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

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Balancing
Our winter brings on the desire for warm ginger tea with lemon and wild honey. I want to balance out posting my research and our daily life as we are only into our second week of living like 1944.It has been a cold winter for us so far and this time of year where we live it is not normally cold for long spells but it has been this way and we had a few days of warm up but we are going right back to another cold spell.The warm things I have been doing is knitting and canning.We are sticking to our simple meals and starting to crave some of our routine food that we have been eating if we do not eat it for a few days. Sweet potatoes is one food we crave if we skip a few days.&nb ......
Soapstone
Have you ever wondered what people did to stay warm in the winter before electricity? Have you ever wondered how people stayed warm in their carriages or even cars before they had heaters? Our very cold weather had me wondering about what people did in the past. Then I ran across an article while researching our year of 1944 and I ran across a couple of articles about how people would keep warm since fuel including heating fuel was rationed.One article said,With the return of chilly weather and the accompanying fuel shortage, home nurses who have old people to care for need to take precautions to see that they are comfortable. Because they are less active their circulation ......
Embracing the Home
Living like the past and especially living like 1944 gives a much different perspective of where we have been and where we are going.As some of you know from my blog posts I lean towards the romantic home. I enjoy having the vintage things that have been around for a long time and I like to use those items for everyday use.It has been a very busy week here at our home in our new year of 1944. We are allowing ourselves a couple of weeks to tweak where we need to be with food preservation since we now found out by reading the 1944 news that there were a lot of victory gardens and canning going on in 1943 so we realized we were behind in our food stores of canning.So I got busy and ......
Bandages
While I was doing research getting ready for our year of living like 1944 I kept coming across articles about bandage making. Regular meetings were being held and women were getting together in certain places to make bandages.The surgical dressings had my attention as I worked many years in wound care at the hospital and outpatient. I wanted to know more.When we did our year of living like 1943 I had several booklets and items about the war and one of them was this booklet filled with instructions how to knit for the men that were gone to war.I found that in the 1940s during ww2 women all over the country were working together with the red cross making bandages of all kinds and s ......
How we are doing this....
To actually live like 1944 and live in 2018 is quite a challenge but since we have already lived like 1943 a few years ago we have an idea of how it goes but we mostly focused on rationing and now we know things to improve.First off rationing is a big deal so we had to figure out a way to work it all out. We made different kind of ration stamps since we cannot go to the grocery and have the grocer to tear out and keep our stamps. Since we are not really living in 1944 we have a home version so we can cross out the stamps as we use them.We are in the middle of organizing our pantry and purchased stickers to put on the rationed items in our pantry. Basically our pantry is our ......
Here We Go Again and I Like It :)
It is time for another history adventure. Charles and I will be living like 1944 the best we can. We have arrived at the year 1944. World War two is very intense now. The country is on their second year rationing, women, men and children on the home front are working to help the soldiers that are fighting.Other parts of the world started rationing much earlier because of where the war started and traveled. The war started with Nazi German's attack on Poland in 1939. The United States did not enter the war until the Japanese bombed the American fleet at Pearl Harbor Hawaii December 7, 1941. My father was sent to Hawaii after the bombing. Some women are work ......
Our simple Christmas
Charles and I had a simple Christmas at our home. We visited at our Son's home a week before Christmas with the older Grands all together which is very rare to get them all together with College and working jobs.We had a luncheon with other family mid week and on Christmas Day it was just the two of us.On Christmas Eve Charles made a small tray of hors d'oeuvres. He enjoys helping out with food preparation. I enjoyed his choice of hors d'oeuvres that was actually inspired from pictures that our daughter sent us of some of her hors d'oeuvres she had made for guests.With the diet we have been on we have not eaten any sugar or eggs nor regular flour but for this one day I made a spe ......
Three things...
I have three short posts in one here, one is to answer a question about my computer closet.First I will do a post I was going to do about my chicken and rice soup. I made this the other day because we had someone coming for dinner and I got busy at the end of making it and did not finish taking pictures of the end result but I thought I would post it anyway because it is a very good chicken and rice soup.I boil chicken for about 45 minutes. First I seer the chicken then add a small amount of fresh garlic and about two quarts of water and bring it to a boil then low simmer/boil for about 45 minutes with a lid on until the chicken is tender.After I put the chicken on I start ......
Raising Children
I am doing this post to answer a question. I have a blog reader that is questioning having a child because of what she is seeing with her friends that are now having children. She knows that having a child can be a difficult life change but she is noticing that these new moms seem to make it all so complicated with constant worry, obsessively doting, have an over abundance of gadgets which brings on much complaining. This is concerning to the one in question as she would like to have children at some point but with her observation it gives her concern about having children, enough to postpone having a child of her own.She asked if I have any posts about rearing ch ......
Here we go again
We made our decision to not leave the 40s. However we have not yet studied the year 1944 and as many of you know we have been doing history projects of living like the 40s and finding out about the home front during ww2. There are many books about ww2 but not as much about the home front during the war. We have lived like 1942 and 1943 but not 1944. We did not go in that order and when we started we jumped right into 1943 to learn about rationing.We are a bit intimidated about doing 1944 because the war has ramped up big time and rationing is really tight during 1944. This month I have been putting together our 1944 notebook with newspaper articles ......
