Living Like the Past

When you sit and sew you can do a lot of thinking and remembering, especially if you have lived awhile long. I was the old fashioned child, the old soul as someone might say. I had a draw to the old things from the time I can remember. This is especially odd since I was the daughter of my parents.Above is Guy Lombardo and my parents. You can do a search of Guy Lombardo and find that he was a famous musician, especially during the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's. Their group was four brothers, and they had other musicians that played with them during shows, my father being one of them. My dad could play most any instrument he put his hands on. Dad playe ......

Yesterday's post about clothing and how many articles of clothing one needs in 1940, a new discussion has come up in the forum about the number of undies that someone should have during this time in history.Panties, is mostly what we are referring to, because on the website Vintage Dancer it was mentioned one would have only 4 pair of panties in 1940. The title of this post here today, is the unspoken way. Some of you in the forum have what you remember of why only four pair of panties were needed, thank you for posting, and yes the reason is because people hand washed their panties throughout the week. We all have our unspoken way of doing things so there are ......

Everyone gets a bit excited around our house when we start a new study. These studies are good for us in many ways and it keeps us from getting stale like old bread.I have decided that I will do another peek week this week as I did the beginning of last year. I will do my best to post each day this week to help get us on track for this new study. This is Monday July 1 when I am posting this article and talking about what we will be doing today on our first day of the study of 1940.July 1940Today I will be removing all clothing from the closet and chest of drawers as well as Charles Chifforobe. This chore will cause another chore later because I must go through, donate or store the ......

We are now starting our new study of the year 1940. Charles and I have been shifting furniture around and removing some items and packing them away. We like to get the feel of the year that we are studying. So we remove some items that they did not have during the time that we are studying with the exception of our heating and cooling and necessary items of today. This is not necessary to do, it is just something we do to make the study a bit more exciting and we also get the house extra clean from moving furniture. :)For those that will be doing this study with us or just reading along, there are some things to remember. The skills of an adult keeping a ho ......

Here we go again, we are leaving 1917, we gathered some facts while we were there but the news was slim due to war news and little other. We left some things unfinished in the 1940s so we packed up and went back home to the unstudied year of 1940. On July 1, 2015 Charles and I took an adventure back in time and did a one year study of the year 1943. We wanted to study rationing during world war 2. We started the study on July 1st instead of January 1 because it took us a while to figure out how to do this study. This led to more history studies that had us jumping all over in time. This is what it was like, Oh, let's study another year! Where do you ......

Our handwritten home expenses journal from 1880 to 1942. Throughout my blog I do my best to share information from the historical items that we have, especially journals and diaries. There is a lot of chaos in this world and this is nothing new. However, it does seem that it is more than I have seen in my lifetime. Charles and I study history, the home front especially, it seems to us that the people that make it through chaos and hard times had strength that came from practicality. These are the people that rolled up their sleeves and understood what it takes to grow food, to sweat, to understand what living basic really means. Basic does not mean t ......

I am very thankful for the things we have, and it is good to be getting back to something that feels normal. Charles and I have been working towards improving our diet but in a way that is sensible and affordable.We are grinding our own grains, soaking our flour and making yogurt with live cultures. We took everything out of our pantry and gave it a good cleaning, we rotated everything that needed to be rotated. As we are getting older our needs change so sometimes we stop eating certain things and so if we have food that might expire, we take it to donate to the food bank before it expires. I feel the need to make sure that we can feed our family through a c ......

It is peach season at our house and we have been enjoying eating fresh peaches for a few weeks now. We have also eaten a few figs as well. A few days ago I put up some more peaches to make peach pies. Our trees are young but it is encouraging to see that the peaches that they do make are very enjoyable.I would like to say that I am still soaking anything that has grain, seeds, beans, nuts etc. and it is helping with digestion. I am still learning so I am not posting my recipes but each day I am getting better at it.I started another sewing project and made a small curtain to go on the kitchen sink window.I decided to go with a layered look, I felt the need t ......

While we are learning new old things, it is getting late spring and that means we had to get on with it in the garden. We are busy inside and outside the house.I have been spending a lot more time in the kitchen because I am trying to take the time to prepare our food in a more healthy manner. It is very confusing to know what is good to eat because it seems that each week or so there is some report such as dairy is bad for us, gluten is bad, sugar is bad, meat is bad, eggs are bad and on and on. How did anyone ever live in the past? I feel that what is bad is how our food is grown and animals are raised, that is what is bad. Charles and I bot ......

When I was a child I was drawn to my most interesting relatives. The ones that were just themselves and with no pretence and were perfect as they were. Each one had something interesting about them, the way they dressed or fixed their hair. Sometimes it was what their interests were such as always finding them out in the garden or inside with fabric and buttons and sewing notions all about. Vivian had a costume shop, Grandmother crochet doll dresses, Aunt Nina enjoyed antiques, Uncle Less had a country store with penny candy and soda pop on ice.I remember a interesting metal gate and the sound that it made, wood floors that creaked, I can remember wo ......

