Living Like the Past

We have tilled up most of our tiny Victory garden. We have one lone squash plant in the upper corner of the left row still hanging on. There is a large pepper plant still producing bell peppers in the lower left row and two smaller peppers that were planted late. There are some herbs, cilantro, chives, onions and parsley in the lower corner. A lone bell pepper....According to our gardening book for our area the end of July and beginning of August is the time to plant some of the Fall vegetables so I have seeded the two rows with carrots, turnips, spinach, Swiss chard, broccoli and just because I planted some old beans just to see what they would do.These tomatoes are called Matts Wild C ......

One of our vintage magazines from 1932 has an advertisement showing a brand new washing machine that had a side spinner. Most of the washing machines had a top roller that squeezed out the water. You would have to be very careful about keeping your fingers away from the roller or it would smash your finger.I have fond memories of the old round washers with the wringer on top as I would help my grandmother wash clothes out in the backyard. The smell of soap in the outside air is something I never forget.New electric appliances were coming to market during the 1930's and 1940's. During WW2 there was severe rationing and the production of many household items was put on hold. Many pe ......

We are getting close to the end of our first month of rationing.Bacon is 8 points per pound so now we cook one piece and split it in half for the two of us.We can simulate the rationing but during 1943 there were shortages of the rationed food as well as non rationed food so that had to make it even more difficult. One of our challenges was how to make a birthday cake since oil, butter and sugar were rationed. I finally decided to make a simple and very small birthday cake. We ate smaller pieces than we normally would and savored each piece that we ate. The cake lasted all week and was very good. My husband said it truly was the best birthday cake ever because it was more precious to us, muc ......

We have been very busy since the first thought of doing the ww2 rationing. Some have asked us why would we want to do this? Why not? If it teaches us something we did not know then that is very good. I have very good memories of 1950s but can only tell you what my mother said about the 1940s. Already, our electric usage has decreased, our grocery bill has decreased, our water bill has decreased and our gasoline usage has decreased. That is a good start and most of that was during practice. This was my mothers house, it was built in the late 1800's. My mother moved back home to Mississippi when my Grandparents were starting to have a physical decline. She bought this old house and our family ......

My husband knows I have this thing about soap and chairs. I always want enough chairs in the house for everyone to have a place to sit.And soap, well that is something that I have spent a lot of time testing and researching, at least before we disconnected from the internet.This is one of my soap stashes. For some reason the older I get the more in a rush I get to find the perfect soap before I leave my earthly tent behind. I have the makings to make soap but I just want to find that one perfect soap to purchase.There is a lot that I do not know about soap but then there is a lot that I do know about soap. I have researched just about everything there is out there how soap is made and how wh ......

I made new ration books because the first ones were not correct. I went ahead and put all the letters in the book so we could cut out to where we are now. I wish we had started March the first and follow along as they did when the processed foods and meats began.I never dreamed what a history trip that we would have to make to learn how to ration as they did during WW2.We continue our in depth research at our public library. So here we are trying to make the way we live as much like 1943 as possible.I started filling a notebook with research material and I have changed notebook sizes three times now, I may have to go to book two.To ration as they did during WW2 does not have to be as complic ......

Here is a list of Rationing Points and Dates during WW2 that I have typed up after much research. My husband and I have been going and continue to go, to our local public library and use their research room to study about the home front during WW2. These are the release and expiration dates to the best of our knowledge from our research.RATIONING POINTS ARE AS FOLLOWS,EACH PERSON was given 48 BLUE POINT STAMPS PER MONTH.BLUE STAMPS were to be used for PROCESSED FOODSSuch as;FRUITS AND FRUIT JUICES,FROZEN FRUITSDRIED AND DEHYDRATEDCANNED AND BOTTLED VEGETABLES AN VEGETABLE JUICESOTHER PROCESSED FOODS, CANNED AND BOTTLED INCLUDING BABY FOODFRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES ARE NOT RATIONEDRED STAMPS ......

Today we begin our one year journey into 1943. We have strict rationing. We have 64 red stamps and 48 blue stamps to last one month. We have one coffee stamp for 1 lb of coffee for 5 weeks, 3 gallons of gas for one week at a time, we have one sugar stamp for 1 pound of sugar (4 ounces per week), one shoe stamp for entire year. These rations are for one person. The stamps count as points.We have packed away all items that were not in homes in 1943. We have no internet, no television in our home. We have simple soap, no shampoo, no hair dryer. And other things....The numbers to the left of the item is how many points that you must have in stamps then the money to purchase the item.Following al ......

If you have been following along my web posts I have explained that my husband and I are living the era of 1943 for one year. We are trying our best to follow all the rationing guidelines they had in 1943 as well as living as they did as much as possible. Here are a few more articles about the rationing.***** NOTE ***** Since posting this article I found a later newspaper article that says that gasoline was reduced from 4 gallons to three gallons. I will scan that article and post it as soon as I can, but since I do not have internet this is difficult. I work mostly from the library. ......