Last month of 1942
This is the first week of December and almost one year ago we started another one of our experiments that we like to do living like a different era. This year has been living like 1942. This link was the post I did the first day of January of this year. http://gdonna.com/living-like-the-past/hooray-it-i...This year we had a lot to learn and a lot to do. Some of you may remember about three years ago we lived like 1943 so we could learn about the home front during ww2 and learn about the rationing that went on during the war. I feel we did not stick to 1942 as well as I wanted because there were many things that sidetracked us. Modern issues and living in ......
Wouldn't it be nice...
This is Charles lunch today that I have packed for him. Also a banana for his morning snack and an apple for his afternoon snack.This above is a salad but you can't see it because it is under the sweet potatoes and onions. It is mixed lettuce and sauteed onions and mushrooms on top, avocado dressing and sauteed and baked sweet potatoes I put around the salad. It makes a nice full meal. Charles eats his meals in his car when he is working so I try and make them easy for him to eat.The little cottage on the front page of this post is our honeymoon cottage that is still there last time we checked.I think about my family that are no longer here a lot during the holid ......
Occupation Homemaker
We all have occupations. When we fill out a form and it asks for our occupation there is always something to say even if we are unemployed or retired.I am a homemaker, a manager. If Charles were retired he would be lawn care, maintenance and gardener but he is also a woodworker, designer and many things more. Charles still works outside the home so he has many jobs.When I was working for many years, raising a family and being a homemaker I held many jobs. If you really count all the jobs it was probably something like 85 jobs. I read a comment online from a young lady that said, I don't have time to be a homemaker, I have children to take care of! I ......
Southeast Alabama
I hitched a ride with Charles this week and it was good for me to get out. We all need a break from normal routines every so often. This particular early morning it was foggy. We left the city and I thought you might like to ride along again. Last time was out to the dairy. This time we are heading west from our town of Dothan Alabama and so you can see what rural Southeast Alabama looks like.When I was a child I grew up in the city of Memphis Tennessee. When I was a young teenager we moved from Memphis Tennessee to River Falls Alabama. I am very familiar with these roads in Southeast Alabama.When we head west towards River Falls I feel like I am goi ......
Cotton and Lace
I love cotton and lace. I have not always been this way about lace because I never liked foofy things. My mother loved lace and had lace curtains and lace tablecloths and such. Over time I started changing and looked at lace differently, I like simple lace with a casual and pretty touch. There is a difference. I started understanding my mothers appreciation for lace.I have always been fond of cotton. It just feels right on my body and I like cotton curtains, sheets and tablecloths. Maybe this comes from living in the deep south.I did not always know what I liked, I just accepted things, did not pay attention as much as I have since I got older ......
Reminiscing
Cool weather is moving in starting today. I walked around the garden yesterday to enjoy the flowers before they are all gone. I enjoyed watching the bumble bees around the daisy chrysanthemums.I received an email from my blog friend Gail and she shared with me some memories of the past and when I read her story about Mr. Kempton's store it took me to my past when we owned a small grocery store. I asked Gail if I could post this to share on my blog and she said, I would be happy for you to include my memories of Mr Kemptons store.Gail's Story....I remember my grandmother would make a list of the grocery things she needed each week and I would walk to the corner shop, the o ......
Screen Doors and Butter Beans
I love screen doors because they normally led to those I loved. The squeak or creaky noise they made. Many times once you opened and walked through that screen door there were smells of cornbread and biscuits, peas and fat meat, turnips greens or Collards. A pie if fruits or pecans were in season and even if they were not there just might be a buttermilk or egg custard pie. In my family we had a lot of laughter. Our family, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, Cousins and extended family did not quarrel. I see families today quarrel a lot and I am not used to that.I don't have a lot of pictures of screen doors from my past they are mostly in my memory. It ......
Is there an order anymore?
I love this time of year when the Heirloom Chrysanthemums bloom. This is a very old variety that have somehow managed to not die off. They have a long history as they came from the home of an elderly postmistress. They were given to my mother and we dug them up several times and transplanted them as my mothers health was failing and first we moved her close to us then here to our home.In the past there were roles and an order of which things were done.It seems to me that we have gone too far from our roots. I feel people were grounded more in the past and I am very concerned that basic skills have been lost. Generations before us would pass down knowledge and te ......
It's A Patience Thing
They all understood it, so why don't we.Especially them, they understood it.Papa certainly had it. I had enough exposure to it that I know the difference in how it was and how it is now.So what did they have? PatienceWe are given this one life, we are not born perfect and what we do with our life is up to us.I found myself this past week frustrated. I was letting things bother me that are out of my control. It was the news on the radio, a simple trip to the grocery store was unnerving because people were so impatient and some were dressed inappropriate to be in a store. Some were downright scary. Traffic was bad and people were honking and gesturing and it ......
After the storm
We are doing fine here after hurricane Nate. The feeder bands were kind to us only bringing breezy winds and rain. No damage here, cannot say the same for those west of us. I hope everyone in the path of what is left of hurricane Nate tonight fair well as it travels up to the northeast US.I spent my time mending Charles work clothes and planned some sewing projects. We have also been working on our camper called the Shabby Cabby. This past year the camper developed some leaks and it has caused damage to the floor. We have completely emptied the shabby cabby and are ripping out the floor which will take us quite some time since two old people crawling aro ......
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