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| Camping with power and water. |
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| living without power water and little else |
My grand mother was born in1910 and she told me many times if i heard someone wish for the "good old days" they had never lived them!!!She did, her dad was a coal miner and had a small company house and 2 acres for a garden.There was 8 of them and she told me the girls gatherd eggs and milked the cow before school the boys had to hoe and pick squash to feed the animals.She told me they raise about 3 pigs and had a calf for a family of 8 it didnt go far.What she said was the worst was the out house on winter mornings and a coal oven to cook on{the mine gave every worker a ton of coal every fall}and for heat.She was 12 before her first car ride and their house didnt get electricity till she was 19 and her brothers had to pay the bill. Grandpaw said his dad threatend to have the power shut off when the first bill was 1.85 but great granny asked him how he liked his own cooking if he did.
Now my grand parents did Not have a modern house by anyones standards. My grand father was born and died in the same house. The place was a 4 room with a dogtrot hall down the middle it had 12 ft ceilings a kitchen was cut out of one room and a closet between the bed rooms became the bathroom.The house only had one space heater in the living room and quilts piled 4 thick was a winter normal. As bare bones as it was to me it was a modern home to them. To me looking back i dont know how they lived in it but my grand parents said it beat the "good old days".They had no washer dryer no running hot water and only a 30 amp fuse box for power.
This was life as they knew it.To them it was a blessing what they had when i was a child.If TEOTWAWKI happened it could look like "the good old days" again for those that survive.Every time i see the phase "THE GOOD OLD DAYS" or TEOTWAWKI i think of my grand parents.They survived it but would not want to relive it!!!!!!!
I spent the summer of 1958 with my Grandparents in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Pretty hardy folks. The house did not have running water, electricity, and of course no indoor plumbing. Grandmother did all her cooking on a wood burning stove. I learned to use the outhouse, split and haul fire wood and haul water into the house every day. We all went to bed early and rose early.
ReplyDeleteThe summer of 1959 I spent with my Grandmother in Louisiana. Real upgrade in lifestyle. She had a fairly modern kitchen with running water and electricity. But, no bathroom - I become very familiar with the outhouse and a Sears & Roebuck catalog!!!
My oldest daughter here told me once that if she had to live without air-conditioning she'd rather be dead - yes, the girl is something of a drama queen.
The "Good Ole Days" would be pretty challenging to many of today's young people.
Moe it would be challenging to folk of all ages.They say people adapt and i agree "over time"its the sudden changes that some go nuts some never recover. We have lead a spoiled life most have been born into it older people had it slip in over time.
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