Living Like the Past

Continuing the diary of Lil and Bob. They are in their seventies, this is during world war 2, Bob works odd jobs and does war duty by going to the watch tower to watch for war planes. The tower is up on top of a tall hotel. Lil has few words in her diary but still important bits of the war and rationing.Monday, March 29, 1943. Rain most all day. Nothing doing. over at Ruth's in a.m. Bob home at 1:40Tuesday, March 30. Nice & Sunny. Planted some carrot & lettuce seed. Bob cut lawns. wrote Helen. Wednesday, March 31. Fine day. Made Nuco butter. Called on R. Ambruster. Bob home at 1:15 Up t ......

The History Studies that Charles and I have done have taught us many things and I want to share this very important part of what we have learned and what we are trying to do now to put us in a better position to be able to live more like the past. To live like the past we have to undo many things. It is not easy to live more like the past coming from a excessive modern time that we live. It costs nothing to sit on that bench shown above and enjoy a beautiful day and watch and study nature. That bench was a iron frame that someone threw out to the curb for the trash truck to pick up. It did not have a seat so Charles picked it up and put a seat in this lovely ......

We continue the reading of our diary from Lil and Bob. I type out the diaries as was written by the writers.Monday, March 22 1943. Fine day - Took a home hair shampoo. Bob late home, stoped to shop on way home. Tuesday March 23. Fine day. Done the family wash. Bob home at 1:30 cut the lawns.Wednesday March 24. Fine day. Made butter or mixed butter and Nuco - done some out door work - Bob cut Frahms croquet lawn.Thursday March 25. Nice day. Ruth & Judy in part of forenoon waiting for Bob to come home for a chance to go up Town. Nothing done. Friday March 26. Light shower in a.m. Fair in P.M. Ruth & Judy over. Letter from ca ......

I have started using a file box for our garden seeds. Since starting the study of 1943 I keep trying to remember my childhood living in our house that was built in the year 1940. Our house that we are living in now is very similar to my childhood home built in 1940. That home had better storage space and since I have been trying to make things fit into our home and it just will not organize as it was long ago I finally figured out what the problem was. Storage space.I found a publication that I want to share with you and I cannot take pictures of this because I do not know if it is for me to share but I did find this publication from 1940 of closet spaces. ......

We can tell the month of the year by where the sun comes into our home. The dining room window faces east and the sun has moved over enough now to reach the stove. I love how the sun affects our home all through the year as it rises and sets at different points each day. Many people never pay attention to this but it is part of God's perfect plan and there are so many things for us to notice if we just would take the time to do so. This sunlight will only be in this area for a short time, each morning it will move to a new location ever so slowly throughout the house.We should adjust our life to where we do not miss the important things and we should teach ou ......

We will continue with our diary reading for Lil's diary. Bob and Lil are in their 70s and this diary is written in the year 1943. Bob does war duty by going to the top of a hotel to watch for war planes. Lil writes the diary.Monday March 15, 1943. Frost Sun out all day. Bob had car serviced at Murphy's this a.m. - home at 1:30 P.M.Tuesday March 16. Cloudy day. Worked butter. Made Jello & done a bit out doors. Bob home earlier. cut Frahm's Lawn. Wednesday March 17. Rain all forenoon. - Bob home at 1:30 P.m. no outdoor work today. Thursday March 18. Light frost. Fine day. Bob home at 1:30 had lunch. Uptown to shop. Frida ......

I wrote a post many years ago called A comfortable home. It has been awhile since that post and I decided to make a new post about Making a Comfortable Home. Here we are about two weeks from spring. Many trees and bushes are blooming and just beautiful but I guess they did not get word that a freeze is coming by the end of this week. I hope they make it through the cold. Each year I get surprised how some things will withstand whatever weather throws at them. This petunia that has lived two years now through soaring heat and below freezing temperatures. It is the first time we have had a petunia do this in our yard. This has given me hope.W ......

We continue with this weeks diary reading. I will start with the diary of Lil and Bob. Lil and Bob are in their mid 70's and Bob is doing war duty at the watch tower and Lil is taking care of home.Monday March 8, 1943. Rain again most of the day. Bob late, stopped up town to shop and see about F locker. The Marshalls Called.Tuesday March 9, Showers. Done a bit of outdoor work. Bob burned garbage and cut lawns.Wednesday March 10, Rain most all the day. Bob home early, washed the car. Got our Red cross membership cards. Thursday March 11, Fog in early a.m. Sun all afternoon. Done the washing. Up to Bank with Bob to buy Bond ......

It is March 1, 1943. Our history project is now taking us on a new journey of rationing. A good lesson for us all, no matter if we are doing this history study or just reading along. Our azaleas are in bloom now and I try to imagine what our town looked like on March 1st in 1943. If I walked downtown in 1943 the sidewalks would be busy with people going about their business. People would be heading to Bloomberg's to shop and wool coats are on sale, men's suits have handsome new blends. Sometimes I wish it could all go back to how it was because it made more sense but there are some things that were not good. I do not like to romanticize the past because ......

We resume our diary readings. We are starting with the diary of Lil and Bob. Lil and Bob are in their mid 70s. It is 1943 and the point system of rationing is starting and Bob has war duty and he is assigned a few hours per day to go to the top of a hotel to watch for war planes. Lil's diary is short because it is a five year diary and there is little space to write but we still pick up on history facts.Monday ,March 1, 1943. Fine day. Bob home Early - up town to shop, Ruby A in to tell us Bab's has measles. Marshalls are here in eve-.Tuesday March 2, Partly cloudy Light Frost. Bob home early- down to Helena and to see Elizbeth baby- Richa ......

