Would we make good pioneers?
Sig other and I live a simple life, thus being on lock-down isn't a biggie for us. We are both semi-retired in our mid 70's. We are afraid of the virus but not afraid, if that makes any sense.
I see on TV or read on NextDoor forums people complaining they can't get this or that. The barber shop and beauty shops are closed. The nail salons aren't opened. Clothing stores are closed. The kids are bored out of their skulls.
Let's go back to the old pioneer days. If one wanted a house, hubby had to cut trees to put one together. Want water? Hopefully the house is near a creek. Creek also handy for laundry. Kids weren't bored, they had chores that kept them busy, and tired by night fall. Want corn for dinner? Send one of the kids to the back 40 to pick corn as hubby and his wife had planted earlier. I could go on and on.
Anyway, it made me think.
When I was inspecting my father's basement to decide what to keep and what to discard, I found the old mangle we used to press clothes. I think the old ringer washer is there as well.
I could back farther and add shearing fleece, cording wool, spinning to make yarn, and then knitting clothes. Or growing plants to use for dying fabric.
Remember when children walked to school? We never had buses for grade school; we walked, even in blizzards.
One thing I was jealous about, my Dad rode horseback all 12 years of school.
I would love the simplicity of less news, less 24/7, and so much "in your face" presence. I'm not even going to address drones. I hope I never see any flying over when I'm working in my garden. I also won't address the lack of privacy, the tracking methods, although there is some benefit to that now during the pandemic.
Privacy is much more important now, probably because expectation and reality of it are fading. I'm cherishing what I do have, although I certainly think this is also a matter of choice even in nonpandemic times.
Another thing about contemporary life that drives me crazy are the tv programs, which have significantly degenerated over the last several years. Exploitive and what I consider nonproductive intrusions into people's lives (although I assume they're well paid) such as the families with enough kids for 2 baseball teams, Kardashians and similar attention grabbing people, and/or other similar programs are to me perhaps the lowest type of programs on tv these days.
Smithsonian and PBS offer a completely different approach, insightful, historical, analytical, and knowledgeable. I learn from them. NatGeo and BBC also offer good programs. For these types of "entertainment", I am very appreciative.
I don't recall what was available when we got our first tv, other than Ozzie & Harriet, The Nelson Family, and similar programs. I do remember walking hand in hand with Mom, staring at the brand new tvs in storefronts, and wondering what they were.
Hanging laundry was another pleasant, bonding experience. Mom, my sister and I did the laundry with the old ringer machine in the basement, then carried it outside and hung it on the clothesline. I still have the clothesline from my house, and plan to hang it up again when/if I can find new line.
Something else I would miss are the wonderful varieties of ice cream! We did make our own, taking turns churning the old ice cream maker and sampling it, but there were nothing like the varieties today.
As to being a pioneer, I think those folks had to be very, very strong, physically and emotionally. It took such courage to venture out into unknown territory, and be totally dependent on yourself to survive. The Voyageurs were also strong people; I don't think I could have lived like that.
FF, thanks for starting such a thread with such an intriguing concept. I'm anxious to learn what others did "a long, long time ago."
Found one article from the 1870's where my great-great-grandmother, in her 30's, had died from complications when her long dress caught fire while she was tending an outdoor fire burning brush.
Daughter of 1930, I would wimp out at the thought of killing a chicken as well, but we are so accustomed these days to a "hands off" approach to so many basic aspects of living. I might raise chickens just for the eggs, if there weren't any foxes around, but I also cringe at the thought of just mucking out the chicken house.
With the various theories and countertheories on the spread of the CV, I've often wondered if our cushy lifestyle, less activity, and less sufficiency has compromised our immunity and made us more vulnerable. I'm not convinced that there's only one causal factor, and so far I haven't seen any stats, e.g., on whether each of those who have perished were drinkers, smokers, nonwalkers/no exercise people.
Some of the front line people such as law enforcement were probably in better health b/c they're generally so active, and I understand how they easily could be exposed. But the children?
I anticipate that there will be a lot of research done after the pandemic is at least temporarily controlled.
Earlybird, I had a similar upbringing, and often miss the emotional and physical rewards of living so much more closely to the land, even though I still try to as much as I can. But there was a freedom then that we don't have now, and that's from checking e-mail, posting (to which I confess) and not having to add batteries and battery charging as a regular activity.
I remember the fragrance of freshly washed clothes as we hung them on the line. And the refreshing feel of skating across the lake with wind in our face. We used to hold out our arms and let the wind blow us across the lake.
My parents had a grape arbor, strawberries, raspberries, and pear tree. I would eat those things without washing them off. I would spend hours building tiny roads through the vegetable gardens, and I still have my Micky Mouse toy tractor :) Yes, had to wash my hands before eating, using old fashioned cake bar soap.
