How Jean managed to escape being hit by the oven door I just don't know
This story concerns my sister Jean, who at the time of this event was twelve years old.
She was, as usual, helping Mother prepare for a mid-day, meal. Everything was going well the joint of meat was in the gas oven and slow cooking on a low to medium heat. Vegetables were now being prepared in the large kitchen sink by the window in the corner, by my Mother. Everything was going well. There was now time to set the table and arrange the chairs in the dining room.
The table set, it was time to revisit the kitchen and see how things were going. Automatically, Jean’s thoughts were to check on the oven, and this she did, but something was wrong! Jean peered into the opening at the bottom of the oven to see if the flame was alright. As she did, she realized something was wrong. To her amazement, the flame had gone out.
Jean immediately called out to Mother and said the flame had gone out. In normal circumstances, we would have thought that the gas had expired and gone out because another penny was needed in the meter, which was located under the stairs.
To Jean’s exclamation. “The gas has gone out.”
My Mothers reply was simply, “Well light it up again.”
It was common knowledge that when someone opened the front door and the back door of the kitchen was open, the draught created could easily put out the flame of the oven. That’s what had happened. So when Jean struck the match, consequently, an almighty “BANG” blew off the door of the oven.
The mini explosion threw out the contents all over the floor “what a mess!” As you can imagine, how Jean managed to escape being hit by the oven door I just don’t know. Thankfully no one was hurt and Jean learned an important lesson, that day, never relight the oven straight away.