Now we are getting closer to our big changes in our history study. It is time to register for our war book number 2. There is now a ban for buying canned food so the grocery stores can take inventory and no one can purchase canned Meat, Fish Vegetables and Fruit until March 1 and then after that,only with money and war ration stamps. It is time to learn how the point system works. Above is a photo of what we will see in the grocery ads. The number before the food item is how many points it will take to purchase that item. We see Tuna, 3 points, peaches 24 points. Cheese 8 points, Margarine 5 points etc. When people go to the grocery ......

Each week I have been doing a Diary reading post and then a regular post the next day about the history study and what is going on around our home. Some weeks there are extra posts with information about our history study. This is today's Diary readings, you can go back on my home page to find the beginning readings, they are all under Living like the past section. Now we pick up on Lil and Bob's on February 22 1943 Monday Feb 22, Rain all day. Worked butter and Nuco. Sent stork card to Elizabeth at cottage Hospital. Bob home very tired at 1:30Tuesday, Feb 23. Cloudy but not much rain. Bob home 1:30. Up to register for ration book 2. Done the shopping Clisbus ......

Here we are middle of our second month of our history study of the year 1943. World war 2 is going on, people have been asked to ration food on their own and some things have been already rationed such as sugar, coffee, fuel oil, gasoline, rubber and tires. The newspaper is warning that food rationing is coming and people need to start practicing at home how and what they will do to feed their families. People were asked to save their used cooking grease and turn it in at locations such as butchers and grocers so that it could be turned into gunpowder for rifles and cannons, vaccines, sulfa drugs, salve to treat burns. People were asked to save every tin can ......

I want to mention here that Charles and I have been very busy and my regular posting will be a few days late this week. Charles took some time off work so we could do some clean up on a family members property and we are not finished with the work. We are not as fast as we used to be and so I will be back with this weeks posting in a few days.We are back to reading our two diaries. The first diary reading is Lil and Bob in the year 1943. Both in their 70s and Bob does yard work around the area they live and also does war duty at the watch tower on top of a hotel, watching for war planes. I am doing weekly readings with both diaries through this year of ......

I will start with Lil's Diary First. We are following along with Lil's diary from 1943. She and her husband Bob are in their Mid 70s and live a simple but busy life and Bob is doing war duty but being one of the war watchmen on top of the hotel to watch for war planes. Make sure you have read the other entries, just look for the diary posts.Monday, February 8, Showery & light hail storm. Bob at S. home at 2:30. B.M called a few minutes, wrote Helen. Tuesday, February 9, Nice but cold. Hard frost. War time started a year ago today. Bob home at 2:30 Up Town to shop, Hair cut for Bob. Wednesday, February 10, Fine, Frost in a.m.  ......

As Charles and I move through the early months of our study researching the entire year of 1943, day by day, we see that this will be an interesting year, much more than last time we studied this year which we did that study in the real year of 2015.I am starting out with an article from 1943 that shows us that it many get tough this year (1943) but it might get tough in this year of 2022 too, so I though this fitting.Remember, we are in 1943, Article : Uncle Sam's official housekeepers are teaching Americans to return to the frugal ways of their pioneer forefathers. Wartime household hints, embracing everything from drying foods for vict ......

To do this History Study to live like 1943 we need to know our prices for food and clothing, toiletries and most anything. I will post a few clips so you can write down what things cost for this study. I would suggest a small notebook and write down the prices so when you go shopping you can look up the 1943 price for your study. If there is something that you cannot read or is not here and need to know a price you can email me. Please title the email Question so I can get back to you a little faster. You can go to your public library to the research room and look at the microfilms to find the 1943 newspapers if yo ......

I didn't have a goose, but Uncle Mack above, said to use him again. :) For several days we have gone back and forth on our city's electric and water rates for 1943. We have two 1943 electric bills but not from our town and we were just going to use them but we wanted to know more about here where we live. So we had to go back in our research to 1935 to find what rates they set them at that time because that was the last time the city adopted a new rate. The next rate change was in 1944. During these years, the city had a very complicated way to rate electricity. They even stated that in the newspaper that it was complicated.We did not give up thou ......

We are reading the 1943 Diary of Lil and Bob. They are each in their 70's and Bob works jobs and does war duty by going to the top of a hotel to watch for war planes.We continue this diary and pick up on February 1, 1943Monday Feb 1, Sunshine all forenoon but cloudy in P.M. Bob home early. Had car serviced at Murphy.Tuesday Feb 2, He saw his shadow. Bob home late from S. R.& M called in afternoon for a few minutes. (I type this as it is written, the writer abbreviates)Wednesday Feb 3, Fine day, done some pruning over at Emma's a few minutes. Bob home from S -with a chicken at 2:30Thursday Feb 4, Light rain all day - Bob home at 2:48. Up town to shop - ......

Life is getting more simple here in 1943. Today we will take a look at our budget and it sure does look different than that future year of 2022. Remember we are living a year like 1943.The war has gotten very serious (ww2) and the only way to not sit and worry is to do all we can to help. I have been saving our cooking grease like they asked us to do and I am starting to plant seeds in newspaper cups to be ready for our spring victory garden. Charles picked up some seed potatoes down at the Jitney Jungle there sure is a ruckus about these seed potatoes this year, I am glad that we could get them. They were .59c for a peck. There was an article abou ......