The roses will be gone soon since it is fall now so I am sharing a beautiful rose in full bloom from our yard.
This post is about lessons we have learned over the years and making our change to live more like the past. We do not have it all figured out because there are a lot of decisions to make along the way. We are aiming to live more like the past somewhere between 1900 and late 1940s. We are somewhat in this time period but still too modern. We are just working our way little by little and replacing things that have no real purpose with things that do.
Above is a vintage slip. I love this old slip laying on the bed in the morning sun.
I love the feeling of the past as we have made changes. Our changes have been gradual and the one thing I am still not decided on is clothing styles. I may have to sew my own clothes. I am not going to walk around looking like a person that came out of a history book, all I want are comfortable and modest clothes. I keep putting it off other than making my own skirts.
In the 1940s the hemline went up due to the war. The government asked that dressmakers and home seamstresses raised the hemline and the sleeve to save on fabric. After the war the hemline went back down again. This was just a little history information.
I love the textures of the older chairs. This is a very vintage chair that we have.
There are lessons we learn and things that I remember that I had forgotten by living more like the past. Real soap is a milky smooth in water. Real soap we can use to bathe, wash dishes, wash our laundry and also mop our floors, clean our furniture and walls and doorknobs and mirrors. Synthetic soap is not good for these things.
There is so much beauty in older pieces such as the globe of this very old glass lamp shade. Today it is so hard to get away from plastic but when we look for vintage items we find beautiful glass and metal and wood.
This is what sports looked like long ago. It was about team spirit and doing your best, nothing like what it is today. Now there is no such thing as modesty and I wonder what our generations from the past would say if they would see sports today. I wish somehow they could erase the present and bring back the good parts of the past.
A few of my biggest lessons so far is learning to not buy into what is in style. To not follow along what others are doing and not worry about what others think. When we do these things we all become generic.
This simple latch on our china cabinet we call Walton makes me happy. I like to turn it down to open the glass door. It is such a simple thing.
The old dovetail joinery in the old furniture makes so much sense to me. To join wood with no nails or screws is so interesting.
This is a old wooden wheel on the bottom of our wash stand. This is something that is very special to me to have a piece of furniture with wood wheels. I have an appreciation for these old pieces.
Bernadette is always interested in the older pieces. She is interested in most anything that is going on in the house. :) Bernadette is my shadow, no matter where I am she is there. If the last place I saw her was on the chair in the den, when I walk back to the bedroom and look down there is Bernadette. :)
Charles and I sat down together and I asked him if I could interview him. I asked what lessons has he learned from us living more like the past.
Charles
It's comfortable and we don't have the distractions of the modern world. You can observe all the things around that you never noticed before.
Things take a lot of time now even the simple things and tasks. Your not taking the easy route. Using modern things might be faster but there is pride in what you do and easy things make you dependent on electricity.
Screws and nails today are of poor quality.
Too much plastic today, flimsy.
Measurements have changed, wood boards are not true sizes they once were.
Inside the home is nice because it is quiet and reading books is a lot more pleasurable.
A full bath would feel wasteful now. We see food and water similar, we shouldn't waste food or water.
Electricity is a luxury item, that was the way it was when it came into the age of electricity.
Rest is the most important thing you can do for your body. Once you start going to bed early it puts you back in sync with nature. The birds prepare as the sun is going down, they know how it works and they get their last meal and drink of water before twilight.
I also asked Charles the question, Why do you journal?
It is history and it documents changes.
Adjusting our life to live more simple and more like the past is the best things we have ever done. When there is too much stimuli and rushing in our lives it leads to mistakes. I am concerned about the generations today that have never had any old fashioned experiences to relate to as we older folks have.
When we have something to compare to we can make better decisions.
The first steps in living a simple life is cooking homemade meals, removing the noise then removing clutter. Then we are already on our way to less spending. Starting a budget and paying off debt will relieve tension in the home.
Our generations before us did not have all the junk in their lives we have today. I often am shocked at the households of people with new babies and one of my greatest concerns is how much of all this baby stuff is made of plastic.
I know what a home that had newborns and toddlers looked like in the past. A mother today needs a dozen arms to handle all the baby items and the pressure on a new mothers back has to be just awful for all the awkward equipment. It takes two arms to hold a baby and attentiveness.
I feel the worse distraction for a new mother today is a cell phone.
We are victims of marketing, we are made to think we must have all these things they make and sell. We have been told "this will make your life easier". Many times it makes our life more complicated.
When a baby is born it is a time of bonding and care. Eye contact and being talked to and cuddling them. Keeping them clean and nourishing their body is our responsibility as their parent. When our home is uncluttered it is easier for us to take care of ourselves and baby and keeping the noise level down helps the baby to learn sounds.
It has not been easy to make changes to live a more simple life because it is work but the lessons learned along the way makes it worth it.
I miss those wonderful people from generations before us that were part of my life but I am so thankful that they were in my life and made impressions on me that have drawn me back to living a more simple and sensible life. I hope that sharing our life can give others a glimpse of what it looked like living in the past.
Living a simple vintage life is not for everyone, we all are at different stages of our lives but if you are feeling something is not right maybe you are being nudged a little. After all, you are here reading this blog. Grandma Donna
