Living Like the Past

Back in early times baby care was very important as it still should be today. The comfort and warmth or coolness of the baby was extremely important. They used practical wisdom and food, clothing, fresh air, bathing and cleanliness was of most importance.The baby was to be given pure outdoor air both night and day. They did not put too much clothing on a baby. The clothing was simple, warm, light in weight and not too tight fitting. Baby clothes have changed very much since the old times.Great care was taken with diapers. We used the softest cotton cloth and changed it as soon as the baby urinated or had a bowel movement. The bowel was discarded and the diaper placed in a bucket with water a ......

Salmon CakesOne day my friend Naomi and I were talking about old times. She was talking about how her mother would make salmon cakes before the family would travel. Naomi was older than me and when her family traveled there were no places to stop to buy food while on the road. Her mother would pack food and usually she packed biscuits, molasses, cheese and salmon cakes. They would stop on the side of the road and lay down a blanket and everyone would sit and eat. My mother on a road tripRoad travel was very different back then. My memories of travel were all roads we traveled only had two lanes and if you were out of a city you were basically on your own. G ......

We love using our vintage items in our home because it reminds us of our past.Many people collect items that are vintage and set them on a shelf and never use them but we use everything in our home every day and when it is broken and gone we try to find a replacement if one exists and we use that one too.Occasionally we will visit antique stores or rummage shops and will pass something and say, Oh I remember that and sometimes we come home with it because if we remembered it from our past it is probably better made than anything you can purchase new today.I prefer to use our older glass baking dishes because they seem to be better than the new glass products today.Many meals have been cook ......

This article is written to hopefully help those that are suffering from some type of pain or condition physically or mentally. I am not giving medical advice and only writing from personal experience. It is for those that have already been to the doctor and explored a cause for their condition. The pictures in this article are things I have planted in our yard or made with my hands.Some of us must live with pain that cannot be explained, I live with chronic pain every day as do many others. Some of us have cognitive issues that cannot be explained. Often humans suffer from issues that come and go or stay and no matter how many medical tests they endure there seems to be no answers. I a ......

Or those you loved are gone. Recently I felt a mournful sadness and a desire to go home but there is no going back home because those that I truly miss have made their journey from here to eternity. I miss the familiar places and the roads that we traveled so often. I miss being able to hear their voices and the laughing that we often did when we were together. Everyone always had a story to tell and we shared most anything with each other. All of them gone one by one and then one day recently I could not swallow due to the intense feeling of grief because I could not go home. When I walk through the cemeteries and place the flowers on their graves I know that they ......

Living a vintage life feels like going home. My husband and I already live more simple than most but It feels better and more settled as we remove clutter and get back closer to that era that we remember was less complicated. It is taking a lot of time to find our way back because we have collected gadgets and technology that only waste our money. These items rob us of valuable time that should be spent doing repairs, cleaning or visiting with one another. This new technology seems to clutter our lives and strangely we are finding it difficult to rid ourselves of things that we have become accustomed to using but once lived perfectly fine without. We lived ......

Over the years I have written many articles for this website. It started off as a place for genealogy then I changed my website to address challenges of living in modern America during hard economic times. The articles that I write come from within my memories of life as I knew it growing up and then the things I have learned along the way. I went about things sort of backwards. I was born in a fairly large city and live there until I was almost thirteen years old. We had electricity in the city but then my parents parted their ways and my mother and I moved to the deep south where people still lived without electricity. Some had it and some did not. I felt I h ......

Every day laundry is being done by hand all over the world. Some use tubs, buckets, rivers, stones, kitchen sinks, bathtubs, shower stalls, or outdoor wash areas. Depending on where you live, laundry is being dried many different ways. If you have come to this page, either you are just curious or you really do need to know how to wash and dry your clothing without an electric washer and dryer. This is me during the 1960's, I was a wife and mother and we did have electricity but no money for a washer and dryer. Even if we did, the house we lived in was not plumbed for a washer much less a dryer. But what we did have was running water, sun and wind. Either way, you have some dirty clothes and ......

Where are your Emergency Supplies? I am Grandma Donna and I am concerned that many people are not prepared for disasters. It seems that there are so many natural disasters occurring. Tornado's, floods, Hurricanes, Straight line winds, earthquakes, fires, droughts, blizzards and then there are threats that are looming and unexpected accidents such as train derailments and trees that for some strange reason just topple onto your house. I am posting this just to show basics and to hopefully inspire your thoughts on how to get your family prepared. I cannot cover all the things we do for preparedness and each person has their own needs. ......

