Living Like the Past

My blog is all about living a more simple life and more like the past. Not in the past but like the past. Recently I have been responding to visitors to my blog and their questions. A few have asked me if I could post pictures of inside the houses during the 1940s and 1950s. I have a very limited amount of photos of inside due to most pictures were taken outside back during that time. One reason is the cameras were different back then and the flash required to take the photo. Most photos were taken of the family.I have dug through my photos to see what I can do to give you at least a glimpse of the 1940s and 1950s inside the houses.If any of you would like to share pictures that y ......

I have been asked several times by visitors to my website how people dressed in the 1940s and 1950s. So I am doing a post on how they dressed in the house or when they would leave the house.In the past women wore dresses most all the time. Pants were worn on occasion for some types of outings such as picnics which back then people often had picnics at least in my family.During these times people visited each other often and is was very common to just pop unannounced because many people did not have telephones during this time. It was acceptable to just show up. Women mostly wore house dresses which would have been a simple dress. In the 1960 and forward a house ......

Have you ever walked along a dirt road? I was thinking how long it has been since I walked a dirt road. When I do think about it there are such fond memories of Mississippi. My Grandparents lived in Mississippi and when we would go to visit them we traveled miles and miles on dirt roads. This was a time before many roads were paved in Mississippi. It seems to me now knowing the difference that there was a certain cooling effect in the areas with dirt roads. I liked to play outside and make houses. I would find sticks and lay them down flat on a grassy area on the ground and form rooms. I made doorways where I could walk into the rooms and I would sit on the ground pret ......

In the past we used our fabric scraps, saved string, removed the buttons off old clothes and cut out the better part of the fabric on the item that was too stained or torn to use anymore.Today many people just discard anything they do not like or want anymore. Some just shove it to the back of a drawer or closet and go out and buy something new.Once we go back to living simple we become more relaxed and frugal which is a good thing.This is one of my favorite aprons. It is very old and it was pieced together. The bottom of the apron has added fabric and their was not enough of the blue fabric to have enough to continue all the way across. So it was pieced with scraps of the blue making this a ......

I love using the old things of the past. Some things just make better sense to me or I am just a romantic of the older eras. This is what they called a milk jug cover and they used them to keep the flies out of the milk. It was also used for a bowl cover. This particular one was made in the 1920s and I don't set it on a shelf, I use it.This is a smaller one that can cover a glass or a cup to keep gnats out of a beverage.This one can be used for bread dough, sourdough or a milk jug if you happen to have your own cow or goat and need to keep the gnats out. The idea here is a net like fabric with a crochet edge with beads to weigh the cloth down on the sides.Here another one wi ......

Spring is approaching and this time of year I daydream of moving to the country. We have remained in the city and in our small house and small yard. Several years ago I realized that I was bringing the country to me. Many of my relatives have lived in the country as I did for a time as well in my younger years.Our small front yard garden can produce a surprising amount of vegetables and herbs. The past two weeks we have been preparing the beds and planting. This year I have decided to plant mostly carrots in the beds since this past year did so well with the small test spot of Danver Carrots.We decided to go back to a potted garden in the back yard and it is coming along well. We keep ......

We all go through things that make us sad but it is up to us what to do when we come out on the other side of whatever happened. Some of us go through terrible things but then comes a time when we are farther away in time from what caused us the sadness and if we have given ourselves adequate time that we need to recover or grieve there should be a turning point. We either pick ourselves up or remain depressed and what we do can affect those that love us by the state of mind which we live. If our sadness is due to the loss of a loved one we will always miss them and so we learn to live another way while we remain here on this earth.A man that lives in our area grows camellias. He enjoy ......

Some people question why we would want to live old fashioned. Why do you desire to live in the 1940s they ask? We do not desire to live “in” the 1940s just “like” the 1940s. It is only a reference point to study the history. We have an advantage and know that many things that were sold even back then were unhealthy especially the processed food that were more available due to ww2. Sourdough Starter bubbling.....Through our history project we have learned we did not want to venture much farther past 1948 because we know now when the consumerism started ramping up and food was becoming ridiculously processed and unhealthy. It had already started back even earlier. With new inventi ......

Yes, we are moving up to the year 1948.As some of you know we have been doing a one year history project living as they did in 1943. We have been at this 8 months now. We have stalled out because we are doing the same things over and over because we can only simulate the rationing as much as we can read about. We have read and talked with many people and what we found out is that quite a few families moved in together during ww2 for several reasons. Men going off to war leaving the women behind and also a housing shortage, the need to combine efforts and simple life was quite a bit different back then where families could pool their ration stamps. They could not share them but they c ......

I have always lived in a fairly small home. Never been one to want a large space. I enjoy the coziness that comes with a small home. But then there is the issue that it can get very cluttered living in a small space.Back in the year 2000 it became quite clear just how packed and cluttered our home had become when we moved my father into our home after being told he could not longer live on his own and his health was declining. The need was immediate which meant moving him from his home to our home right away. We were already cluttered and then we were packed. Our whole house felt like my pin cushion I call Ruth. We packed up our clutter to make room and lived with boxes ......