In today's world, are we over cleaning and over disinfecting things pre-virus? I remember when I use to purchase anti-bacterial liquid soap for the bathrooms in the small office building I had managed. Then one day the doctor across the hall suggested just regular liquid soap as he felt the anti-bacterial soap was messing with our immune system. Hmmm, food for thought.
On nice cool days, this doctor would open his office door, then open the exterior door to get fresh air into this office. We did the same with our office. We also opened windows. Can't do that in the new office building we are both in now :(
So much to think about.
I hope that some really serious research is done about these issues when time is available, especially since the predictions I've read also indicate that this won't be the last pandemic, that there will be more in the future and they may be more intense.
I also wonder how much tolerance and immunity has been lost b/c of less outdoor activity, and more time inside with tech devices.
Did your mother ever say that you had a ruddy complexion after being outside? I remember my mother making those comments, but they were complimentary, meaning we had a healthy looking skin.
In some ways it's ironic, if not counterintuitive, for people to be confined at home, and in the home as opposed to outdoors, although in my neighborhood I notice that more people are walking, while others are taking chairs and sitting in their driveways watching the world go by.
I was noticing in one of the briefing parades on tv how pale some of the people were. I also remember thinking years ago that whites aren't really "white"; we're more like pale pink or peach, or some blend. In the briefings, I kept wondering how those faces became so pale. Staying inside perhaps?
I remember Oprah and her friend Gail pretending to rough it on one of Oprah's shows. I thought they were so obnoxious laughing and rolling their eyes. As if we believed for a minute that they were really roughing it when the cameras weren't rolling.
I remember being a kid and whether it was my parents or my friend's parents, if us kids were in the house to much our parents would tell us if we stayed in the house they (parents) would put us to work. Man, us kids would be gone out the door! We never stayed in the house not like kids today!
My mom had a garden and I would eat her green beans, tomatoes, and carrots. I would wash the carrots and tomatoes, but I would just eat the green beans!
As far as people over disinfectant, I think people did. If you think of the immune system being like a muscle that needs to be worked out and if a person is disinfecting everything then the immune system becomes weak and can't fight infections! I am not saying to not wash your hands or disinfect countertops because it should be done, but when I see people breaking out the can of Lysol and spray half of the can on a cart in the store I just think WOW Really?! What a waste of Lysol and there goes one's immune system and our poor planet!
I don't know if we're pioneers, but I do know that we are part of a history that people will read about "how the Covid-19 made the world go into Lockdown!"
But seriously, there have been studies that show farm kids have less asthma and we are only starting to learn about the complexities of our gut bacteria and the role it plays in our immune system, in my mind it's clear that dosing every toddler with antibiotics for any little earache etc is coming back to bite us.
My idea of roughing it, is slow room service.
Then the gaggle of their children who followed in their parents footsteps of farming also lived very long lives.
It was those children who fled to the city life where their lives were shorter, living to be 70's or 80's.
Then their children who continued to live in the city, shorter life spans still, and heavens all the divorces.
The idea of living independently and simply appeals to me.
As a fantasy maybe.
When I got up at 3 a.m., there was a spider in the bathroom sink, so I had to go back to bed. The first spider of the year.
Recalling that in late May the worry back then was, when was the first day warm enough to swim in the pool without heating it. My son had his birthday parties out back in our pool. The pool guy, the gardener, the housekeeper-not really missing it. Lol.
The full moon is May 7th, and I am already getting grouchy. As I see others criticizing and arguing on other forums, yakking away, discussing a topic like beating a dead horse, it peeves me more during the full moon. I understand the stress though, and people need to talk it out, even if they are all over the place. So, I am not going to listen, because there is just too much misinformation out there, too much talking. I don't want others to suffer because of me. Maybe I am becoming a recluse.
I often tried to mentally prepare myself for living like he did, but I feel so lazy! I don’t know if I’d enjoy it or it would get the better of me!
This year because of covid-19, I'm using disinfectants outdoors to clean the outdoor furniture and decks after visitors for the first time in my life. I'm even having the kids dip their basketballs and footballs in a bucket of disinfectant periodically when playing with neighborhood kids or other visitors. There have only been 7 cases in our county and less than 50 in the adjoining county (which is the high water mark in our region), so the risk is low when allowing neighbors over to visit or play outside. Testing is also available to anyone who wants it. We're "opening up" with social distancing and it appears most people are following the guidelines so far. Still, I will be pushing visitors into that outdoor "dirty" zone. I'm even thinking about enclosing a section of the front porch to create a "visiting room" not tied to my home's central air for this winter.