Living Like the Past

Kathy from JapanHello Grandma Donna.I am submitting 3 photos of my laundry arrangements for my apartment in Southern Japan. I think that these arrangements are fairly representative of the norm here. The first photo is of my washing machine corner. The machine itself is a combination washer and dryer that has an eco function. It also has a special hose that can be used to draw water from the bathtub, located behind the sliding door to the right, into the washing machine. If I use the tap water that runs directly into the machine, it is always unheated/cold water. Here the bather scrubs their body well before getting into the tub and no soaps are used in the tub. It is mainly used for warmi ......

Cindy from Virginia USACindy from Virginia is taking part in our around the world household study and has sent in an email with photos. and description. Anyone can do this, read the post Grandma Around the World. It is located under tab living like the past.This is Cindy's sink and she is about to make pear sauce and this is what Cindy has to say.I have a double sink and a dishwasher. I use Palmolive for hand washing and Cascade in the dishwasher. I hang my dishtowel on the stove handle. When washing dishes in the sink I would have a drain rack and board where the Asian pears are. I have 2 jade plants and a Christmas cactus in the window. In the fall when we get more sun in the windows I wil ......

I took a morning stroll around the yard after breakfast of peppers onions and eggs.Peppers onions and eggs are very good, all you have to do is saute sliced peppers and onions until the onions start to turn translucent. Remove the peppers and onions from the pan after they are cooked and using the leftover oil add a pat of butter and pour beaten eggs (using a fork) into the pan and cook scramble eggs.It makes a lovely breakfast and very colorful. Toast, jam, peppers, onions and eggs.I did a posting called Our Victory Garden at the beginning of August. On August third I planted some seeds so that we could have a fall garden. It has been 22 days now since I planted turnip, carrot, spinach ......

To me the hairstyles and clothing of the 1940s were just beautiful and I am noticing there is a growing interest in the 1940s styles. I am posting photos from my family album for you to see or to learn how to style your hair as it was done in the 1940s but not to use for any any other purpose. Thank YouI hope you have enjoyed, Grandma Donna ......

My website has been around for many years and to my surprise this little blog reaches around the world.Visitors send me the most lovely emails from all over the world and I feel as if I have extended family many miles away but also like they are just next door. I want to do something different and not sure how it will work but I need your help for this one.Many people that visit my website find a common place but we live in different countries, states, provinces, villages etc. and do things very different. Here in the USA we do things different in each state.Recently I have learned that many people in Australia collect rainwater and use it for most every need and some drink it unfilter ......

I enjoy early morning at our house. I get up first, turn on the stove to heat water and start breakfast. I turn on the lights and everything is quiet as it is still dark outside.A walk around the house and you would see things I left unfinished such as my tatting project.Or my yarn and knitting needles wrapped and pinned closed from when I came home yesterday from Jury Duty and removed the partially knitted kitchen wash rag I was making.Very old magazines sit in a old canner on the hearth next to the rocker.Our rocker was in the sewing room but since we do not watch television anymore this is my new reading place. I say my new place because there are only two chairs in our house that my feet ......

Above photo a lady canning.In the old days many people kept scrap books. My Grandmother would cut out newspaper and magazine articles and post them in a scrapbook along with family news, weddings, deaths and other information that would be in the newspaper. There were no copy machines and computers back then. I kept several scrapbooks as well and then time passed and pasting articles in books faded away. Scrap booking in today's time is much different than it was in the past.Here are a few things from the 1930s and 1940s. A picture says a lot.Canning and shelling peas 1937. If you look closely you will see the young man using the can sealer, the young lady placing the can in the pressure coo ......

This is one article of many articles on my website. Just go to Home and look at the top bar or see menu depending if you are using a computer, tablet or phone to see the many articles on this website.One day I heard my husband out in the back yard yelling for me, his voice sounded excited and I rushed out the door to see what was going on. A B17 Bomber WW2 airplane was flying over our house. It was amazing to see and hear this old plane flying right over our heads. We found out later that it was visiting our airport on tour.Our 1943 history project is starting to go a bit smoother. There were a few days last week I questioned myself why in the world were we doing this. But that passed and ......

I am very thankful to my friend Catherine for bringing up the idea of rationing like people had to do in1943. It has brought many things into better perspective and what started off as just rationing our food and gasoline as they had to do in 1943, my husband and I took it a step further to living more like they did in 1943. This does not mean go all out and change everything from the way we dress to changing everything in our house but to rid ourselves of too many modern and unnecessary items in our home. Such as television etc.We have brought the noise level down to minimal and it has been wonderful and honestly it helps to think better. Now instead of watching television we rea ......

We have tilled up most of our tiny Victory garden. We have one lone squash plant in the upper corner of the left row still hanging on. There is a large pepper plant still producing bell peppers in the lower left row and two smaller peppers that were planted late. There are some herbs, cilantro, chives, onions and parsley in the lower corner. A lone bell pepper....According to our gardening book for our area the end of July and beginning of August is the time to plant some of the Fall vegetables so I have seeded the two rows with carrots, turnips, spinach, Swiss chard, broccoli and just because I planted some old beans just to see what they would do.These tomatoes are called Matts Wild C ......

