Happy New Year

Happy New Year!  It is 1932 again at our house!

Charles and I have decided for our history project this year we have returned to 1932.  Our past history project got hijacked by a pandemic.

Even though we are still in the pandemic we are picking up our history project and are going to do our best by starting over. One thing we learned last year is boy do we need to study and live more like the past than ever before.  Smack dab in a Great Depression seems like a good place to start and I will explain more about this statement.

There is so much to learn about 1932.  I have five diaries, many newspapers, some 1930s learn how to books as well as a montgomery ward catalog and endless microfilm articles. 

To live in 1932 we also will be studying and referencing 1914 up to 1932 because as an adult in 1932 we would have gone through some very difficult times such as world war 1, a pandemic that started in 1918 and ended in 1920 and millions dead, a whirl wind 1920's buying spree and then a great depression. 

None of them knew at this time there was still to come world war 2. These are the people that Charles and I are very interested in and to find out how did they make it through all of this? We know many did not, but when we talk about the past our Grandparents and Great Grandparents keep coming up in our conversations because they were strong but gentle, they were resourceful and steady and sensible.

When we study the past, so much is in black and white.  We read history and see it without color and it looks old and dreary and gives us the impression that it was such a depressing time.  But they lived in color, they dressed in color. It also seemed to me to be a time with the most beautiful dresses and hair styles.

We should keep this in mind when we are studying the past, they did live hard times but they lived in color.

So we are going to live 1932 for one year, but...

We will live in color just like it was during 1932.

We will continue on with our canning and food preservation.

We get excited each January about our studies and then this real world sets in and we fizzle.  We are going to go slower because it was a slower time and I hope you will be able to pick up many ideas and helpful tips.

If you want to live more like the past pick any year you would like to study or join in with us in 1932.

Markets looked quite different long ago.  Charles and I are going to concentrate on eating more like our ancestors ate in 1932. This was a market in our town of Dothan.

See what I mean about black and white?  This was most likely very colorful because I can see cabbages that would be green and some other produce and canned goods. It reminds me a little bit like my Great Uncles store with the goods on the walls. 

Long ago people would come in with a list and the clerks would pull the order for you.  Often groceries were delivered by wagon or bicycle, depending where they lived.  Little by little the Markets changed and then there were buggies and isles and the rest you know.

We have food catalog's from as early as 1910 and we have learned that people would shop for food through a catalog and their food would come by train and wagon. 

Right now we are living like 1932 but really living in 2021 and using curb side pick up due to our current pandemic. So our living like the past scenario could be quite interesting since food available and what was common to eat is part of this study. 

It is like this, Charles and I have just been plopped into 1932.  

Large cities were much different than small towns and rural was completely different. Depending on where we live would be a difference of living without electricity and running water, traveling by horse and wagon verses actually owning a car and a house with electric and water during the same time.  Where we live now did not exist in 1932 and we would be rural so this is a bit of a problem.  When we originally decided to study this year our plan was to find some of the places in the newspaper to see where they used to be and to do a before and now. We hope that we can now do this. 

Being that our family lived in a small town in the southeast part of the United States there were still horses and wagons and cars. There was electric and water and also no electric and water. 

Charles said we will definitely be working on a better garden this spring.  I am keeping this post short because I have been very busy in research and I need to organize my research work. Charles and I will be discussing our goals this afternoon.  

I hope you have some new goals and something interesting on the horizon.  We do not have to leave home to find new and exciting things to do and any home or apartment or whatever we live in needs care and repairs and keeping.  We are the keepers of the home and there is always something to do. I say make it special.  Grandma Donna