Hey, did you live with us way back in the hills during the depression? Sounds like it.
And you had to have two irons, one getting warm on the wood stove while you rubbed the hot one on a cloth to see that it wasn't dirty from the wood stove, then ironed like mad till it cooled off. Then on the stove it went and, if you didn't have a solid iron, you took the handle off it and stuck it in the now hot one! No wonder they called them Sad irons!!
I can hardly wait for the next installment. Really does hit my memory button and turn it on.