I’ve seen bricks used in a variety of ways in the area of Appalachia I live in. Of course the first thing that comes to mind is brick houses.
One of my oldest friends lived in a brick house when she was growing up. Her parents still live in the house.
Not only is she one of my oldest and dearest friends, she is also the friend who lived closest to me here in Wilson Holler.
These days she lives below that brick house she grew up in—sort of in reverse of my home being above Granny and Pap.
Before her parents built the brick home they lived in another house just down the way from it. I can’t remember it, but I heard lots of stories about it. Like the time Bev thought she’d be like her aunt and smoke cigarettes. All she had was magazine pages to roll and light. When her mother checked on her she was sitting on the bed with flames around her.
Granny Gazzie’s house has a brick patio of sorts in front of the porch area. It’s not very big. I’m guessing one of my uncles laid the brick in the dirt to help keep mud from getting tracked into the house.
At some point Pap did the same in front of his and Granny’s house. I can’t rightly remember what it looked like without the brick, but know well and good it wasn’t there for a long time after we moved in to the house Pap built here in Wilson Holler.
You’ll see brick walls, but I’d say they’re not as common as rock ones in this area.
Granny’s got several flower beds outlined in brick. They make a pretty good border for flower beds.
Perhaps my favorite brick usage I’ve seen is as a doorstop. They’re almost always wrapped in tinfoil. Most of us don’t need doorstops today. We keep our doors pulled to so that our air conditioners don’t have to fight against the incoming heat. But in the old days propping doors open to allow whatever breeze was available a way to come in was common place.
Those foil covered bricks speak to me. They tell me about my Appalachian ancestors who were practical—using something they had handy like a brick to prop the door, but a people who loved beauty. Even if it came in the form of a shinny role they bought in a box at the store.
Last night’s video: Discussing the History of Preserving Food in the Appalachian Mountains.
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I needed one door stopper for an ornery bedroom door and was thrilled to pieces to find a needlepoint-covered one in a little antique store. So much prettier than the plastic door stopper I had.
Hi Tipper, We used to have a linoleum rug like that. We also had a foil covered brick that my Mama covered. This brings back some sweet memories. I also have a brick from the high school where I graduated from in 1966. I won the the brick at our 56th class reunion. It’s rather fancy with an inscription plate that says, “South Habersham Rebels –High School –Cornelia, Ga. It’s been glazed and has red felt on the bottom of it. I used it quite often and it really comes in handy. We moved into our brick home in 1971 and that was a big deal for this Appalachian girl! Bricks have been a good part of my life yet I never thought of them much until I read your post just now. Thanks again for the things you do that make me love Appalachian life more and more. I really do appreciate you!
I hope I have the faith and courage that Granny and Miss Cindy have had during these trying times. Theses fine ladies are the Christian examples we need more of every day. It is true that they lived and are living good and long lives, but that just makes it harder to give them up. Please know that all of you are in my prayers and that the rewards are great and everlasting with our Heavenly Father. ♥️
Your friend Bev, rolling smokes, reminds me of the time a little girlfriend and I harvested some rabbit tobacco. We used a brown paper bag for rolling paper. We hid behind a shed to give it a try. Although we didn’t set any fires, the results were NOT favorable.
Regarding bricks in Appalachia, I have a counted cross stitch plastic canvas brick holder that looks like a cat dangling a mouse by its tail. My sweet Mama made it for me, and although it doesn’t hold any doors open….it holds lots of good memories. I enjoy the way you find things to share about the Appalachian way of life! I can always relate!
One of my older brothers got a degree in ceramic engineering at NC State and went to work for King James Brick Co. in Kingsport, TN. He later was transferred to Chattanooga where he became superintendent of the plant. He managed the production of tens of millions of bricks there and later in Johnson City.
I grew up in East Raleigh in the neighborhood known as Oakwood that lies entirely within the original plat for the city laid out in 1795. The Governor’s Mansion on Blount Street was on my way going downtown. It sits on an entire city block – one of 5 which also holds the old State Capitol Building. The sidewalks on all sides of the Mansion were laid in bricks that were hand made by prisoners at Central Prison out on W. Morgan St. Prisoners were allowed to write their names in the soft clay before the bricks were fired. We used to walk around the block competing with pencil and paper to see who could record the most names. Anyone cheating who couldn’t show the brick with the name on it when challenged had to buy nickel cokes at a nearby soda fountain.
