It was in the 1930s when my parents converted from coal to natural gas, both of which were available in Wyoming.
My father, who was a cook, decided we could can food in the oven of a gas range. A bushel of green beans was secured. My mother, father and grandfather, who lived with us, prepared the green beans, packed them in quart jars, set the jars in the oven and set it at the proper temperature to process.
After that, my parents and my grandfather settled down in the living room to read the Sunday paper. No one was expecting anything like the explosion that occurred in the kitchen when the beans overheated! The oven door came off and beans and broken glass were blown all over the kitchen.
My parents and grandfather weren’t injured because they were two rooms over, in the kitchen. And I was at a friend’s house on that sunny Sunday afternoon, as were my brother and sister. Otherwise, who knows? It was amazing.
