Does any American who isn't Amish live like it's "long ago", by choice? (origin, years)

[AnnieA]

Originally Posted by PatanjaliTwist

I'm not that old, over 40, but we grew up very poor. All the above was us, save for not being wealthy enough to have a TV, vehicle or phone. We had 1 radio. The 1st in-house phone I had was when I rented my 1st apt. The 1st falling down rental I recall as a kid had an outhouse, in the city... a hammer was left hanging on a string to crack the ice on the toilet in frigid winters. We (my mum & I, the oldest girl) washed clothing with a washboard... for 7 kids, cloth diapers. Our house had no heat... the gas oven door was left open in the morning, so the kids could sit & eat breakfast sans shivering.

When I was 13-ish & 5 of us moved into a crowded 2-br flat in another country & I had hot running water & a stand-up shower for the 1st time, I thought I'd faint from shear joy. Hot water on demand! Oh, boy!

Not complaining. I thought most lived this way. I live well today (meaning I have a car, some appliances, LOTS of clothing & can afford to eat what I like), but don't waste money, cook from scratch, make many of my own home decorations/paintings/clothes/pillows/etc, go without TV (I'd rather do something that sit & stew for hours) & waste nothing. I'll take your broken chair & refurbish/reupholster it or stain/paint/stencil it & have people not believe that I indeed did fix it & no, it's not gear from a high end home store. I can fix anything... non-mechanical.

We can all do a lot of those old world hobbies/activities if we choose. No reason to unless one feels a benefit in some way. I do. I can't wait to have a house again so I can have some yard chickens & learn to grow a lettuce leaf. We all have weaknesses... I can grown nothing, can't understand driving directions to save my bloody life & wouldn't do simple electrical/plumbing modifications/fixes if you paid me. But, I'm a small girl & can build my own shelves, sand/stain/polyurethane a floor by hand (I don't have the strength to handle a sander) & rip out walls with a crowbar & plaster them back up. I refurbished a 4 story Victorian by myself, completely. (I'll never do it again, but know I can).

If one has a log cabin dream, do it. You may love it & never wish to live any other way. Or, you may enjoy the experience for awhile, then go back to more modern/pampered living. Neither is wrong & either can be fulfilling.

There are some great treehouses, in addition to the Tumbleweed homes someone posted. A lot of amazing ideas out there & a lot of interesting ways to live, if one chooses to experience & explore. And, nothing wrong in wanting a beach house or modern loft & just staying there... my preferences now.

I enjoyed this post. Somehow, I think we may be kindred souls.....LOL.

I believe in dreams though I am a realistic person. If someone wants something bad enough, they can usually figure out a way of making it happen or giving it a good go....the key is to keep trying and not give up. I envy people who know how to do a lot of things and are self sufficient. And, I like simplicity.....<s>

[Hamtonfordbury]

I kind of wish there was just for historical perspective, or to satisfy any hardcore luddites out there. This why war re-enactors do what they do. History on a book page is not the same as seeing it happen right in front of you. In book form, it boils down to a bunch of number and names, and the rest is imagined by the reader. This leaves a lot of room for inaccuracy.

[RomaniGypsy]

Originally Posted by Hamtonfordbury

I kind of wish there was just for historical perspective, or to satisfy any hardcore luddites out there. This why war re-enactors do what they do. History on a book page is not the same as seeing it happen right in front of you. In book form, it boils down to a bunch of number and names, and the rest is imagined by the reader. This leaves a lot of room for inaccuracy.

I looked up "luddite" online to figure out what it was, and once I learned its definition, I had to laugh at finding a group called "Neo-Luddites" on Facebook. It said the following:

"Technology is out of control - over-reliance has made us fat, stupid & useless. Once fossil fuels decline & economic collapse removes this support we are headed for disaster. Educate yourself, prepare to change your lifestyle while there is still time.

Join the growing Neo-Luddism movement. Modern technology does not make life better, we have been sold nothing but lies! Ironic to have a page like this on FB, but it's a good medium to get the message across."

At least they recognize the irony.

[slingshot]

Originally Posted by Hedgehog_Mom

If you have to work like a dog all day just to feed and clothe yourself, you don't have time to do anything great. That's not proving any point, it's just making yourself miserable.

I can imagine living in a small cabin with no electricity and no running water for a month or two, to see what it was like...but it would get old really quickly if I had to spend an entire day doing laundry, or spend hours cooking. It would especially get old going out back to the outhouse in the middle of a winter night, freezing my buns and using a page torn from the Sears catalog as toilet paper.

Consider this....Our sons were born in the cabin two years apart. Imagine washing all those diapers in a pot of water you just boiled on a wood burning stove. My wife did it. Imagine going to an outhouse when it was 20* below zero and the outhouse had only one wall, the back wall. We used bio-degradable toilet paper and with only one wall it provided a spectacular view of the valley and mountains on the other side. One did not linger, however.