My 95 yr old Mom’s house and my childhood home was recently sold since she is now in Assisted Living. The new owners found a solid pink brick with our name Miller painted in black on it, and it is one of the original bricks from when the house was first built close to 60 hrs ago. The new owner gave the brick to me & it now is proudly displayed on my fireplace hearth. I was thrilled to get the brick, but my sister didn’t see any value in the brick & couldn’t believe I wanted it.
In my town, Columbus, MS, we have Columbus Brick Company which has been in operation for many many years & still is.
It is amazing that something as simple as a brick can give us joy.
My grandmother covered brick door stops with crocheted cats because she loved cats. My other grandmother used the old flat irons for door stops. I remember when My grandfather made my grandmother mad she would say to him, “Don’t make me take a door stop to you.”
I remember my mother-in-law had a few for doorstops and she took heavy cloth and made covers for them. Later on, I remember her taking some cloth, making a pattern and using a brick as the base, she stuffed and stitched them and made duck doorstops. It really looked like a duck! She was so creative. I don’t know what ever happened to them. I also wish I had taken a picture of them because they were so cute, and she got a lot of compliments. I also enjoyed the video last night, Tipper. The way sausage was canned, I thought was very interesting. When we had hog killings at home, daddy made our sausage and froze some in patties and then dried the rest. It was delicious and I miss it so much. Have a great day everyone!
Tipper I live in the house I was raised in an we have a little half door that goes from the kitchen into the laundry room and we’ve always propped it open with a brick but my granny (mom’s mom) crocheted a yellow chicken to cover it, it’s been there long as I can remember. I take it off and wash it every so often and repair it as needed. My husband always says when you gonna give up on that old chicken, I tell him that chicken will be here long as I am. She also made those chickens in different colors and covered plastic eggs and those big eggs pantyhose used to come in. Still have those too.
My husband’s home town in Nebraska, had a brick factory and laid the town square in 1920 with bricks. The bricks are still there and in good shape. I enjoy the sound you hear when driving over them. I have two with the name Humboldt stamped on them. I never thought of using them as a door stop. I’m going to bring them inside and put them to use.
Thanks, you brought back a childhood memory of a tinfoil wrapped brick as a door stop.
Did you ever see a doorstop made from a Sears and Roebuck catalog? You fold each page over from the upper right corner down toward the center as far as it will go. That doubles the thickness of each page and causes the book to spread open eventually bringing the front and back together. It’s sorta like it blooms.
I don’t remember how many pages the Sears catalog had but I would guess more than a thousand. Can you imagine someone folding over all those pages and getting them lined up just right.
It doesn’t have to be a catalog, any book will do. The more pages the better though!
For many decades, Pittsburgh’s policy on tearing down abandoned homes was to cave them into their own basements, and then cover the rubble with soil. As such, most of the empty lots around town have literal tons of old bricks waiting patiently in the earth for rediscovery and re-use.
Often, the bricks are stamped with the names of local (American) brick factories – there are bricks in Pittsburgh from factories all over Appalachia, shipped here by barge from WV, Ohio, Kentucky, or New York state.
A special find in Pittsburgh is bricks stamped KITTANNING, made about 30 miles upriver, especially the occasional screw-ups where it is spelled KITTAИИING – someone got their mold stamp backwards!
My favorite old clay company is a place called the Union Pipe & Sewer Co. The factory they operated is now a public park, in a valley of broken pottery sherds (the cast-offs from 50 years of manufacture) called Dead Mans Hollow.
I use bricks to line our garden beds, some are solid, some have 3 holes and some have 6 holes. I remember reading that people would put a brick on top of the wood stove to warm up then wrap in a towel and put it in the bed to keep them warm during cold weather. If I remember correctly, there was a gentleman long time ago in Winston-Salem who made handmade bricks that were used to make the building(s) for Reynolds Tobacco.
I remember seeing bricks to keep doors opened. I’m sure my mom used them when I was a baby, but when I was old enough to remember we had fans in our windows, so I don’t recall bricks holding open doors in our house. Probably so none of us kids would craw out of them. I do remember seeing bricks holding doors, but they were covered in a beautifully embroidered cloth. I don’t remember which relatives or neighbors house they were in, but I remember how beautiful they looked. I thought they were way to pretty to be sitting on the floor, but I understand it’s purpose to keep the door open. Thank you, Tipper for sharing about the bricks. I don’t think I would have remembered the bricks if you hadn’t wrote about them.
I like the expression, “keeping the doors pulled to…” Our grandparents always said that, usually as a command to us so the flies couldn’t come in.
It’s such a thrill to find the old solid deep red bricks that keep resurfacing along my lane. The orphanage/college that once stood there was not a brick structure. It would be interesting to know how the bricks were used and why so many can still be found scattered over several acres.
