I'm older than a lot of you and your dirt. I remember listening to the Lone Ranger in front of the RCA console radio with a small lighted tuner. Once, my brother (2.5 yrs older) had me crawling under the radio which was on legs, to try to see the Lone Ranger and Tonto in the back of the radio. HONESTLY! We heated with coal which generated steam. The coal was handy for marking hop scotch sqaures on the side walk. The copper hotwater eater was connected to a little stove of its own that was fired by coal. On cold winter mornings we gathered in front of the natural gas oven and warmed out underwear (union suits) in the oven. It took a while for Pop to build the fire up to generate enough steam to reach the radiators up stairs. When I was in high school I ironed with the sprinkler bottle and an electric iron with two settings, on and off. If you ironed something delicate you had to unplug the iron and let it cool. I'm 74 with an elephantine memory about the good old days but can't remember my closest friends' phone numbers nowadays. Thank goodness for speed dial.
My grandmother in Brooklyn had a coal stove which is the same as a wood stove. There was a bucket for the coal alongside. Those Thanksgiving dinners were glorious and the pullman apartment was toasty warm. The toilet was out in the hallway in a space the size of a modest closet.
The water for flushing was in a tank up by the ceiling and had a long chain and handle to pull to release the water. Good old gravity did the rest. In the summer they managed to have cold meals most of the time. Pop remenisced about turning over out houses as a kid in that same neighborhood.
Jane