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GOOD DAY....ive been thinking about how folks lived oh 60-70 years ago....i have a good friend who is 66 years old....his father was given a large plot of land in northern quebec in the mid 1930's....the govt wanted to try & populate that area......this guy by himself cleared enough land to support a family of 8.....built a house with the help of 3 of his young sons...they brought very little as they had no money & barter for goods & services they needed....they wasted nothing.....the whole family is/was a hardy bunch and very self reliant....they had no one to depend on except themselves....which leads me to the question....how many of us if given the chance could survive and fend for their family with nothing but raw land to work with.....i say hardly anyone !.....i am sure some of the senior members of the forum can tell stories about life of their grandparents and how they managed and survived.....somehow i think these people had a much better, fuller appreciation of life and nature than we do today.....anyone care to share their stories....i find this a facinating subject
all the best
jim
Jim, I can add a little of my family history to the discussion.
I know that my great grandfather was a cobbler who lived in Massachussets and was displaced by the invention of the sewing machine and the advent of shoe shops ....he really struggled to support his large family....and my great grandmother struggled to make do and to support his unsuccessful attempts to provide. They attempted to relocate to upstate NY where they were able to get some land. In a family record written in 1926, it says,
"In the spring of 1844 the family moved to Granger in western NY, where Mother's sister ....had been living for some time., and took up some land and started to clear a farm out of the forest. This part of the state was little settled, but was being opened up for settlement. There was then a branch canal from Rochester down through that region, known as the Genessee Canal. Here a log house and barn were built, and under what must have been very hard circumstances, the family developed. For a girl who grew up in the city, the log cabin, with its two rooms, must have seemed very crude. But I have the impression that Mother was cheerful through it all. In this log house three more boys were born ....In 1851 father built a frame house near the old one, and I remember moving into it. The log house was then used as a work shop, and I recollect seeing the men shaving shingles in it. About thirty-five years ago I drove over to the old place and found the log house still standing, but the frame house had gone. I have no recollection of the interior of the log house or of any particulars of the life therein, the food we ate or the clothes we wore. I have no idea of the size of the farm, or of the amount of stock kept on it. I think we had a pair of oxen for a team, as I remember the family going visiting on an ox sled. I recall very well the terrible job of clearing the forest, several of the great trees being felled into a tangled heap and all burned where they lay.
In 1853 our parents decided to give up the farm and return to Massachussets. I think the venture had not been a success, and probably Mother wanted to get back to where there would be good schools for us children. ...... .... When we arrived in Boston, how fine the city dwelling appeared to a child born in a log house. When they disposed of the farm in Granger, they had only enough money to to take them back to Massachussets and start all over again in the humblest way........"
The family continued to struggle and never had material comforts and one of the sons died in the Civil War, but two went thru Seminary at Tufts University (one of whom was my grandfather) My grandfather became a College President in Maine, his brother a well known clergyman and their sister remained unmarried but did well enough to purchase a home in Sudbury and provide a comfortable home to her mother in her later years to make up for her lifetime of sacrifice.
I bought a small house in an over grown field in the woods, moved myself, my children, six chickens, two horses, a dog and a cat, and turned it into a working farm. I raise meat and egg chickens, ducks, turkeys, small fruits (apples, cherries, raspberries) and vegetables. I used to raise pigs, cattle and dairy goats but my heart is in the soil, not on the hoof. I traded high heels and suits for jeans and boots and wouldn't go back for anything. I love being a market grower.
We hunt, fish, wild harvest berries and mushrooms, heat with wood we barter for (business advice for tree length) or cut off our 45 acres.
All that said, I like my modern conveniences - like my laptop. I could turn the soil with horse and plow but I'm rather fond of my other kind of Horse, made by TroyBilt. I like my husband's retirement plan, health, eye and dental insurances, vacations and such. The boat's a lot of of fun. Mixing old and new makes for a nice life.
Being "only" 60 years old, I hardly qualify to give a first-person account of what you requested. But my memory is long and rich in detail. I was city-born and -raised, but cities back then were quite different than today - no gangs, little crime, no graffiti. Of course there were some of those things in Al Capone's day (before my time!), but in general, after WWII the cities were nice.
I'm sure country folks had their work cut out for them, as elston's account will attest. But in the cities, in the late 1940's and 50's, life was not easy. Most folks did not have TV. They did have phones, but often a party line (you may have to google that!). There were record players but no stereos, of course no PC's - cell phones - Blackberries - iPods - Xboxes. Dads went to work; Moms stayed home and cooked, cleaned and scolded. Money was hard to come by, and kids were on their own if they wanted a nickel or dime for candy or soda. I often mowed lawns (non-motorized mower) and shoveled driveways and sidewalks in winter for a dollar, and considered myself the richer for it.
