The Hoosegow
By celticeagle
@celticeagle (179168)
Boise, Idaho
August 27, 2025 2:19pm CST
When I was a young child, I lived at my grandparent's house. On the back porch there was a cellar that was just a room built into the earth a few steps down from the porch. My grandmother called it the 'hoosegow' which is actually slang for jail or prison.
It was nice to be sent to the hoosegow in the summer to retrieve something because it was always a few degrees cooler in there than the hot summery day.
I don't know where grandma got that name for it but that was where all the canned food was kept, and vegetables.
5 people like this
5 responses
@LindaOHio (199490)
• United States
28 Aug
Interesting memory. We didn't have a hoosegow. We did have a coal chute though.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (199490)
• United States
29 Aug
@celticeagle My mother used to lift me out of the basement into the yard from the coal chute.
@DaddyEvil (158456)
• United States
28 Aug
We had a cellar in the back yard on the farm. Somebody had dug down into the ground about five feet, set up scaffolding and poured concrete over it and then put the dirt from the hole over the concrete and built a door for it. We kept potatoes, canned good and some other stuff down there. (There were kerosene lanterns stored down there with cans of kerosene and waterproof matches.)
That's where we went when tornados came through our area.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (179168)
• Boise, Idaho
28 Aug
I was just thinking the latter, about the tornadoes as I read this. The hoosegow was definitely cooler. I think it would be nice to have one if I ever have a house.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (158456)
• United States
28 Aug
@celticeagle Mom did a lot of canning when I was growing up. She'd send one of us down into the cellar every few days to bring up canned goods and potatoes.
When tornados went through our area, my youngest brother and I were put into the potato bin at the back of the cellar while everybody else crowded into the walkway from the door to the potato bin.
@wolfgirl569 (121698)
• Marion, Ohio
27 Aug
Maybe she didn't like going down there so called it that
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@celticeagle (179168)
• Boise, Idaho
28 Aug
That could be. Or she heard it somewhere.
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@RasmaSandra (88536)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
27 Aug
Most people in Latvia have cellars that are like that like cold storage because they order things like potatoes for a whole winters worth, Just makes it easier there not to keep heading for the Central Market,
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@celticeagle (179168)
• Boise, Idaho
28 Aug
It would be nice to be able to store some from our garden too. Save a lot that way.
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