One of our vintage magazines from 1932 has an advertisement showing a brand new washing machine that had a side spinner. Most of the washing machines had a top roller that squeezed out the water. You would have to be very careful about keeping your fingers away from the roller or it would smash your finger.I have fond memories of the old round washers with the wringer on top as I would help my grandmother wash clothes out in the backyard. The smell of soap in the outside air is something I never forget.New electric appliances were coming to market during the 1930's and 1940's. During WW2 there was severe rationing and the production of many household items was put on hold. Many pe ......

We are getting close to the end of our first month of rationing.Bacon is 8 points per pound so now we cook one piece and split it in half for the two of us.We can simulate the rationing but during 1943 there were shortages of the rationed food as well as non rationed food so that had to make it even more difficult. One of our challenges was how to make a birthday cake since oil, butter and sugar were rationed. I finally decided to make a simple and very small birthday cake. We ate smaller pieces than we normally would and savored each piece that we ate. The cake lasted all week and was very good. My husband said it truly was the best birthday cake ever because it was more precious to us, muc ......

We have been very busy since the first thought of doing the ww2 rationing. Some have asked us why would we want to do this? Why not? If it teaches us something we did not know then that is very good. I have very good memories of 1950s but can only tell you what my mother said about the 1940s. Already, our electric usage has decreased, our grocery bill has decreased, our water bill has decreased and our gasoline usage has decreased. That is a good start and most of that was during practice. This was my mothers house, it was built in the late 1800's. My mother moved back home to Mississippi when my Grandparents were starting to have a physical decline. She bought this old house and our family ......

My husband knows I have this thing about soap and chairs. I always want enough chairs in the house for everyone to have a place to sit.And soap, well that is something that I have spent a lot of time testing and researching, at least before we disconnected from the internet.This is one of my soap stashes. For some reason the older I get the more in a rush I get to find the perfect soap before I leave my earthly tent behind. I have the makings to make soap but I just want to find that one perfect soap to purchase.There is a lot that I do not know about soap but then there is a lot that I do know about soap. I have researched just about everything there is out there how soap is made and how wh ......

I made new ration books because the first ones were not correct. I went ahead and put all the letters in the book so we could cut out to where we are now. I wish we had started March the first and follow along as they did when the processed foods and meats began.I never dreamed what a history trip that we would have to make to learn how to ration as they did during WW2.We continue our in depth research at our public library. So here we are trying to make the way we live as much like 1943 as possible.I started filling a notebook with research material and I have changed notebook sizes three times now, I may have to go to book two.To ration as they did during WW2 does not have to be as complic ......

Here is a list of Rationing Points and Dates during WW2 that I have typed up after much research. My husband and I have been going and continue to go, to our local public library and use their research room to study about the home front during WW2. These are the release and expiration dates to the best of our knowledge from our research.RATIONING POINTS ARE AS FOLLOWS,EACH PERSON was given 48 BLUE POINT STAMPS PER MONTH.BLUE STAMPS were to be used for PROCESSED FOODSSuch as;FRUITS AND FRUIT JUICES,FROZEN FRUITSDRIED AND DEHYDRATEDCANNED AND BOTTLED VEGETABLES AN VEGETABLE JUICESOTHER PROCESSED FOODS, CANNED AND BOTTLED INCLUDING BABY FOODFRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES ARE NOT RATIONEDRED STAMPS ......

Today we begin our one year journey into 1943. We have strict rationing. We have 64 red stamps and 48 blue stamps to last one month. We have one coffee stamp for 1 lb of coffee for 5 weeks, 3 gallons of gas for one week at a time, we have one sugar stamp for 1 pound of sugar (4 ounces per week), one shoe stamp for entire year. These rations are for one person. The stamps count as points.We have packed away all items that were not in homes in 1943. We have no internet, no television in our home. We have simple soap, no shampoo, no hair dryer. And other things....The numbers to the left of the item is how many points that you must have in stamps then the money to purchase the item.Following al ......

If you have been following along my web posts I have explained that my husband and I are living the era of 1943 for one year. We are trying our best to follow all the rationing guidelines they had in 1943 as well as living as they did as much as possible. Here are a few more articles about the rationing.***** NOTE ***** Since posting this article I found a later newspaper article that says that gasoline was reduced from 4 gallons to three gallons. I will scan that article and post it as soon as I can, but since I do not have internet this is difficult. I work mostly from the library. ......

Please refer back to the first article that I posted explaining that my husband and I are living on food, gas and other rations as they did during WWII for one year. We chose the year 1943. We are trying to live as they would have lived during that time.This was posted in the newspaper and I broke it down and typed up the points to make it a little easier to read.Rations changed off and on, up and down, but continued during and after WWII. ......

We continue to learn about the home front during WWIIWe are moving along on the points.Now we will discuss Meats, butter, oils, lard etc.Each person Received 64 RED STAMP points for 4 weeks. Here is a very good article that was posted in the newspaper when the meat rationing took affect.Again I am sorry about the many pieces of this article follow along by alphabet, To get this posted I had to enlarge it then cut it into pieces and scan each piece to make it large enough to read. ......