A long time ago, before modern cars, airplanes, computers, telephones, and gadgets that will do most anything, there were dirt roads, wagons, small communities, and most often extended family somewhere close by to help one another. There were people sitting on their porches waving to one another or visiting with each other. Many could tell the weather patterns because they noticed nature and clouds and knew much more about many things that had to do with nature because they spent more time in nature. Even though we live in the city, we are doing our best to live more like the past because it feels right. These two pies are the mulberry pies that I was ta ......

The past several years when our children (adults) can get together at the same time, we have everyone to bring their pets and we do our family pictures and of course our pet picture. I am suppose to be the pet whisper in the group that gets them all to stay on the porch and lined up. It did take a few tries as each one at some point decides to jump off the porch.They are all getting old now as you can see and sadly we all agreed that next years picture may look somewhat different. Our Katherine is the one laying down and the one that needs the pet ramp since she cannot get up the steps anymore. Katherine and her brother Frank second from the left have lost their h ......

If you have been reading my blog for awhile you may know that Charles mother passed away and we have been working our way through her household items. It is only Charles and I to do this and it has been a mountain to climb in more ways than you can imagine, or maybe you can imagine because you have done this before.We started a new history study, the year 1917. The workload we are having to do to empty Madge's house and the many repairs has been quite difficult. The history study will not be abandoned because I am looking forward to this study. Clearing Madge's house is quite a lesson in many ways. It is showing me that we have cutter in our home that I have not se ......

The daffodil's are blooming and where Charles and I live, this means spring even though it is not spring as of yet.Since my last post, we have gone through another large load of items to go through. I have been washing and separating items to be donated. I have noticed all of the eras that Madge lived through by the items in her house.It is very difficult and sad to go through another's belongings.It has been easy to see the era of the long black gloves worn for special occasions.The difference in how things were made long ago and the quality is very obvious.I remember my dress gloves that I wore when we went to town to shop.The embellishment's were so beautiful long ago.I have tr ......

I am enjoying the little writing desk that we refurbished. It seems to bring calm to the home, maybe another feeling of living like the past. Life has been quite hectic for us for the past fourteen months, but we are not the only ones that go through complicated times. Everyone goes through some kind of changes, it can be good change and then it can be not so good such as illness, accidents, unexpected expenses, death of a loved one, job losses, a business that has failed, and then sometimes there is a need to become a caregiver for a loved one. These are just a few things that can get us out of balance.Keeping a home running smoothly can be a problem when there is ......

There is much uncertainty in this world today, I can get overwhelmed and worry if I let myself because so much today is shocking. When we focus on the uncertain, we stop ourselves from doing the things that can bring us and our family happiness. One day I thought about this and realized that I do not remember the type of stress we have today. I asked Charles about this and we compared our experiences from long ago to now, and what would the differences be today? Pulled from my memory1968, military, Vietnam war. We received a urgent telegram. YOUR FATHER HAD A HEART ATTACK NEED TO COME HOME SERIOUS CONDITION.We had little money, we did not have a ......

I have felt very different lately since starting our 1917 study. I love researching and finding new information and when digging into the past there is a lot to learn. Some of the things that I find I do not like but I am looking for the good parts of the past because that is what I like to do. Some of our history studies that Charles and I have done had a feeling of tension, excitement, and sometimes homesickness. With this new study of 1917 I feel calm and homey. Many people love the Victorian and Edwardian era, and still today there is much Romanticizing of those times, their homes, the clothing. We can see these images in books, vintage ma ......

It all started with this bank book that we found in a box of Madge's items. It is a bank book that belonged to Charles Great Grandmother. As many of you know, Charles and I love learning new things about history and so this year we are studying the year 1917. I will not be blogging the same way that I once did with the studies, I will just be sharing new things we learn that will help with getting back to basics. You are welcome to join along if you want to do so. I would much rather live like the year 1917 than follow along with anything going on in our real time. Outside of our own issues during 2023, the year outside our home was simply exhausting,& ......

I am thankful for the time that I was born and raised. I have fond memories of my younger years and was raised city and rural life so I was able to understand not having and having, sensible and not practical. Not practical is what we have much of today.Some of you have seen this old store on my blog several times before, this store belonged to my Great Aunt and Uncle and was my most favorite place to go. The creaky wood floors, the squeaky screen door, a pot belly stove in the middle of the store, groceries on shelves on the walls, folks came and sat in wood chairs around the old wood stove and caught up on talk. Penny candy in jars and my Uncle cut meat and cheese in his ......

For those new to my blog, I am Grandma Donna and when things are going well I pop in quite often to write a post. This year of 2023, I have been taking long breaks due to health and family issues. I have been around for many years on this blog and have quite a long list of posts.My husband Charles and I live quite similar as our generations before us. We enjoy sharing the old ways of doing things and we also enjoy doing history studies by living like the year we are studying for the entire year. Sometimes we make it through an entire year before we get anxious to start another year and depending on what is happening in our life. We have spent a good bit of time st ......