Growing up in coal mining country in southwest Pennsylvania, we saw a lot of brick homes and businesses. (In fact, one of the first jobs my grandfather (Pap) had as a boy working in the mines, was making and laying bricks.) But what I remember most was Nemacolin Elementary School where I spent six wonderful years as a student. Back then, that huge brick building looked more like a mansion than a school, to me anyway – I’m sure others thought it looked more like a prison – LOL!!. The brick building loomed three stories tall with big windows, beautiful wood flooring that echoed the clicking of our shoes with every step, and a huge basement where the cafeteria and multi-purpose room were – that’s where I learned to play the clarinet and “starred” in several plays – LOL! It was one of the nicest schools in the area back in the mid 60’s. Sadly, in 1992 we learned that beautiful building burned to the ground. Several years later, while visiting family in PA, we took a drive to Nemacolin. I wanted to see where the school had been. The foundation and some of the brick walls were still standing. It looks strange and felt eery in a way. Walking around the debris, I found one of the beautiful old bricks laying in the dirt. I brought it home with me – just as a reminder of where I came from and where those bricks had taken me over the years. Looking back, I really wish I had one of Pap’s handmade bricks!
Ann, I have a brick from my grammar /elementary school and a brick from my high school. Both of them have been torn down. I could hardly wait to finish school and this year makes 50 years since I graduated high school. Now I look back and sometimes wish I could somehow go back and relive that time. A lot of good memories.
I remember seeing bricks wrapped in tinfoil and used for doorstops. My grandparents used a large almost clear rock that looked like a huge crystal for a door stop. Now I have the rock and I also have some of the old time hand made brick that were used in the chimneys of their home.
There were no locally-produced brick where I grew up on the sandstone and shale Cumberland Plateau. Bricks came in sometime after the railroad. The high school I attended, built in 1911, was red brick. The county jail was also red brick and of a similar age. Bricks weren’t common until the FHA started leaning for the construction of the brick ranches in the1960’s.
Door stops were common, just not brick ones. My Grandma had one that was a cobbler’s last that I remember very well. I do not know what went with it. We used to have a brick one my mother-in-law had made a cover for using plastic canvas. May still be here somewhere.
Door stops really came in handy when there weren’t enough hands. Just prop the door open while you carried things in or out. With homemade doors and/or un-plumb walls or door frames doors tended to.want to close themselves. And then there was the spring-loaded screen door hinges or spring closers, had to prop them open. Many of us, I expect, remember Moms and Dads telling us, “Don’t slam the door!” Then “Bam!” OOPS.
Daddy used a brick to rub salt on a deer hide to preserve it. Who hasn’t used a brick to weigh down the end of a vine like wisteria so it would “take?” I remember Granny talking about heating a brick to warm up the bed for her feet. In elementary school I stood next to a sun-warmed brick wall to warm myself on a cold day. My favorite thing about bricks is finding the old unique, hand-made building blocks, each with its own mark of history and personality. Color and sizes vary. I love to find one with a thumb print imbedded in the face. Dates and initials may be inscribed. Some are numbered. With what tool did the maker create such flourishes on a brick canvas? A piece of white limestone crystal may adorn a brick. My ten-year-old self gets a thrill out of poking my finger in a hole or void left in a brick. Newer bricks may be stamped with company or place names. Most often, old bricks are special, not for any physical uniqueness, but rather their location or inclusion in a special structure. After our 1850s farmhouse burned to the ground, I removed heaps and piles of bricks from the angular mountains they created and picked and tossed more than 4000 of them. In examining each brick, I discovered that every hundredth brick was numbered. What a workout! Made the overwhelming task interesting to find the special ones. Of course I have a collection of the treasured bricks I found.
Many, many years ago I came across an old brick on the beach while visiting in Virginia. I too use it as a doorstop, but it is so worn and weathered that I kept it in its natural state… though I did attach felt to the bottom and back so as not to mar my floor and door.
When I was a little girl, and many years before, my Pawpaw worked at a small coal mine where they also made brick. It was his job to fire the kiln. I still have many of the bricks . The ones I have are not red though, they are pale yellow and they were glazed , very shiny. .I use them in my flowerbeds and also to weigh down the steps in our swimming pool. I love my bricks !❤
I remember brick door stops, but my mother had them covrred in cloth or even old towels.
