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life
February 2009 
If you could live in any period what would it be?
Posted on Feb 27th, 2009
by 
gina
gina
I saw this question in questions and reflections and I thought I would post it as a blog.
The one period that I would love to live in is the pioneering days.
I find that time period so refreshing and it brings meaning to one's life and their ancestors.
Think about it. In today's day and age, our kids do not have the dicipline nor the initiative to pursue challenges on their own. We have made it so easy for the younger generation to say what kind of car am I going to get, I really don't have to work, but my parents say I need to get a job, I don't want a VW bug, but I want a fully loaded lexus or Hummer.
What about, "Oh I don't want to shop at WalMart. Everybody does. I rather go to Aeropostle or Paksun or Footlocker. Forget Payless. We just let them do what they need to do and forget about the meaning of a dollar and how hard it is to obtain let alone keep. I am very thankful that my two daughters respect the value of the dollar and what they need to do with it. Both of my kids are stingy. Which I am very thankful for. They understand how hard it is to earn, keep, save and maintain their own lifestyle and my younger one is saving for her future. My oldest one is also saving, but she has help because she is married and they continue to work on a budget.
Look at life back then. Finding land to settle on, no banks to worry about the land. Get about 12 acres of your very own. Next, they went to the woods, chopped down the trees, sawed each log by hand, no electric saws, and built their homes, barns and stables. They plowed the field from sunup to sundown, planted their seeds and then let nature take its course. Once that was done, they harvested it and took it to town and got about 3 to 4 cents to the barrel of corn. To them, that was a lot of money. The women made their own bread, clothes etc. They cooked by the wood stove and hovered near it in the cold.
For recreation, they went outside to the meadow and ran around and enjoy freshly cooked chicken that they farmed and they read the good book.
For me, that is a time that I would love to visit: no cars, no stereos, cell phones, just peace, quiet and serenity. Maybe in my next life.
The one period that I would love to live in is the pioneering days.
I find that time period so refreshing and it brings meaning to one's life and their ancestors.
Think about it. In today's day and age, our kids do not have the dicipline nor the initiative to pursue challenges on their own. We have made it so easy for the younger generation to say what kind of car am I going to get, I really don't have to work, but my parents say I need to get a job, I don't want a VW bug, but I want a fully loaded lexus or Hummer.
What about, "Oh I don't want to shop at WalMart. Everybody does. I rather go to Aeropostle or Paksun or Footlocker. Forget Payless. We just let them do what they need to do and forget about the meaning of a dollar and how hard it is to obtain let alone keep. I am very thankful that my two daughters respect the value of the dollar and what they need to do with it. Both of my kids are stingy. Which I am very thankful for. They understand how hard it is to earn, keep, save and maintain their own lifestyle and my younger one is saving for her future. My oldest one is also saving, but she has help because she is married and they continue to work on a budget.
Look at life back then. Finding land to settle on, no banks to worry about the land. Get about 12 acres of your very own. Next, they went to the woods, chopped down the trees, sawed each log by hand, no electric saws, and built their homes, barns and stables. They plowed the field from sunup to sundown, planted their seeds and then let nature take its course. Once that was done, they harvested it and took it to town and got about 3 to 4 cents to the barrel of corn. To them, that was a lot of money. The women made their own bread, clothes etc. They cooked by the wood stove and hovered near it in the cold.
For recreation, they went outside to the meadow and ran around and enjoy freshly cooked chicken that they farmed and they read the good book.
For me, that is a time that I would love to visit: no cars, no stereos, cell phones, just peace, quiet and serenity. Maybe in my next life.
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I always loved that simple life… But also enjoy some parts of this century… I wish I could combine them somehow… Interesting blog my friend…
oh, i’m too addicted to modernity, those earlier times scare me! but i admire your courage
Asteri,
That would be awesome if we could join the past with the present. Life was simple then and sometimes difficult, but they held values higher than we did and worked hard for what they had whereas we take so much for granted.
Nicole, I can’t say its courage, but a wanted feeling of simplicity with the future. A few years ago Greg and I went camping with his mother, father and his girls. Now, when we went camping when I was a little munchkin, we did not have iPods, MP3 players or RV’s. We camped, sat around the campfire, read stories, fished and hiked. That year that we camped with his girls, they had a fit because they had to set up camp in the rain, mind you my inlaws have an RV, they had to have the TV, the nintendo, the iPod, CD’s, and video games. Once, my inlaws had taken the girls camping and the site was about two hours away and my mother in law had to come back to our house and pick up the video game set because his younger daughter was crying that she was bored. What have we done to the next generation…we socially added the silver spoon to their mouths. Give me the simple life to teach morals and values to our children so that they can pass it on.
MA!!! I’m not STINGY!!!!! I prefer the term FRUGAL!!!!
I think there are communities that live in simple ways even now. And for so many people that kind of life is still the norm. I’m with Nicole..I think it’s courageous to want to live that way!
About values, not sure. I think it’s individual, isn’t it? Every generation has felt that the “good old days /ways” were better. Yet even today I see people with such beautiful values. Look at y’all!
Okay Rachel, you’re frugal and I am stingy.
Meena, we all say we are trying to live the simple life, but we somehow cannot get away from texting on our phones; or walking to places within reason. Our ancestors walked many miles to and from work and I used to walk two to three miles a day when I was going to school until the automobile became a reality to me and yes, I am now part of that, I drive everywhere. Being here on the beach end of florida, I can walk just about to anywhere, except to where I work…I would never walk to work along our roads here. Way too dangerous to the pedistrians with the tourists and they way they are driving…Too many flowers along the roadway
Yes I know what you mean about the flowers. Is it a uniquely Florida tradition to leave flowers where a family member has died? I’ve not seen it anywhere else.
Hmm; you’re right, Gina. There’s outwardly a less simple life; but what could be simpler than wanting to talk to my daughter and instead of waiting in the good old days, for her to come back from her friends’ home; to text 3 words to her and in a second get her response back? Do you think simplicity comes more from one’s peace of mind than from having or not having things; using or not using them?