What we had, was freedom! All summer, and as soon as school was out, my brother and I were outside. Unsupervised. Out riding old used bikes with the wind in our hair, no helmets. No social security numbers. We made the whole city our neighborhood, got our share of black eyes, learned to fight fair and make friends. We were not considered "tough" kids - just regular boys. Our clothes may have been old and patched, but so were the the other kids' clothes. If we had to go out in the car, there were no seat belts, and no child seats. Parents would go into the store and leave us in the car, assured that we'd be there (for better or worse...) when they got out.
I miss those days, and often scratch my head in amazement at parenting today. My own 2 daughters were raised in the 1980's and things were different then, but not as different as today. My 5 grandchildren are being raised in an entirely different world than their own grandfather was. They are coddled and spoiled, over-doctored and dentist-ed, fussed over, and have zero freedom. They sit in child seats and ride new bikes while wearing helmets. They skate with elbow and knee pads. Their clothes are always new and often given away to charity due to a missing button. As soon as they departed the womb, they had a social security number - this, in an age when they are unlikely to ever collect social security. They have no privacy, are always supervised and an eye kept on them. They have no responsibilities, no chores, and never work for money.
I love my grandchildren and feel so sorry for them. I wonder what kind of adults they will be?
Being "only" 60 years old, I hardly qualify to give a first-person account of what you requested. But my memory is long and rich in detail. I was city-born and -raised, but cities back then were quite different than today - no gangs, little crime, no graffiti. Of course there were some of those things in Al Capone's day (before my time!), but in general, after WWII the cities were nice.
I'm sure country folks had their work cut out for them, as elston's account will attest. But in the cities, in the late 1940's and 50's, life was not easy. Most folks did not have TV. They did have phones, but often a party line (you may have to google that!). There were record players but no stereos, of course no PC's - cell phones - Blackberries - iPods - Xboxes. Dads went to work; Moms stayed home and cooked, cleaned and scolded. Money was hard to come by, and kids were on their own if they wanted a nickel or dime for candy or soda. I often mowed lawns (non-motorized mower) and shoveled driveways and sidewalks in winter for a dollar, and considered myself the richer for it.
What we had, was freedom! All summer, and as soon as school was out, my brother and I were outside. Unsupervised. Out riding old used bikes with the wind in our hair, no helmets. No social security numbers. We made the whole city our neighborhood, got our share of black eyes, learned to fight fair and make friends. We were not considered "tough" kids - just regular boys. Our clothes may have been old and patched, but so were the the other kids' clothes. If we had to go out in the car, there were no seat belts, and no child seats. Parents would go into the store and leave us in the car, assured that we'd be there (for better or worse...) when they got out.
I miss those days, and often scratch my head in amazement at parenting today. My own 2 daughters were raised in the 1980's and things were different then, but not as different as today. My 5 grandchildren are being raised in an entirely different world than their own grandfather was. They are coddled and spoiled, over-doctored and dentist-ed, fussed over, and have zero freedom. They sit in child seats and ride new bikes while wearing helmets. They skate with elbow and knee pads. Their clothes are always new and often given away to charity due to a missing button. As soon as they departed the womb, they had a social security number - this, in an age when they are unlikely to ever collect social security. They have no privacy, are always supervised and an eye kept on them. They have no responsibilities, no chores, and never work for money.
I love my grandchildren and feel so sorry for them. I wonder what kind of adults they will be?
excellent post mr nor... at 57 years old i certainly relate to your description of the way you were raised & lived....mine was more or less the same where i was raised in south philadelphia.....never had much of anything....just enough to get by...we lived week to week on my father paycheck as a cop...having 2 older brothers i got all the hand me down clothes which were well worn by the time my mother got rid of them...i think life was a little less complicated back then....we entertained ourselves with what we had !
thank you
jim
I remember the day my sister realized new clothes were sold at K-Mart. She thought they all came from yard sales and friends. She's only 34 so it wasn't too long ago. Mum stayed home. I don't think we had a second vehicle until I was in high school. We lived much like Nor's post, including the party line.
excellent post mr nor... at 57 years old i certainly relate to your description of the way you were raised & lived....mine was more or less the same where i was raised in south philadelphia.....never had much of anything....just enough to get by...we lived week to week on my father paycheck as a cop...having 2 older brothers i got all the hand me down clothes which were well worn by the time my mother got rid of them...i think life was a little less complicated back then....we entertained ourselves with what we had !
thank you
jim
Gosh, Jim...I never realized you were so close behind me! I took you for a young fellow! But glad to know that someone else was raised the same way I was, and wow! you are right that life was less complicated back then! But it was a richer life I think, less so in the material ways! Thanks for sharing that with me!
We had a party line when I was a kid when we lived at Forest Lake in Cumberland. I think we had two rings. It was kind of cool. Sometimes a neighbor would pick up during your phone conversation and you had to finish up your chat so they could use the line. You had to trust they weren't listening in, though you could usually tell if someone else was on the line as the volume went down significantly.
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