Here we go again, we are embarking on a new old experience.
For those of you that are new to my blog, we talk about our generations before us and how they lived, and we investigate deep into the home life of long ago. We do history studies and talk about how to live a simple life.
There are many years of post and studies here on my blog, you can go to the page menu's and scroll down to the bottom and find the numbers that take you back to the older posts and studies.
We are currently studying the 1930s, and each of us doing the study are doing it our own way since we live in different areas and different types of houses and we are trying to keep it as similar as we can to live like they lived in the 1930s.
Due to the hectic life that many people have today, we are finding it difficult to truly do this study to get a feel of how it was so we are going to be taking a no technology break for the month of October to experience how it was to live with no technology and the modern things in our home that they did not have back then.
The more we have talked about it on our blog forum, the more excited people have been getting to take this technology break. I will not be posting during October and will close the forum as well during this time. I will do a new post on November 1st and re-open the forum so everyone can discuss their findings of how it was to live without technology and also find out how long did it take to break the addictions of technology.
I hope that this month of October to be interesting, calming and new discoveries.
Some suggestions that will help to give the real feel of the 1930s.
Keep a journal, a simple school notebook or a real diary or whatever you want to use. Many people kept diaries during the 1930s.
Wind up clocks were most common during this time and some had wrist watches and pocket watches. Any clock will do except for the clock on your phone.
A paper calendar, to keep up with your activities. The frequency of grocery shopping would depend on if you had an ice box and where you live, rural or city.
If you do not have a land line your cell phone should be placed in an area of the house beside a chair and consider that it is attached to the wall so you cannot walk around the house with the phone because those that did have a phone, the phone was attached to the wall or sat on a table.
This shown above is a receiver we purchased last year that attaches to our cell phone. Charles is making a base for our cell phone to set in and the receiver to set on top as the old phones were.
This is not as old fashioned as they were in the 1930s but as close as we can get at this time. Place and receive phone calls only, no texting, and make the call short because people did not stay on a call for very long because the calls went through switchboards operators and later there were party lines and so the phone lines were shared.
Write down the phone numbers of those you may be calling.
Have an address book so you can write a few letters to your family. It is good to have one anyway in case of data loses.
Before technology we wrote letters, and in my family we did not sit down and write a full letter. We would write informal letters home and start a letter on a certain day and write part of the letter and more later in the week and finish the next week and then mail it off.
My mother would send a letter and combine the information in the letters that she had received from the family letters and so our letters flowed into one another as a conversation would. We would send a telegram if it was urgent or a full letter if was important news.
They did place grocery orders during this time if they had a phone and also they did write down their grocery order for taking to the store so the clerk could get their groceries for them behind the counter but supermarkets were coming in some areas where you could walk around with your baskets.
The motion pictures were very popular in the 1920's and 1930's even through the great depression times. Some people went several times per week and even stayed for the second movie. Charles and I plan on using our DVD player for movie nights.
Pop corn was very popular at home gatherings in the evenings with friends to play table games.
People did not have televisions, and radio shows were also popular but remember they were not on the air waves day and night. They went on air at certain times in the morning and off the air in the evenings. They even had soap operas.
Charades was something very popular in the 1930s and the 1940s. The average home décor and activities during the 1930s and 1940s home did not change a lot and blended into one another. The dresses did change from the 1920 into 1930s, the hem lines dropped in the 1930s and were a looser dress and in the 1940s the hemlines went up due to rations and lack of fabric and goods due to the war.
Walkways and porches were swept with a broom.
People sat out on their porches.
To truly experience this time in history and also give ourselves a technology break, we can do our best to not use what they did not have during this time and find more time to do our household chores, some knitting or sewing, reading some good books.
Parsley
Home gardens were common as they started the war gardens during world war 1 and with the great depression going on people grew food then as well and of course we know that ww2 was brewing and once again the victory gardens came around during the late 1930s and 1940s depending on what part of the world they lived.
It was very common for people to go on a picnic and gather with friends.
They were still knitting their own bandages in the 1930s and that ramped up again during world war 2 as it was during ww1. I have a post on these bandages on my forum and I plan on picking up where I left off on my bandage making during October.
Filet crochet was popular during the 1920s and 1930s. Cotton crochet thread was used to make the filet crochet pieces. If you do make some household items during October take pictures to share with us in November what you have made. Crochet edging was also popular, and pretty collars were still being made. Most any type of hand work.
People soaked their laundry before washing.
I am thinking that the Month of November theme should be to continue the old skills of the 1930s so keep that in mind, and may only have biweekly posts if we get used to the off time. We will see how it goes.
With all of these studies, you can join in at any time of the year
The forum will be open until September 30th so there will be time for those doing their practice week, to pop into the forum to ask questions or add information.
I hope this gives you some ideas for your month of October technology free month.
I hope to see you in the forum for comments to this post and any thoughts and ideas that you have while being off of technology and or living like the early 1930s. Funds will be low during this period in time. Grandma Donna
