As you may have noticed I have added several pictures on my right sidebar towards the bottom. These are photo's from 1920 through 1939. I find that era fascinating and somewhat eerie. The people in most of the photographs seem to always look so sad. I enjoy reading about how people survived, found work, helped each other, the recipes they used and just how they got along in general.
I was recently thinking about how nowadays we have all these (time saving devices) that we have to work longer hours to pay for. Gone are the days of sitting on your porch visiting with neighbors who had time to come visit.
I long for simpler times. I know we cant go back but I do try to make our lives less hectic by not getting involved in every activity that comes along. Not volunteering for too much and so on. Yet we seem to always be so busy. Why?
Taking stock of my life I think I am figuring out that although we don't participate in zillions of activities outside the home, we sure make plenty of work here. That is one of the reasons we have our house for sale. We need a smaller place with less demands. This place is beautiful but it does take constant work. Maybe if we had a dozen kids at home we could make it profitable, or maybe just make it pretty if we had lots of money. Neither scenario is us so we need to move on.
Do you have pictures or recipes from the 30's? Would you mind sharing with me?
2 comments:
I'm with you, sister! I'm exhausted. If we had 10 kids the work could be spread out. My herb garden is a weed garden. Our landscaping out front is a weed garden. Our vegetable garden is a really dry weed garden. Our window boxes are dead. However, there's lots of milk in the fridge, eggs in the fridge, animals are happy and well-fed, hens sitting on eggs, another cow about to freshen, lots of baked bread on the counter....and some very well-trained horses and ponies. We just do what we deem top priority and keep on going! I can so understand wanting to simplify more. This place is high maintenance....(well, if you want it pretty....right now we just want it functional!)I'm praying for you as you pare down.
Love, in a different sort of way, your depression era pictures. Did you notice how the little children in that tent were smiling? They were still young enough to be living in that situation and smile... My dad remembers all the patches on his overalls. A tough time....what would we all do? Hmmmm.....
Oh, yes, people talk about the "simple" life when they move to the country, take on a garden, orchard and livestock. To me, it is just trading one set of complications for a more pleasant set of complications, but "simple?" ~ I don't think so! It is good to be anxiously engaged in a good cause, we all should be, as time and energy allow, but we don't have to be engaged in all good causes simultaneously, and we need to guard against running faster than we have strength. I learned that the hard way.
When my mom was growing up during the Great Depression, they would butcher their own pig for the table. One thing Grandma did was fry up all the pork chops, put them in a big crock and cover them all with freshly rendered lard. Then she'd put it down in the cool cellar. When it was time to eat them, they would be taken out, however many they needed, and fried in a cast iron skillet to warm them up and get the extra lard off.
Good luck with all your changes. I hope you end up in a more reasonable situation. We downsized about 16 years ago. The place we were in was lovely for raising a big family, but it was SO much to take care of. After 2 of the children were grown and out of the nest, we moved here. It cut my work in half! I still miss the other place, but this really is nicer for us, and now that the nest is empty, it's perfect. :)
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