The last post I was putting the bread in the oven to bake and this is the bread after removing it from the oven. I just love homemade bread and even though I make it often I never tire of the warm smell in the house.My daughter makes bread more often that I do because she is feeding more in her household and when we go to her house it always has that smell of home and fresh baked bread even if she has skipped a day or two.Since we have been living a more simple life and setting our home back to when we felt life was more settled and comfortable we have become more accustom now to entertaining ourselves as we did many years ago.Older games can be quite entertaining and they do not ......

At our house February is a bit quiet because it is too cold to do much outside. Like some, I am a bit sensitive to cold as well as too much heat. But we can't always have it just right because everything has a purpose and we need the changing seasons.So I am back to making Bobbin Lace. It is a bit tedious and it takes a good while for me to make a simple piece of lace.Here I am just finishing up on a piece that will be used as an insert lace.It has four types of stitches, the ground, cloth, spider and footside. This is one skill that I cannot leave undone for very long or I have to go back and practice before I can continue because I will think, how did I do that?This morning we had cheese ......

There seems to be a trend that some people are looking for older pieces of embroidery, sewn pieces and older accessories for their home. I have been asked how to recognize that it is truly old? First I am no expert but I do have some old pieces that I can show for those of you looking for older pieces.I have several very old pieces such as the one pictured above. This is a very old baby pillow. There are several things that would be different about this and one is the old embroidery designs. The texture of the fabric and also...Taking a peek on the inside shows us this embroidery has been sewn by hand.Look at the embroidery that is on the corner of a small table cover. When w ......

There is something about a small home. It is warm and cozy, yes that is what it is, cozy like a tea cozy.We can treat a small home like a small palace if we just appreciate it as if it were a palace, we can make it anyplace we want it to be.We can live perfectly comfortable in a small simple home. The key to comfortable in a small home is lack of clutter making sure that everything fits comfortable, is not crowded and has it's on place.A funny thing happened on our way to downsizing our household items when we became overcrowded. We started removing many things and the items we were packing up to donate or throw away were things that we had purchased in the past 20 or more years. ......

As we go through life it seems we keep starting over. From the time we are babies and we start taking our first steps we fall down then get up, balance ourselves and start over.That is the good part of life, we can simply start over. Sometimes it takes us a long time to get motivated but when we do it can be very rewarding.Starting over to me can be giving the house a good cleaning, moving things around and making a change. Sometimes we need a change.Starting over can mean starting a budget and put our finances in order. It does not matter if it is the first of the year or the middle of the year, it means today. Why not start today? Today is always a good day to start over.I started ov ......

I have had several people to ask me how I air seal our jars. This is our air sealer>I connect a cap and hose to the machine.I have a Food Saver. There are different models and ours came with two canisters that you can air seal. It did not come with a jar cap. I ordered our jar cap from Pleasant Hill Grain several years ago.I simply connect to a port...Set it to vacuum and Seal...connect the other ind to the cap. This is the bottom of the cap...I place the canning lid without the band to the jar....Center the canning lidPlace the jar sealer cap over the top of the jar and canning lid...On my unit I press this part down to turn it on and the vacuum starts.It makes a very tight seal so ......

Yes it is winter at our house and this old lady does not do well with the cold so we will go back inside.I tried out a new small scrub board I got for Christmas. They sell them on Amazon and it is very small but sturdy. Good for scrubbing socks and small things.I boiled an old work towel of my husbands. I figured it was a good time to answer a question why did people stand and stir clothes in a boiling pot.My only answer for this question comes from what I have observed from boiling cloth goods. First of all if you boil rags on your stove be very careful. Make sure there are no children or pets in the kitchen because it will splash out very easy.Boiling clothes will get out some stains that ......

Each morning Monday through Friday, I help to get my husband off to work. I fill his thermos with warm water, pack his lunch and he will collect his things such as the work tablet, his reading glasses, keys etc. We place them on the couch close to the door so he can load up his arms and head out to the car.Then I get my case of eye clutter. You may have heard the expression eye candy, that is something appealing to look at. Well I get eye clutter and that is all the little things out of place or items that have never quite fit in a place. Then there are those items that never have had a place because it requires us to move something to put it in it's place then everything in the ......

Living a simple life is not for everyone but I am not sure I understand why it is not.I can say that I am satisfied in our small space on this earth in our modest home. I hope that I can continue with good health to use the items in our home such as the stove to have something simmering for our meals and the sink to wash our dishes. I enjoy dressing the table with cloth's and placing assorted dishes to serve our meals. I use the rocking chair to sit and hand stitch or knit, the reading chair to study and learn. Our bed is always inviting as we pull back the sheets and blankets that had been properly straightened and tucked each morning after waking. Winter is our season right now ......

Since I have this blog people are curious how do we live old fashioned in this day and time.To answer some readers questions I will just start here.I get up between 4:00 AM and 4:30 AM most every day. Normally I get up at 4:00. Why? My husband is still working and he goes to work early but even if he did not I would get up this early because truly it just takes a full days work to keep house properly.Doing things the old way takes longer but it seems that details do not get overlooked as they do when using all the gadgets we have today. I get up in the morning, wash up, brush my teeth and then go into the kitchen and put on the water kettle then the coffee pot.We use a water kettle beca ......