About gDonna
The photo is my son and myself. Now days you can get a photo made to look old like this one. This photo was taken when this was the new look.

Harry S Truman was president when I was born and world war II had ended. I grew up in a time when lunch was put in a brown paper bag and a sandwich was wrapped with wax paper. There was no such thing as pantyhose, we wore stockings that attached to the rubbery clippy things that attached to the girdle. Convenience stores were not common and when we took a trip we packed a picnic basket because many places did not have fast food. Highways had places to pull over and stop, some with picnic tables. Read more ....
 

Donna's Diary Posts

My Favorite Blog and Books
Recent Posts
Diary Theodore and Nellie February 1905
I am hoping this will be easier to read the way I have done the diary this time. This is the diary of Theodore and Nellie 1905 that we read last month, the month of January. If you missed January it is at the bottom of this post linked here. http://gdonna.com/living-like-the-past/how-do-we-f...Now to Theodore, February 1, 1905Family, Theodore (writing diary) wife Nellie, daughter Eva, son Gene and his wife Lila and baby Lucille. They drive horses and wagon also have buggy. When Theodore says they drew stone, it is my understanding that he is meaning drove or carried. Imagine hitching the team of horses and wagon loaded with stone or wood and drew (drove/ car ......
Finding home
I have done a lot of thinking lately about the things we have learned researching back in time. I keep wondering about if things were as difficult as people have said they were long ago, then why are so many of us drawn to the past? We romanticize the past, is it the pretty clothes? Is it the slower pace and how people seem to be more attentive? Work was hard back then and many modern items has made chores less difficult today. But there is something they had that we are missing today and I feel why some of us have this pull to the past.I feel it is the sensibility and I still hold to that.I feel the strength, the sensibility, the determination, the common sense and t ......
Figuring out the Great Depression
I have taken a few days to work through new information from all the research work. This years study is so very different and I will see if I can find a way to tell about the feelings I have about this study.I literally feel a connection as I travel back in time by way of the small bits of history left behind for us to read about. We can see things only in pictures or antique shops, old microfilms and books and those fortunate to remember the stories told to us by our Grands and Great Grands of how it was.What we have learned so far about the great depression, as far as it affected the home?I have had to dig deep to figure out why in the microfilms reading during the times of the gre ......
Meal Planning 1932
The oldest journal we have I started wrapping it in flannel to keep it protected. The research is going good but it is taking me awhile to get it to you as we are trying to work on our new things of trying out 1932. We still have damage from hurricane Michael that we are cleaning up.It is a tangled mess in some areas. Charles worked on another corner of the yard this past weekend. We find comfort in our simple meals. Chicken, potatoes and carrots is always good and a dish of stewed apples with brown sugar, cinnamon and a pat of butter is a good side dish.It has been cold here in the deep south. Not as cold as the northern and central part of the U.S. but quite chi ......
Diary of Theodore and Nellie January 1905 after post
So how are we meshing with Now and the Past? The more I research the more I try to resemble how they did things but it is difficult when today looks different.We are a blend of today and yesteryear but I am taking the important things that will help the budget, our health and the things that make more sense to make changes to our home.We have eliminated processed snacks and make homemade but that started when we started the 1940's study. We are human and get off track occasionally but now we are more focused and diligent in what and how we do things.In the 1940's study we made big changes and honestly we started wondering if we would find anything else in ways of saving and l ......
What are we suppose to do on Monday?
Wash was always done on Monday period. In a very special situation it was acceptable to wash on Tuesday.Clothes washing has been a very interesting study. This history study shows many things. As I looked back to about 1880 to 1900 there was more work to washing laundry because the soap had to be boiled and the clothing people wore was complicated to wash.As I move through time I noticed very early after 1900 Fels-naptha started advertising that there would be no more blue Monday because of this soap that would save them time. Then as time was passing I noticed ads stating that women had more time now since their Monday wash day was taken away by the new servic ......
Back in time and the sanitary sink pail
We talked about the dish scraper last post and now about the soap shaker or soap saver depending on when we are talking. I used to run water over the soap in the shaker but I do not do this after learning more.The good thing about the soap shaker/saver is that the soap that goes into the water is dissolved swishing and there is no need to boil or wait for it to dissolve. Here is a soap saver. Here is a soap saver being used. This photo is an example of how many people dressed in the 30s and 40s. In some of my 1940s posts I post photos of ordinary people that do not necessarily dress the fads. Miss Weedman was the director of a cooking school. Since we mention ......
How did they do that?
To understand more I started researching around 1880 to 1900, then 1900 to 1920, then 1920 to 1940. These are some of what I found interesting.I wanted to know more how our ancestors did day to day things. So I started researching basic day to day things we do in our homes most every day, for instance washing dishes.This is already off track a bit because this is how my mind does normally. The more I study the more I feel the eras and some of the arrogance and some snootiness. The newspaper articles give me a sense about the time. Many things start off by complaining of the way someone does things wrong before they tell you how to do it the right way.I wanted to know ......
Home life, Our Generations Before Us
Charles and I have started a new study. We are moving further back in time. We are changing things up a bit and instead of studying one year we will be doing a study of 1900 to 1939.Our brains are a bit exhausted right now because it has been a lot of research getting ready for this year.Our past 4 years have been studying the home front during world war 2. This time we are going to nestle down in 1932 but we will start in 1900 looking back to how our Generations before us lived. We had to go further back because to be adults in 1932 we needed to understand what their life would have been like leading up to 1932.Charles and I have made many discoveries and found many ......
Enjoying Now
