The cold season is upon us. What type of heat do you prefer?
As long as I can remember, my parents heated their home with gas. 
A propane tank as big as an atomic bomb sat beneath the hickories outside my late parents’ home. It sits there still. 
After Dad died, Mom took on paying the bills. Come winter she complained about propane’s high cost. She’d fret over the thermostat and keep an eye on the weather.
“Why don’t you get a heat pump?” I’d ask. “It’s economical and heats and cools.”
“No, I’m never going to be cold again,” she’d say, and she was adamant. 
Mom had heard that heat pumps weren’t so hot, literally, though they’re passable down South. She wanted no part of one, being used to “real” heat, and you know what I mean. 
Firewood and gas had seen her through many a Georgia winter. A heat pump? No way. 
We tried electric heat for a while. It worked so-so. Though we had a fireplace with a wood stove Dad had built himself, gas space heaters ruled our home for a long time. 
I remember huddling close to one, soaking up its warmth as I watched its ceramic radiants glow red. During the rare snows we had in childhood, I’d come in frozen blue and get as close to a space heater as I could. 
Years later a day of sleet here in South Carolina made me long for a space heater, one I could back up against for winter warmth. 
With a heat pump, there is no instant heat, and instant heat is what you need at times. As a boy I’d stand next to Granddad’s wood stove until my jeans were smoking. The flue glowed cherry red, and that black iron stove was as hot as the sun. Instant heat.
A roaring fireplace warms the spirit and body. Ever see Christmas cards where Santa stands by an electric heater? Didn’t think so. 
No sir, he stands in front of a roaring fire with logs Paul Bunyan would appreciate. There’s something genuine and timeless about burning wood. 
In my comings and goings, I visit country stores and still see an occasional woodstove at work. That seems right. Outdoors, I have seen many a man warming himself by an oil drum burning old tires. That seems not so right.
I have tried electric, oil-filled heaters, but my favorite source of winter warmth remains a fireplace. It adds cheer to a wintry day, and food tastes better in front of a crackling fire. 
Thank you, Cracker Barrel. A fireplace does your restaurant right, just as it does log cabins right. Someone has to cut the firewood, but wood warms you twice: when you cut it and when you burn it. 
When I make winter visits to my sisters back home in Georgia, I enjoy my brother-in-law’s big fireplace. He has a Buck Stove in it. The fan kicks on, and hot air banishes the cold. 
He lives among hardwoods so firewood is no problem. Out back long stacks of cured split wood wait their turn to ignite, glow, and spread comfort throughout the house. 
I was there one cold Sunday recently. I got up early to photograph fall color. The cold soon turned me back toward that stove. A welcome plume of smoke rose from the chimney, and I caught the fragrance of wood smoke. 
At that very moment, a feeling of peace and comfort overtook me. “Ah,” I thought, “that’s what a home should smell like on a cold winter morning.” 
When it comes to winter warmth, nothing beats a fireplace or wood stove filled with blazing logs. It’s primitive, it’s reassuring, and best of all it looks warm. You can’t say that about a heat pump. Combustion has its advantages.
Tom Poland’s work appears in magazines and newspapers throughout the South. He is the editor of Shrimp, Collards & Grits, a Lowcountry lifestyle magazine.
Tom grew up in Lincoln County, Georgia, and graduated from the University of Georgia. He lives in Columbia, South Carolina where he writes about “Georgialina”—his name for eastern Georgia and South Carolina.