not usually used in the summer.  The little 3-burner kerosene stove also used to have an oven over one of the burners, although I don't remember mother using the oven that much.  If I remember right, it was a removable oven that you could lift off.

Just another tidbit about the upstairs in these old houses - They had no heat except for the stovepipe that usually hooked into the chimneys that started upstairs that gave off what little heat was there.

[melissabeerworth]

FYI....The style of house is called a one and a half story with a knee wall.  I always wondered about the windows myself.  Thanks for the info Henry!

[trussell]

Henry,

I'm currently 31, but it was only about 15 years ago that I realized most homes have heat on the second floor.  I grew up in a 150 yr-old house and it only had heating ducts on the first floor, which I just assumed was a normal thing- the bedrooms were always cold so you just dealt with it!  I was at a friend's house one night and noticed that he had heat ducts not only upstairs, but even in his bedroom!  I thought that was such a cool idea and asked my parents to do the same.  They declined.  Oh well.

-Trevor

[Henry]

Ahhhhhh Yes!!!  We used to sleep with so many quilts, we could hardly wiggle under them.  Our quilts, by the way were made from bleached grain bags with a batting in them.  Mother had a big quilting frame and used to set it up in the kitchen where she would meticulously tie the two sides with the batting inside by putting a long darning needle with string through, then back up and tying a knot and clipping the string about an inch so two pieces of string were at each tied place.  Some of the grain companies kind of realized that farm women were making use of their grain bags by bleaching them and dying them, so they came out with grain bags with patterns on them (some kind of wild) that allowed the farmer's wives to use the bags after they were washed just like cloth bought at a store.  Needless to say, you had no problem telling when a woman was wearing a dress made out of the flashy grain bags.

My wife tells the story of her mother, Kay Hoben, going out to the barn when they delivered the grain and telling the grain man just which bags of grain to leave so she would get the right cloth for whatever she was making.

My wife says she was so happy when she could get a store-bought dress.

I know that all this probably seems kind of silly and some might even feel sorry for those of us brought up under these conditions, but I have to tell you, we had a lot of very happy times, many of which were spent around a table with family and friends enjoying a great meal topped off by cake and some great homemade ice cream.

I could probably ramble on for pages about the old days on Fairfield Ridge, but every once in a while I just have to blurt something out.  I learned from my experiences as a child that I don't have to put on airs and be somebody I am not - I am who I am and actually have had a much better life than many, even without the material things some people think are a requirement to be happy.

Got a note from a Fairfax Resident who sent me a picture of his new house with one of these "cock-eyed windows", as he called it, so I guess it wasn't just the old days that had that type of window.

[Rev. Elizabeth]

Henry, keep telling those stories about back in the day on Fairfield Ridge.  They are wonderful!!! They need to be told; we need to learn them so we have a sense of the life of our community.

[Henry]

Here is a photo of a new house with the slanted window or as the owner calles it, cock-eyed window: