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My family always picnicked at rest stops when we traveled when I was a child.  I'm sure there were times Mom wished she didn't need to pack the big basket, but there was always something of an "unpacking the treasure chest" air about her taking food out!  We sometimes met family at a state park halfway between our two families for a huge picnic and day of playing with cousins.  These memories are from the late sixties through the mid seventies, largely.  My own kids grew up without a lot of media, and I'm sure that has  helped them become more flexible thinkers now as young adults.  

I remember one trip our family of 8 was taking, I don't remember where, but we had a little camp stove along and some food and mom would cook on that when we stopped along the way.

We are lucky to live in Washington state for many reasons, not least of all that they still prioritize rest stops along the major interstates and state highways. Some even have little coffee stands that nonprofit organizations can use to provide refreshments for travelers. We always pack a lunch on road trips and stop at  one of these rest stops, a state park or forest area, or at a town park. My favorite to pack is cold fried chicken, just like when I was a kid!

Foraging is also a popular past time here, even in the cities. Invasive blackberries grow everywhere, so we pick gallons and gallons every spring. There's also all the native salmonberries, thimbleberries, strawberries, and huckleberries. I haven't bought canned fruit or jam in decades, I'm able to secure our supply from the wild every year! Even cherry, plum, and apple trees are everywhere, even on public lands where we can collect, due to old homesteads being absorbed into park land and public spaces. 

When I was a kid back in the 1980s, we used to visit my grandparents and great grandmother in Texas. We'd always go on a big picnic to a park with giant pecan trees. My mom and grandma would have us gather a year's supply of the nuts. We'd meet and play with other little kids whose parents were also there for the free nut harvest. I also remember the fried chicken, watermelon,  potato salad, and lemon meringue pie that was always in the picnic cooler for our meal that day!

I think some of that is as much about a family's financial means, and also whether they're traveling with any pets, as it is about the time period:)

When I was growing up (late 1980's through 1990's) we always packed food for trips, and would picnic at rest areas, parks, or old cemeteries along the way.  Cemeteries were one of my favorite places to stop, because they were so beautiful, especially in spring when various plants were blooming.  I still do so as an adult, and even if traveling alone, because it's what I'm used too and just feels more practical than going to a restaurant (even if I probably look silly picnicking alone.)

Oh yes, roadside fruit! That is definitely still a thing around here:D There don't seem to be a lot of people harvesting it anymore, but that just leaves more for those of us who do.  Every summer I make a huge batch of wild black raspberry shrub, which is kind of my "specialty item" I give a lot of away to friends and family, and there are lots of mulberry trees, and a scattering of apple and pear.  Lots and lots of black walnut trees, too, but getting the nut meat out is a lot of work, so I don't harvest too many of those.

Like you, Grandma Donna, I remember taking along picnic lunches with us when we'd go out for our weekly drive on Sundays.  Back in the 1960s and early 1970s the only thing in our area open on Sundays was gas stations, so we had no choice but to take a lunch with us.  Somehow the potato salad and sandwiches or fried chicken my mom made tasted even better when we'd stop by one of the picnic areas on the side of the road.  Back then, it was common to see picnic tables along the side of the road every few miles.  I'm probably one of the few people living in this modern world who hates cell phones.  Until some recent health problems, mine always stayed in the bedroom on my nightstand because I rarely talk or text on it.  Now I have to keep it near me because even though I told my doctors' offices to call on my landline, they always call me on the cell.  Grrrrr!   And every time I go to a store or the doctor's office or anywhere for that matter, I watch people when they come in, and the first thing 99.9% of them do is pull out their phones and start looking at them or texting.  I keep telling my husband when we go out that I hope nobody gets kidnapped because nobody there would be able to describe the kidnapper or the kidnapee because they had their heads down and eyes focused on those stupid phones.  My husband is always telling me I was born in the wrong era and should have lived in the 1940s or 1950s.  I wish I had been because now I'm living in a world I don't understand and don't want to understand.  

When I was a teen (early 70's) my parents decided to have our white refrigerator painted at a body shop (who does that now?)  While it was gone being painted, they rented a little old refrigerator, the kind with the handle that latches and with rounded corners - it was truly vintage.  We loved that little refrigerator!  We came close to asking if we could just buy the little one and sell ours, but we ended up giving the little one back and keeping our big blocky 1960's fridge, newly painted in the then-fashionable shade of avocado green. Appliances used to last so much longer then.  

We took trips to visit family and packed snacks in a cooler, plus, the area we drove through in the summers was known for the farm stands on the roadsides.  We bought delicious melons and cantaloupes, eating some there and carrying some with us for the family we were visiting.  Depending on the time of year and which families we were visiting, we bought bushels of peaches, apples, or citrus from farms as we traveled.  It was such a treat!  I still pack food for trips.  It's rare for me to stop and buy food.

Lehman's of Kidron, OH, sells treadle sewing machines and the treadle tables.  The tables are hand made and expensive, so I won't be getting one, but they have sure piqued my interest.  My mother sewed a lot of clothing on her black and gold Singer, which was an early electric model, for decades.  She finally traded it in for a modern machine in the late 70's or early 80's, and regretted that for the rest of her life.  She never sewed much after she got the newer machine other than mending or a little hemming; she hated that new machine. 

I like the 40's styles and simpler ways, but I wouldn't want to go back, even without the war.  I wear contact lenses, and to say they changed my life is not an exaggeration.  My eyesight was steadily and quickly declining so the doctor prescribed "hard" contact lenses when I was 13, which was the only kind they had back then.  Just like that, the decline slowed to almost nothing.  I also had a medical problem with which I would have just had to suffer in the 1940's, but was fixable in the 80's.  There's much about modern life I don't like, but for some things, I'm glad I'm not in the past. 

Grew up in WI. Every year I'd help plant the garden of peas and beans, kularabi (sp?); others I can't remember. We had a raspberry bush I'd steal and eat raspberries from.  Oh my! So delicious!  We had an apple tree that was wonderful and a cherry tree my mom made cherry pie from. She worked though, and never wanted to stay at home sadly, which I needed desperately, a mom who stayed home.  We'd take a trip and eat on the roadside table.  Sardines and soup crackers or whatever!  Before the freeway was built on the way to Grandma's, I'd watch the telephone poles go by. Moving on,  I HATE my phone. I LOVE the 40's outside the war. It has to be my favs, from house to clothing, and I was thinking it was obviously Charles' too before you even said it. I miss that simplicity. My husband has his nose in his phone a lot and I despise it and has to watch tv for dinner. Major ACK! I actually checked to get our land line back and it was $80/month!  CRAZY!  I'm on my phone too, as my decorating sites are on there. With the lack of a decent magazine, I've resorted to that, but I hate it. It's not the same. Some days I want to toss it in the garbage.   I always see how I can make changes to get back to "before."  I can do without, but my husband can't.  One being that darn microwave. LOL What a space hog.  My dream is to build a home with my favorites - laminate kitchen table in the kitchen under a window, slamming screen door, all that old fashioned stuff.  I try.  This site gives me ideas.  I'm not a minimal person, but I have shed a lot of unneeded junk - but keeping just enough, so I can think.  And... my husband and I absolutely love your Queen Cakes. LOL.  Discombobulated post, but done so, for length. :)  Today's post was one of my favs!!!!

I could have written this post.  And YES to the cell phone. And... I'm tired of needing a cell phone to get a code to get to a computer site!  Drives me absolutely crazy!  Anyway - your post is ME. :) I can so relate!

grandma donna, i’m so grateful for how you live, how you share with us about so many of these important topics, and that you and charles take the time to create a more authentic life. i’m younger than many here (if it were 1940, i’d have been born in 1892) but have always been drawn to a simpler life, since i was a child. although i agree with comments that some others made, if i had been alive then, both my 16-yo daughter and i would not have survived. i’ll take modern health care :-D 

but. why does the rest of modern life have to be so complicated and isolated and consumerist and distressing? my personal favorite period is the ‘30s but the ‘40s are not terribly different.  i wish it was easier to have an authentic life, with reliable … everything, less buying and more quality. 

many thanks to you and also to this community, it is such a solace to me. 

We used to do road trips for family vacations every summer.  Plenty of picnic meals at rest stops.  My paternal grandparents used to take train trips- my grandpa loved trains.  One of his favorite trips was on the west coast from California to either Washington State or Oregon. It was a glass topped train so they could look out.

My parents never had a car,  so  we never visited family.  Sometimes they came and visited us, but rarely, or took us for a drive.  No seat belts on and all crammed in together.   But you have got me thinking.  If  today  my son in law travels up the highway, he , and my grandchildren , know every fast food favourite eating place while I take the thermos, find a “pretty” place to stop ie a park or beach and eat my packed food... a sandwich and homemade cake and a thermos of tea.  I eat the fast food when I’m travelling with them, but honestly, I hate pickles on a burger and the drink and icecream  taste plastic and I’m questioning what is actually in this artificial stuff. Yuk! To me it’s not “real” nutritious  food.   I read the comments of mother’s cooking fried chicken, potato salad AND a lemon meringue pie..who does THAT today!!  What wonderful hard working women they were.  My daughter is still getting work emails when she is not suppose to be actually working.  A receptionist told me she works from 8 am until 6pm with 1/2 hr off for lunch and thought it was ok..I was horrified..what happened to family life!  My grandchildren like staying at my home because they say it is peaceful with them being allowed to just “be”...no demands on them and we talk, play games and have fun.  I limit screen time.  It’s like being in a cocoon with them.... capturing their little personalities for a few days.

My phone... I do like the safely factor as hubby had a heart attack and I had an ambulance here within 15 mins. but I hate the code thingo and the frustration of cyber security (more the LACK of it). Australia is trying to promote a cashless society...it’s madness...give me my money under my mattress (as per the Depression era) where only one thief may  try to steal it versus half the criminal world trying to crack my bank’s  code to wipe out my life savings in one “click”. Or billions being stolen from lonely people getting scammed by a love??? interest who they never meet or hold hands with or share a meal with.  Tragic!!   The more I study technology ... (I go to computer classes) the more I turn away from it...yes I’m scared for humanity...and the HUGE rise of domestic violence, weekly deaths of women and children, the coercive control via cyber bullying and surveillance is horrifying here in Australia.  

I am enjoying your beautiful photos of your family and appreciate you sending us mentally back in time to another place.  Thank you

We did not travel for vacation during the summer months i.e. polio season.  We basically stayed in our small town (pop. 480).  I was in high school when the polio shots became available, and our lives changed drastically.  I do not recall my parents ever taking us to restaurants.  I think my first experience of restaurants was when I traveled with my aunt, uncle and cousin.  He was a banker, and my cousin was an only child, so I often was drafted to go along with them.  

I purchased a Franklin (Sears) treadle machine in a very nice cabinet at an auction for $20 maybe 20 years ago.  As near as I can determine it was a late 1930's machine.  My son and dh "helped" me by moving it, dropped the bobbin case and stepped on it.  I have considered buying a Janome treadle head and having the cabinet adjusted for it but cannot justify the expense.

I learned to sew on a Minnesota treadle and had a loaned Singer treadle starting with my junior year of high school and used it until 1965.  A story about the Minnesota machine -- it belonged to my Great-grandmother who loaned it to my mom who had two babies and needed a machine.  My GGM was on "old age assistance" from the county in her last years and when she died in 1944 the county came in and took everything out of her house to sell.  Because mom had the Minnesota she kept it. 

I have only been in a restaurant one time in the last 10 years.  I have not gotten fast food for at least 4 years and only then because my grandson gave me a gift certificate.  When I go to town to shop (25 miles), I take a small cooler with drinks and a sandwich or breakfast bar.  

When my late dh and I traveled, we would carry our food with us and stop at small town parks.  In Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri, we found many extremely nice town parks.  One in Missouri had a small lake with both black and white swans.  My youngest (4 I think) was so excited she kept shouting squans over and over.  Another in Iowa was not a particularly nice park but it had an artesian well (and outhouse which is why we stopped!).  Some people came with water containers and filled them while we were there and said it was the best water and they always came there for their drinking water.  Almost every small town has some sort of park.  I remember roadside parks but they seem to have disappeared.  Even rest stops on the Interstate are few and far between.

I had an Austin A35. I loved that car. Solid steel. Indicators were little wings that you would turn a knob and they would shoot out from the side of the car by the window whichever way you were turning. My children used to argue over who was sitting in the front seat to operate the indicators. 

When growing up my parents would stop at a rest area halfway to my grandmother's house and put a blanket on the picnic table, get the thermos flask out and the picnic basket for us to have lunch. My husband and I thought we would treat ourselves yesterday and had lunch in a town we'd travelled to.. It cost $44!!!! and I was shocked for what we got. Won't be doing that again that's for sure. 

I feel people get on a life treadmill and don't know how to get off now. There is an expectation on young parents to have their children involved in things even weekend sports. We homeschooled our children and we're home based on the farm and they say they had good upbringing. I see our daughter and her husband burning out from constantly being on the go.

There is so much temptation to buy rubbish products online from big companies that are often based in China. I've spoken to young ones who sat they're addicted to the shopping. When I grew up there was a saying that plastic items were " cheap and nasty". 

My friend and I are organising a time to sit with an elderly man in his late 90s to talk gardening. He gardened 5 acres. This is going to be a real treat.

When the plaid Scotsman cooler came out, we knew there was a road trip coming! We always packed our food and ate at the roadside tables. When we came on the mountain, there was a place halfway up to pull off and cool the car and refill the radiator. We all had collapsible cups to get some of the coldest water I’ve ever had. When we went on vacation, five of us shared one room until we got at our destination and one child got the cot —- usually my brother… Mother would make and freeze casseroles for the week and we would eat them all week while staying in a kitchenette hotel room. We would visit state parks and free museums — anything that was free was our trip. It was a lot more fun than eating out for a week and having to get dressed AND take another bath! Lol 

I am in NZ Carolyn F. Same here with lots of pressure for cashless society however 2 days ago a man whose a sensible economist was saying to keep cash. He said he doesn't think the need for cash will ever completely disappear and probably not in my lifetime. He quoted the fact that when the hurricane went through NZ last year and also previous natural disasters then cash was king as people could not access ATM machines or pay by EFTPOS.

Hahaha. Lemon meringue pie...made one yesterday. Not to take on a road trip though.

There's lots going on with AI in the supermarkets in NZ now.

Hi everyone! Hope you had a nice 4th of July. Today I pulled out my 1940 Life magazines I have. I only have a few for 1940. I have January 8, January 22, January 29, and February 5. But it gives me some reading from the 1940’s

I was searching the 40's kitchen.  This is a little later, but what a hoot. the 1949 step-saver kitchen.  Some ideas are sort of silly, but some are really great.  I cringe at the lack of air-tightness of the pull-out drawers, but this is worth watching.   I wish they'd bring back the broom closet.  Also the stove with the potatoes in "that hole" I remember my Mom having that with her stove.

Bing Videos

I was so excited yesterday when my husband and I took our quick trip to Alabama and we saw a picnic table and benches under a tree on the side of the road! I was sharing with my husband how my grandmother would pack us food for the trip home when I was growing up. She would make small meatballs, chicken legs which we then would eat cold. With it was bread and butter sandwiches, homemade cookies and a thermos of coffee. My dad would be driving and half way home we would pull over and eat our lunch at one of these picnic spots. We never ate at restaurants because it just cost too much and there weren't that many anyway. Here is a picture of what a picnic place looked like in South Africa.

Happy Independence Day everyone! Obviously this article struck a chord with a lot of us. I hate my cell phone and its addictive quality and yet here I am typing this comment on it. I miss simpler times and worry what my kids and future grandchildren will have to deal with in coming years.

We are from the Midwest and just got back from a two week camping trip out west. Three of our young adult children came with us. For most of the trip we had no cell service and a lot of the trip was primitive camping. This was new for all of us and I worried before we left how our kids would handle this vacation. Turns out there was not one complaint about lack of cell service for two weeks, or about any of the other “luxuries” we are used to. A few days at the beginning of the trip we had to eat at fast food restaurants. After that I packed a cooler for all of our lunches when we were out exploring and we grilled over campfire for dinner. Everyone said daily these meals were what they preferred over the restaurants. 
It’s good for the soul to step away from the constant distractions we face in this modern world, so we can connect with family, friends, nature. And thank God for all he provides for us. 
thank you as always for your post

Ann,

        You can still have a landline. I showed what I have in the photos. It costs $50 to buy it, but nationwide calling in the U.S. costs only $15 a month. International calling costs $30 a month. It works well; you can even use it with a rotary phone like mine.

Becky Sue

My Mum would always pack a picnic lunch for us when travelling, in a proper picnic basket with a yellow, plastic crockery set, knives & forks and even little twists of paper with salt in to enjoy with the hard boiled eggs! The only exception to this rule would be if we’d taken a trip out to the coast and then would come the much anticipated treat of fish & chips, eaten out of the paper sitting by the sea. Can you guess I’m from the UK ha ha.

It’s such a shame to see people these days apparently unable to be separated from their mobile phones, they walk along the street, heads down with no awareness of anyone passing. My little dog goes for hydrotherapy at the vets every fortnight and I always take a book to read in the waiting room, everyone else is glued to their screens

Oh, I know I can. When I checked, it cost $80/month here.  I should "recheck". I'd keep it for $15/month!  Last time I checked it was about 1-1/2 years ago. We still have a line. We had a business at home and it's a fax number that is routed to the office elsewhere. I can only call out.  I would like one I can call the house on rather than the world having my cell. 

I actually have an old black rotary dial phone (my husband does communications cabling) from the 1950's.  You know, like I Love Lucy!  It still works! LOL.  I always have my eye on an old phone! 

Hello Donna dear,

 You asked about stopping at roadside picnic tables. I did as a child, but I have a special college memory. My boyfriend and I were driving from college in Oklahoma to our hometown in NE KS. We stopped for a picnic supper at a roadside rest area. While we were eating, Lowell pointed to the field and said, "Look! A wolf!" I couldn't see it. I turned back to find him on his knee. He proposed to me. Interestingly enough, his middle name is Owen which means wolf! That was 1985. It seems modern, to me, but It was nearly 40 years ago now. Where does the time go?

Blessings from Harvest Lane Cottage,

Laura

P.S. Thanks for pointing out my knitting a couple of posts ago. I'm primarily a sock knitter, but bandages are not a bad idea!

They still have trains like that. I think it might be the California Zephyr.

I'd be interested in learning more about this service. I cannot see the photos well enough, though.

Thank you!

I have a landline which includes long distance calls and Internet.  Cost $112.47 per month.  $27.99 of that cost are government fees and taxes.

I also have a Tracfone flip phone that costs $19.99 every 90 days.  That is my emergency phone and I only turn it on when I'm adding minutes or when I need to use.  I've not given anyone the number since I don't regularly turn it on.  

Not all old phones will work with current phone systems so you'll need to check that out.

The road trip picnics!  So much fun.  My mom and grandma packed sandwiches and they tasted so good.  We had one of those Thermos canteens, about a gallon size.  Red or yellow and silver, I think. Little bubble spigot.  Oh,to be lucky enough to travel when our lemon tree was full!  Ice cold lemonade.  We would occasionally pull into a Denny's and I would be so disappointed to find out it was just to refill the coffee Thermos!  There was even a little sign onnthe counter with a price.  Apparently it was a common stop on the interstate.

Loved all your stories family..I still have my mother's picnic tablecloth from my childhood..Let's be the grandmas that bring back simplicity to  our grandchildren.   I have 28 of them..none have  cell phones..just laugh and talk with them♥️♥️????????????????

This post sure brought back a flood of memories. When I traveled with either set of grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc we always packed a lunch or dinner. One time my grandpa stopped for pancakes at McDonald's in Bakersfield, CA. That was a fun treat. Still to this day we pack lunches, dinner and breakfasts even for traveling. We have found the best places to eat at. One time in Nebraska we pulled over and on a board it said this was the site of a bomber that crashed in ww2. Never forgot it. Around where we live in virginia we have road side tables everywhere along with parks. We just had a wonderful picnic at Appomattox where Lee and Grant signed for the Civil War. Only ones there with a picnic basket. That's now become our 2nd favorite place for a quick free getaway for the day. Recently I had to take my vehicle in for air conditioning issues. Supposed to be $250 max and left at $1000. Very disappointing and not even fixed. But while we waited we brought books to read and a manager said it had been many years since he'd someone reading. We read everywhere it seems like. I hate having phones and nobody visiting each other. I remember whe people used to say company is here. We have a friend whose husband passed recently and I'm going to visit her tomorrow. She's up the road from us and is amazing. She greets you with a hug, kiss and says I love you baby. When you leave its the same except ends with honey. She gives the best hugs and always says if you need something let me know. You certainly don't har that anymore. People from all over the country have been drawn to her business because of her love. They call her momma C. We need to all be amazing people in a world full of hate and harshness. I really love 1940.