My great grandfather got the brilliant idea of getting a load of bricks from a factory that was being torn down in the nearest town. He used them to ‘fill’ the cow lane that went from the barn yard to the woods. See, we had several pieces of land that were bisected by roads. The cows had to be driven through the woods & across a neighbor’s piece to get to the other pasture. My father had a mentally retarded aunt and that was her only real job – to get the cows from the barn over to the other property. The barnyard & lane were always a churned up mess, so my great grandfather decided to fill them in. What he didn’t figure is that in NY, when it freezes/thaws the bricks turn into little shards. The shards got up in all the cows feet from walking over them repeatedly and it made them lame. They then had to go in and remove all of the bricks. “They”, being probably, my grandad & great uncles, because my great grandfather was quite a vicious man & also worked on the Barge Canal all week & left the farm to my grandad @ 9yrs old to run). When I dig in my garden, I still find bits of brick & it makes me sad to think of the cows hobbling around & my poor grandad having to go back to take out work that he already did. A small city near me keeps trying to “beautify” things (you know- spend gads of money) like walkways/crosswalks using bricks. It is such a waste in NY, because the weather just tears the brick up & they keep going back & redoing it. Bricks aren’t meant for the north. You know the definition of insanity right?
Patty, enjoyed your story about the bricks and didn’t have any idea how bricks fall apart in NY. To show the difference, I live in NE.KY. and my papaw Griffith rode his horse about 50 miles to make brick streets in Ashland KY. That was over 100 years ago and some of the brick streets are still in use and others have only been blacktopped in the last few years.
Our roads have the same trouble, awgriff. Its the frost cycle. Water gets in the minute cracks, freezes, expanding while doing so. Then when the ice thaws it leaves a bigger crack. Over and over all winter. So, bricks are not well suited to the conditions. Our roads ‘heave’ too. When the frost is ‘working out of them’ in the spring, the road will develop a huge hump. As kids we like to sit in the back of the school bus, when going over these humps. Away you’d go!!!! Our roads are a mess these days – many need major repairs!
I have a brick I found that’s decorated in Merry Christmas and it was a neat treasure to find in my view. My mommy had several brick outlined flower beds sort of laid at an angle creating artistic interest. The only thing I don’t have in a house I’d like to have is brick on the outer walls, but I know I can’t have everything. But I am (as the Commodores sang about) my own Brick House WHOS mighty mighty just letting all hang out! Lol I think all is fine ladies here are brick houses in our souls!!! Lol
I can remember when a brick house was really a big deal! Most houses were wood or some other siding but not brick!
I can also remember when foil was called tinfoil and it was used sparingly because it was expensive and rare.
Times sure do change.
I love reading your post miss Cindy because I have seen you in videos and can actually relate to a face rather than an unknown name.
We were pretty poor, growing up, & my mother would wash tinfoil like dishes. She would flatten it out and reuse it. My paternal grandmother thought that was just pitiful, but then, she did not grow up poor. Even through the depression her father had a job; an accountant with the O&W railroad & her mother was a home nurse. And her married life was comfortable, as my grandad worked for the power co. My mother on the other hand was one of 10 and her father just worked at a wire mill. Even something like tinfoil was a big deal to my mom (& I’m only 41)
I was quite interested in your canning process and reasoning for some of the steps you use. I guess the one that most interested me was your reason for rings staying on the jars. I did for a long time keep the rings on til one day I discovered a jar of soup was spoiled and the only thing keeping the seal on was the ring. Not knowing it had spoiled, when removing the ring it almost exploded with the contents running everywhere on the counter top. The other tips or points you had, about how things were done in the past, made me wonder if perhaps the ingredients had different ways of being produced and different chemicals being used to produce those ingredients. It is a never ending conversation and debate and lots of theories about then and now…and that in itself is reason for learning how things are done. I, myself, would say keep doing what you do and keep the baby, don’t toss with the bath water…Have a Blessed day.
Tipper,
The tinfoil wrapped brick is new to me. I remember some painting a nice rock to use as a doorstop and also remember seeing the old irons used as a doorstop. It seems that the irons were used as doorstops after most people had gotten electric irons for clothes ironing.
My Mother used to make weighted hens from cloth to use for doorstops. Wish I had taken a picture of one of those as they were quite attractive.
Yrs, in this area it was very common to see old flat irons used as door stops. I’ve seen lots of the tin foil covered bricks used too. Air conditioning pretty much did away with the use of door stops.
Sanford, that’s what I remember too. Painted rocks and the old irons that had to be heated up.
I’d forgotten about the weighted hens.
Wonderful memories. We would use a foil wrapped brick to press down bacon or burgers frying on a griddle. A stack of bricks propped one corner of an old washing machine that had a broken leg. Broken bricks lined the flower beds. All of these bricks were leftovers from when our brick house was built on Edinboro Ave. in Lynchburg, VA.