The Linoleum Floor Test!

In our fourth year of marriage we were able to rent a house outside of the small rural town where I grew up. One might call it a farm house or a country place but living there was quite an experience. We had access to half an acre of soil and we tried our hand at planting a vegetable garden. We did pretty well with the gardening although I had used some really tall bean poles for my running butter bean plants. My granddad warned me that when they were ready to pick I would need a step ladder to reach them.

The house was one of very simple construction. It had a long front porch with a swing and in many ways it was very peaceful and quiet. The most important thing was the fact that it was “home” to our young family. Surrounded by woods we did have to deal with the occasional varmint and I do remember having to do away with a huge water moccasin one day not far from where our two young sons played.
The house most likely had no insulation so it was hot in the summer and could be very cold in the winter. One of the features of the house was the linoleum rugs in each room. We used a box fan in the summer and space heaters in the winter. We didn’t like to leave heaters on at night so typically we would turn them off when we went to bed and I would get up very early and relight them for the coming morning. That’s where the linoleum floors came into play.

A number of things can happen in an icy cold room when you have to walk on linoleum floors and most of them are unpleasant. I remember having the same type of floor in the bedroom of my grandparent’s house where we lived for a while when I was a kid. You actually felt like your feet would stick on a cold morning as your entire body was shocked with a linoleum floor wake up call. However, in the rent house the floors were somewhat uneven and when hurrying to get the heaters lighted so you could then run back to bed, you might just hang a toe in the uneven part of the floor and have the edge of the linoleum rise up out of nowhere and attack you.

Now I know that cursing is wrong. And, I was always taught that thinking it is as bad as saying it. There have been many linoleum flooring moments that have severely tested my threshold for pain as well as the fidelity of my testimony. Talk about hurt! It was like stumping your toe only ten times worse especially on a freezing cold morning. I never have worn slippers but when I think about it now if I had them back then I sure could have saved myself some aggravation and some prayers for forgiveness over those sorry, low down, good for nothing linoleum floors. Thanks. I feel better now. By the way, some of the best times in our young lives were spent in that quaint little rent house, therefore, we thank God for His provisions including the linoleum floor tests. Just wish I had made better grades! …..More later.