Please refer back to the first article that I posted explaining that my husband and I are living on food, gas and other rations as they did during WWII for one year. We chose the year 1943. We are trying to live as they would have lived during that time.This was posted in the newspaper and I broke it down and typed up the points to make it a little easier to read.Rations changed off and on, up and down, but continued during and after WWII. ......

We continue to learn about the home front during WWIIWe are moving along on the points.Now we will discuss Meats, butter, oils, lard etc.Each person Received 64 RED STAMP points for 4 weeks. Here is a very good article that was posted in the newspaper when the meat rationing took affect.Again I am sorry about the many pieces of this article follow along by alphabet, To get this posted I had to enlarge it then cut it into pieces and scan each piece to make it large enough to read. ......

To understand this page, please see LIVING LIKE 1943.These are assorted WWII rations stamps above that I have in my possession.My husband and I are currently living one year as they did in 1943.This is a WWII Ration Book 3 that I have in my possession.I will be posting different articles and will number them so you can keep up and so each post will not be too long and cause loading problems. I have been researching newspapers at our public library trying to learn as much as I can about the home front during WWII. I am sharing with you some of the important articles because it is difficult to find information about rationing in the United States.Coffee was rationed 1 pound of coffee per ......

IT IS 1943 AT OUR HOUSE My husband and I have been trying to live more like the past for quite some time but what we are doing now is a bit different.I received a email from a website visitor, her name is Catherine. At first we were catching up a bit and she was discussing how she was doing more things from the past. Then Catherine mentioned, “ I have been considering trying to live on WWII rations (food, gas, etc.) for awhile as a good experience.” She discussed how it would have made you thoughtful about using your car, not wasting food or anything else for that matter. My next email to her was, “Catherine, I love your idea about the WWII rationing.” Then after talking with m ......

I have been away for a few months and I wanted you all to know I am not sick and I am doing well. My husband and I made a decision that we were going to drop our television cable, our internet and a few other things. We simply were tired of paying for these things since these companies raise the bill continuously. We had enough and disconnected. We found other ways around this. We purchased an inexpensive digital antenna and we get basic television and all we need. We get ABC, CBS, NBC and our public television. This is not like our old television antenna in the past but it does provide us with television without having to pay a bill each month.I found that I could go to our public library a ......

The other Morning I snapped a picture of our little Katherine enjoying the sun coming through the window. I was thinking of how she was just enjoying the moment of the sunshine.Many of us often ignore the simple things of life that pass us by that could have been a brief but special moment if we would have just paused and taken notice.If we just start noticing the detail of things It could make a change in how we feel.I wish I could find a way to tell people so that they truly Get It to not wait until they are older to slow down and enjoy the small things in life that turn out many times to be great moments. We are just one, each of us one person and if we just take our time in every ......

Many people search for answers how to get their home in some kind of order and keep it that way. I have been working my way to functional order for quite some time. I am going to share the things I have learned along the way to help answer some questions from my visitors.I am by far not perfect with housekeeping but I have learned from my mistakes and we have been working our way out of clutter that we accumulated from different factors. We all accumulate items throughout our lives and during our time caring for my parents we ended up with extra items and clutter that they had acquired during their lives. Persistence is what it takes to get back to some kind of normal.In different arti ......

One day my Grandson said, Grandma, you are always doing something. I have not posted in awhile so I thought I would just post pictures to let everyone know that I am still here. I sorted my curler drawer and cleaned my curlers. When I was a child every Saturday morning my mother would collect the hair brushes and combs and soak them in the bathroom sink combs in hot soapy water. We would take a comb and clean the curlers and clean the combs too. We live in such a busy disposable world that sometimes we forget to do these things.I Made some lemon raspberry Whoopie pies just because.My husband built a screen door for the guest room. We have Granddogs and Grandcats tha ......

Many things have changed since the 1950's and oh how I wish that I could just zoom back to that era because so many things just made more sense.Some people wonder what people ate in 1950 so I am doing a post on my memories of that time.If you look back at the cookbooks from the 1950's to the 1980's you might think that these books show what most people ate during that time. But in reality it was very different because many families continued to cook what their families had eaten for generations and many recipe books were full of new ideas.After world war II, food was changing. During the war food shortages and rationing brought in newly created processed foods. Some cookbooks with new food i ......

I will tell you right up that this is a long post because I feel that it is important.We are back at it again with another living on less experiment. This time it is a further study on water rationing. There are people all over the world that have limited resources due to different circumstances. It may be food, water, electricity, gasoline or even soap if your budget is low and you are about to run out of money a week before payday.The least we could do is practice how to live with less in case there is an emergency and we should always have stored water for an emergency. It is our responsibility to have emergency supplies for our family. It is also our responsibility to not pollute ou ......

This is a hummingbird stopping by for a drink.My husband and I enjoy our home. Coming home feels right, it feels satisfying and comfortable. We would rather spend our money on needs for our home rather than eating a meal out or going on vacation. There is nothing outside our home other than visiting family that appeals to us because our spot, our place we call home is where we want to be.The first part of my life we moved often. I married at a young age and we moved several times because we were in the military. After leaving the military life we moved many times as we were settling due to job change. During each move my nesting instincts set in and I would make our home just that, a home no ......