I recently moved my Granny's 1800s trunk to a place where I could stack our quilts instead of folding them tightly in a closet. They seem to feel better now :)
I have mentioned in other posts that we have slowly replaced some modern items with older items and recently I was asked in an email could I show you some of the items.
As we have been traveling our journey to a more simple life we have been getting rid of some of our modern things and replacing the items with functional vintage items.
We had some of the old items packed away but many things we got rid and donated years ago. Just like many of us did, we replaced things to stay current. We were encouraged with advertising to live modern, this is how it has been for many years. It does not matter if it is still good, we need to stay current right? We don't want to be considered out of date or old fashioned right?
Well it was like for us until we came to our senses.
Above is a very old can opener that works like a jewel. We purchased this one from ebay because we no longer had one like this because we replaced it with an electric can opener then the ones that work really bad then the ones that fall apart so then we ordered this one like the one we had to begin with. We will stick with this one.
Here are some assorted items that remain useful and used often.
These had been packed away and are now back in use. This old waffle iron works very well and so does the toaster. I cannot explain why we ever thought we needed more modern items to replace these. The modern ones were donated and the old ones are back in use.
This radio was packed away because it only has AM radio. You may have seen it in other posts. It once again has purpose because we found out that on Sunday afternoons an AM station that we can pick up plays the old music and old radio shows, mysteries, Lucy, Jack Bennie, westerns and such starting in the afternoon and into the evening. The days this old radio was played, stations went off the air in the evening playing the national anthem just before they went off.
We started replacing some of our more modern (and cheaply made) lamps with the older lamps because these have a night light at the bottom. When you need just a little light and don't want to turn on a bright light these work well. They always did. As far as old lamps you should always check the wiring or take it to a lamp repair.
Then there are the oil lamps which you may have seen before. We have several of these. Actually we have one for each room. When the power goes out at night these are very nice to have.
I keep some of the lamps stored where I can clean them off easier as anything that sits in a house will get dust as you all know.
We missed the old clocks. We had a few and we bought two more. The digital things just did not feel right.
This is an old wall clock that runs very well and also has a dim back light for night time.
You may have seen my old treadle in older posts, the old machine works like a charm. This one is pretty banged up but it runs really good. I will repeat the story for those that may have not read it. I had an old treadle machine. An older couple practically adopted us when we were in the military. We lived in Oklahoma and we were a young couple on low pay and we had very little. After had our first child was born the couple gave me a old treadle machine so I could sew baby clothes. She had bought an electric one. When it came time to leave Oklahoma to move back to Alabama we had only enough money to rent a small pull trailer. With a baby we had a crib, playpen and some things we did not have when we moved there. We went there with only what fit into our 1955 ford.
It was leave the baby or the treadle machine so even though it was a hard choice :), of course it wasn't, the old faithful treadle was left behind.
Well, I always missed that machine and so a few years ago we found one with a busted up cabinet but at a price we could not resist. Took the machine out and took it to singer to get it serviced and it runs so very smooth. The singer man said it was a good machine. I am so happy having a treadle again and my husband loves to listen to me sew on it because it is so quiet.
I will close here because it is getting long. I will do a part two so look for part two......Grandma Donna