I realize that we cannot jump into a time machine and send ourselves off to the past but if we could I would do so. I am so thankful that I was born in an era that life was more simple. People rarely locked their doors, my brother and I played outside with our friends until we were called in for supper. We ate home cooked food and we sat at the table to eat that food. We washed up before supper and we said prayers before eating. Table manners were very important and leaving the table before others were finished would have never been allowed. A formal table was often used for eating. I don't think I ever r ......

Generations before us lived before electricity This is my Papa Horton, he was the Key Turner for a local bridge. When the steamboats would travel up the river he would Turn the bridge. This would let the steamboats pass through the bridge on their way to Memphis. People come to this page on my website for many reasons. My website is dedicated to this main topic, how our generations before us lived without electricity and how to live more simple. You might want to bookmark this site and come back often because I have many articles about many things from how to live without electricity, how to use minimal electricity, how to do things the ......

This could cause panic in a household if there is no money for toilet paper Many people are trying to find ways to make it from one paycheck to the other and some do not even have that paycheck. I receive emails from all over the world and recently received an email from a reader here in the USA asking what I could suggest for a family of two adults that have only $25.00 a week to spend on food. I am going to do a page on food but that got me thinking and there are ways to increase that grocery money by buying less of other things so I am doing this article on how to spend less on other things. Many people are truly struggling and saving even a small amoun ......

As we travel up and down our road of life we seem to be losing our way. We need to bring back the good morals and decency we once had. This road stops here but does not end here. We are on this earth as we know it for a short time but seem to be acting like we will never get to this point. We need to do things right while we are here. We could straighten up our country if we would straighten up ourselves. If we put our energy to do more with our own families, taking care of the things that need to be done would put things on the right track. Many have become lazy and sloppy, they have become rude and immoral and if our generations before us could see ......

I use my vintage items everyday Handwashing socks in the sink We have many trees so I hang out the wash under our carport Bread Dough rising in a covered bowl My wrinked hands only mean that I have more wisdom than I did when I was young. Besides I am Vintage We added a shelf above the sink for our large bowls I paid $30.00 for this vintage night stand. My rule for furniture is $20.00 but I really liked it. This chest of drawers was in need of repairs but had so much potential. We bought it for $15.00, sanded it down as we do all the pieces, made repairs and then put the two coats of primer then two c ......

Living like the past Do you Dream of a more simple life? Tired of all the fast paced junked up world? Then adjust what you are doing and live a more old fashioned life. You have to find that period in time that you feel most comfortable. I like the thirties through the early fifties. After that it seems to me that things took a wrong turn and life got more complicated. Do you feel out of place? Like there has to be something more? Do you feel like you belong in another time? Do you feel homesick even when you are home? Is there something that is just eating at you and you don??™t know what it is? A longing for somethi ......

This is Tatting This was my Grandmother's Tatting wheel. I love this tatting wheel because it was in her loving hands years ago. If you notice in the picture it was made in the USA and now they are made in China. Even the metal feels different and more smooth than the new one. This is the new type that is popular and frankly I like it because I can control the thread better with these types. Sorry about the rough hands in the photos, I do a lot of gardening. This is the bobbin inside the metal shuttle. This is a picot This is a chain This is a ring This is how you hold the beginning of the thread, let me say here ......

Several years ago I purhased a vintage apron that was too small for me but I loved the design. So I decided to use some of the features from that apron and make my own design to make it more fitting and functional. The older vintage apron had very small pockets and up higher and the bust area was more narrow. I extended to top sides as well as redesigned the pockets. The back of the old vintage apron did not close in the back so I added extra side pieces to make the apron cover my backside. This is the back of the vintage apron After I purchased this apron I tried it on and realized it was too small so I tucked it away in a drawer. Not unti ......

IT IS TIME TO BE FRUGAL Being frugal does not have to be painful. There are many ways to cut back and one way is to do a reverse home makeover. We needed to make changes to our home to help us go back to basics. Then we decided to use more outdoor space and we went back to old fashioned way of doing things. Our Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Parents, Aunts and Uncles would tell us stories how things were when they were growing up, how hard times were, how they lived without electricity or running water. They also lived through the Great Depression. Many people are going through difficult economic times and they are finding themselves running o ......

Getting even more frugal If you are having trouble paying your bills or buying food read further These are my Great Grandparents, Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles and they lived through the great depression. They grew up in times when there was no electricity or running water but what they did have was the ability to grow food, share, barter or do whatever it took. They hauled their water, cooked on wood stoves and did not waste, they did not live off the grid because there was no grid. My husband and I do not live on a farm or even a large piece of land. We live in the city on a small lot. We are trying to raise as much food as we can with w ......