December is certainly a busy month for Charles and I. This year had so many challenges that my good intentions of making homemade gifts came down to starting very late making them. It feels that there has been not a minute to spare.I cannot show the things I have been making since they are gifts but I am all done now and what is not being given personally have been shipped.And so now I am just enjoying Now. I am not rushing the things I do and I have hopefully learned my lesson that February is a great time to start making gifts and late December and early January is a good time to buy supplies to make those gifts.This seasons lemons are now preserved and I have a couple ......
Living Parts of the Past
We are getting ready to start our new study that we will be doing during the real year of 2019. We normally take on a new study each year and we will be moving away from studying the Home front during ww2. Charles and I have been continuing to move back in time while most people are moving forward. I do not study politics, Charles does study Presidents of the past but as we have done in our other studies our main interest is about how families lived in the past, food, shelter, food preservation and what we can learn about the home and the home front. I have been asked how we do our studies and the way we do this is we go to our public library research room and read boo ......
Early December
Here we are almost at the end of 2018 which for us the end of 1944. Even though I did not do a lot of post about our 1944 year, other than the first few months we continue to live our old fashioned 1944 life with a few exceptions that modern life controls. This is the link to the January 2018 post at the beginning of our 1944 year... http://gdonna.com/living-like-the-past/we-are-almo...This year we made many changes to our home. It got so crazy that I could not even post about it because I just wanted it finished. We started off energized with learning new things about 1944 and living a more simple life. Then we decided it was time to organize and paint the kitchen, th ......
Another History Project
It is getting that time for another history project here at our home. We have studied the 1940s home front for many years now. We started with WW2 rationing and went through many of the early 1940s learning about how people lived while the war was going on. We learned how the ration cards were used and how people pulled together here at home so food and ammunition and goods could be sent to the fighting troops.How men, women and children worked hard pitching in to fill empty positions as people joined the armed services. How victory gardens were grown just about anywhere there was dirt to plant vegetables and fruits.How important home canning was during the war a ......
As the Seasons Change
It has been very busy here at our house. I buckled down last week working on the mending pile. I also made slip covers for my favorite rocking chair. I had this toile fabric stored away and finally got it out to make Slip covers for this chair.I put the cushion on top of the backside of the fabric and made sure the print would be in the right direction.Then I took my ruler and cut 9 inches around the cushion. Now I warn you I don't go by patterns or sewing rules, I just do what I think will work.I pressed down around the edge and then sewed that down then turned it over again leaving enough room to run elastic through it with a large safety pin pushing the ela ......
The November Garden
This past summer Charles and I worked on changing our backyard garden to a larger container garden. We purchased large cattle troughs and drilled holes in the bottom edge to drain and filled them with garden soil and compost. I did not take a lot of summer garden pictures because we did not grow a lot of vegetables. We grew, cucumbers and bell peppers, some early sugar peas and a few things but mostly we planned for a fall garden because I cannot work in the heat. I am older and I cannot tolerate the heat but also it is just plain hot now. The climate is changing and we gardeners are having to change too.This picture above is what is growing now.The November ......
Part Two Keeper of the Home
This is a socially busy time of the year. It costs the family a lot of money to go along with holiday traditions and all of this is man made. Somewhere the festivals traded for holidays and now have no resemblance at all of what once they were started.Here at our house we don't pay much attention to man made holidays, we celebrate in our own way. We acknowledge the seasons and our faith is year around. To live a simple life we set our self apart in a way but we still are social but in a much calmer way.After all we are the keepers of the home. We do not have to be boastful or proud as there is no need for this as we become more knowledgeable of important things.& ......
Keeper of the Home
I have had this blog for many years, I started it off in early 2000 for doing genealogy and sharing pictures and information with my family, I called my blog generations before us. A little time went by and the economy got bad and I thought about how our generations before us survived through wars and the great depression and I wanted to help people that were struggling with the broken economy.I outgrew my website and had to upgrade and I lost some old posts then another upgrade as my blog was growing. Then another upgrade again and that is when I renamed it to gdonna so I cannot remember how long I have been doing this blog.Andra's window...I have read many emails over the years and s ......
Picking up the pieces
My last post was written just after our internet had been restored from damage due to Hurricane Michael.Here at our house, damage was to the trees and garden and outdoor structures. We had a power outage, a kitchen ceiling water issue in our kitchen ceiling and which ended up not being a serious issue inside but a lot of work to do outside.Even though we were very prepared I was mentally drained. It had been frightening to me as I kept thinking if this wind gets only 5 or 10 more miles per hour we are in very serious trouble. We could hear and feel the strength of the wind, we could hear the trees cracking and the large thuds as whole trees went down and we could hear ......
We have Internet Again!
The week before Hurricane Michael hit, I was outside in the backyard planting turnips and carrots. Charles was outside as well and we looked up to the sky and saw this. I ran in and got my camera and asked Charles I wonder why we were suppose to see a cloud that looked like angel?This is completely untouched, I snapped the pictures with my phone first then my camera. I realize it is just a cloud but I do say a very impressive one and the bottom cloud and the beams of light were just beautiful.Little did I know what was about to happen and that we would be ok.The very next week we all knew about Hurricane Michael. After the storm, 80 percent of the city had lost power a ......
Hello everyone! This is Grandma Donna's daughter. As some of you know, Hurricane Michael hit the Gulf Coast, Southeast corner of Alabama and then kept going. There is a lot of damage to mom's city of Dothan and 80% of the city has lost power. My mom wanted me to let you know that they are ok but have a lot of work and repairs to do due to high wind damage. Their power is out and also internet. Mom wanted me to tell you she is reading your emails from her phone but cannot respond because she is trying to save power on her phone for emergencies. It may take some time for her to get back to posting. She said to tell you that when the power is out take frequent cool baths and to cook pancakes. : ......
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