The 'frustration' part comes from having my Internet going away for a few days. There is such a thing as YouTube Withdrawl. :)
I have had the same Internet provider for years, through my phone company. All I wanted was to send back my modem and have them send me a replacement. We have done this before. Have you tried to reach a real person at the telephone company lately? Not likely to happen. Several phone calls and a rising blood pressure later, the best I could do was schedule repair work for tomorrow.
And after all of that, my modem decided it had been asleep long enough and it is now working. Go figure!
We talked some time back about how so many now get all upset if Starbucks closes. So many haven't a clue how to fix most anything. I wonder how they would survive today under the same conditions as my Grandparents.
The 'thoughts' part comes from a conversation I had with one of my kids. He was asking about my memories of my Grandparents. My paternal Grandparents lived in northern Minnesota. When I was a kid, they had electricity in the house, and they had one of those old wooden telephones on the wall. And that was about all there was for amenities.
Cooking and baking and canning was done on a wood burning, cast iron stove. Heat in the winter came from a wood burning furnace in the basement. Wood to burn in both was cut, split and dried by the family. Nobody called anyone to have wood delivered.
Food was kept cool in a wooden ice box. The cool part happened because the men in the family cut blocks of ice from a local frozen lake, hauled it home on a horse drawn wagon and stacked it, packing it in straw for insulation, in their underground root cellar that they had dug out themselves. The blocks were brought inside one at a time and set in the ice box. No electricity plugs there.
Water came from a hand pump located a few feet from the back door of the house. Drinking water was in a bucket with a dipper in it for drinking. The bucket was on a stool next to the back door.
Water for cooking and cleaning was hauled in from the pump in buckets. Water to take a bath came into the house the same way. Needed hot water? Pour it into a large kettle and set the kettle on top of the wood stove.
Need to use a bathroom? Go find the outhouse out back.
Need milk? Go out to the barn and milk a cow. Want a pork chop? Kill a pig. Same with chickens. Want vegetables? Grow a garden. Need butter? Separate the milk from the cow to get the cream and churn the butter.
Got the idea? I'm guessing that those of us who are frightenly close to our expiration date are probably familiar with most of these things. The kids? Not so much.
Perhaps learning the old ways might serve us well. Just sayin'.
You've just largely described my maternal grandparents' farm, except they had no electricity. Light came from kerosene lamps. Freshly-drawn milk was kept cold in the creek (called a "crick") at the bottom of the hill on which the farmhouse sat. They had no ice, but then there weren't any frozen ponds in southwestern Missouri.
ReplyDeleteRev. Paul...The electricity in my Grandma's house hadn't been there for very long when I was a kid. Adding electricity to the barn would have been considered extravagant, so the kerosene lamps were used to light the path between house and barn and inside the barn as well. What impresses me is, looking back, how self-sufficient they were. Their son - my Dad - had many of those same qualities. He never would take any 'government help,' but always figured out how to do what needed to be done on his own.
DeleteAh, yes, Vicki, the days when "ships were of wood and PEOPLE were of steel..." I surmise that the average WOMAN of the time you're describing was stronger than the average MAN is now!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, all of the "modern conveniences" we enjoy are "hooks" that make us reliant on "the supply chain" to survive, and thus easier to steer and control... Methinks that may have been the plan all along...
Pete...You are spot on about the strong women. My Grandma was small in stature and had a loving nature. She raised 9 children in the house I described, including two sets of twins. And she carried on for nearly 20 years after my Grandfather died. I don't know if I would have been able to do as she did.
DeleteI think you are right about relying on the 'supply chain.' We remember how to do stuff. The kids - not so much. There are actually those who don't understand that the beef roast in the grocery store actually originated within a cow. Sad, really. And in my opinion, a bit dangerous!
Hi Vicki.
ReplyDeleteUs old folks have a lot of knowledge the younger generation thinks is useless. They might be surprised some day.
My brother who is seventeen years older than me was born in the old farmhouse. He was premature. The doctor said he wasn’t going to make it. Grandmama said yes he is and popped him in the warming oven of that old wood cook stove. And he made it. I’m told they used men’s handkerchiefs for diapers and doll clothes to dress him. Grandmama was something of a healer. I was pretty young when she passed away. How I’d love to have been able to learn from her. Have a blessed day….Jan
Jan...The way the world seems to be headed these days, I believe not only do the younger lack knowledge of the old ways, they could live to regret not learning.
DeleteWhat a huge difference in the way people handle emergencies like the premature birth of your brother. Your Grandmother's actions in saving the baby's life are typical of the response of those who did not rely on anyone except their own knowledge and skill. I'm pretty sure our Grandmothers were not among those who run to the doctor for a case of the sniffles or for every little scrape or cut needing merely a band-aid as I have seen others do.
I love the fact that they used what they had on hand for diapers. As I was raised in a 'make do' home, I recognize what happened there. We tend to keep on with that tradition and it seems to be more important daily! God bless, my friend!
Nothing brought home the importance of water conservation like going out to the cistern with bucket and teakettle (to thaw out the pump) for water, then to the woodpile for fuel if you wanted hot water.
ReplyDeleteThat would absolutely do it, Don!! Water storage becomes important to me when, once in a while, we here lose power for short periods of time. I am never out of water for coffee. :)
DeleteAnother eye-opener for me was visiting my Grandma in the middle of a Minnesota winter. The outhouse is not heated. My appreciation for indoor bathrooms increased considerably. :)
Our outhouse was also not heated as well as draughty. In winter, first thing was to brush the snow off the seat. Then decide whether to hover or to just plunk down. The "pot" in the unheated hallway in the house was better but eventually have to be emptied. Even half frozen, it become more odorous as it filled up
DeleteAh, yes, Don...Brush off the snow. Coward that I am, I learned to hover at a young age. I had forgotten about the "pot." Grandma must have been classy, for each bedroom had what she called a "chamber pot." Looked like a 2-quart sized coffee mug, complete with handle. The chore of emptying wasn't much fun.
ReplyDeleteBut they managed even under circumstances we would consider brutal - or the younger generations definitely would describe as brutal.
I remember much of the good stuff along with the hardships. Snuggled down under quilts Grandma had made. Bread baked in the oven of a wood burning stove. Playing with a litter of kittens from the resident 'barn cats.' Riding a sled through the snow, down the hill in the pasture, trying to avoid hitting the tree stumps. Hollyhocks blooming outside the kitchen door.
Much more good than bad!