[Linda_d]

Originally Posted by Bmachina

Be careful what you wish for and make sure you aren't looking at Amish through idealist rose colored glasses.

I lived in one of the largest Amish communities in the world, had neighbors of the oldest and most strict Amish orders. They are the hardest working people alive in the US today. They work from sun up to sun down doing hard manual labor. Families have upwards of 10 children, and each child is there to help with labor. My neighbor girls would be outside at 8 am weeding gardens, using manual push mowers, hand washing laundry and scrubbing windows...all barefoot with small children in-tow.

The men spend days plowing fields with horses, working in the hot sun, raising livestock and putting up loose hay by hand until a massive bank-barn was filled to the roof.

It is back breaking work.

The Amish I knew all yearned to have modern conveniences, but confided in me that their elders kept very tight reigns on them. They are heavily controlled by elders and their religious institutions in order to keep them Amish and prevent them from having too much English contact.

I used to have 2 sisters stay at my home to help out when I was gone, and they were in pure heaven. Having running water, a stove, heat, a refrigerator, a washing machine - those are all things we take for granted. They were soooo thankful and excited just to be able to take a warm bath in my tub. Their eyes would light up with the hugest excited smiles when I would ask them to house sit for me; for them, it was literally like taking a vacation of a lifetime.

I felt so bad the last time they stayed before I moved. They rode their horse to the grocery store, and when I returned, they had my entire freezer filled with junk food and ice cream. Something as simple as being able to buy ice cream and keep food chilled was a luxury for them. They were amazed with my microwave, and before they left the last time, they microwaved and entire box of frozen fish sticks, placed the sticks in between slices of white bread and took their fish stick sandwiches home in the buggy with them.

These people live in tight knit communities and are very dependent on those communities because of the harsh way of life. Self-sufficiency is a bit of an oxymoron, because in reality you need every bit of support you can get when it comes to living without modern conveniences to help you along.

Living with the Amish definitely teaches you to appreciate the little things we take for granted...

I live in Amish country in southwestern New York, and I totally agree. Too many people romanticize the Amish life-style because they only see it on sunny Saturdays when they take a drive in the country.

[ChrisC]

Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy

I looked up "luddite" online to figure out what it was, and once I learned its definition, I had to laugh at finding a group called "Neo-Luddites" on Facebook. It said the following:

"Technology is out of control - over-reliance has made us fat, stupid & useless. Once fossil fuels decline & economic collapse removes this support we are headed for disaster. Educate yourself, prepare to change your lifestyle while there is still time.

Join the growing Neo-Luddism movement. Modern technology does not make life better, we have been sold nothing but lies! Ironic to have a page like this on FB, but it's a good medium to get the message across."

At least they recognize the irony.

I've always found this sort of thing amusing. Completely bashing a given technology... via that technology.

I'm not big on some modern technologies, but if I'm actually using that technology, although I may grumble, I'm not going to proclaim it satan's spawn (and the causation of fat, stupid, and useless--there are other reasons for that ). Of course, if I don't use it (like smartphones)... then I can claim it to be satan's spawn.

[ncole1]

Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy

My wife and I love history. We love old houses, old cars, old furniture, old music, old movies, etc. Furthermore, we're old enough to see how our society is crumbling... and we think... "how cool would it be to live like it was long ago?".

Thus far, we haven't figured out what our "target year" would be... as in, "we're going to live like it's [year], and the only things we will use that are newer than [year] will be medical technology on an as-needed basis, and things that have become basic necessities of survival in today's America (whatever they might be)".

I watched a video about a family that did this - their target year was 1986. I think they were only intending to do it for one year, and the only new thing they used was a newer car.

The Amish do a good job of it, as I understand... but they tend to clump together such that there is a support group inherent in the area. (Amish areas have stores that sell antique-style farming implements and the like!)

Assuming we're not going to turn Amish, do any of y'all know of anyone who is doing this? If yes, where can I find it? My Google searches turned up very little.

Some war protesters have done this. I know someone who keeps his income low enough to not pay taxes because he is anti-war. He lives almost with no air conditioning, and barely any running water. He builds his own house(s) and grows a good bit of his own food - organically.

[thatguydownsouth]

Honestly if I could live in a hobbit hole, garden/farm, not have to even use currency, just barter, and not have to pay taxes or worry about anything but the simple things in life...Id do it in a heartbeat.

[nightbird47]

Originally Posted by ChrisC

I've always found this sort of thing amusing. Completely bashing a given technology... via that technology.

I'm not big on some modern technologies, but if I'm actually using that technology, although I may grumble, I'm not going to proclaim it satan's spawn (and the causation of fat, stupid, and useless--there are other reasons for that ). Of course, if I don't use it (like smartphones)... then I can claim it to be satan's spawn.

Of course there are those who honestly believe that our nice comfy world does have an expiration date and all we've learned will have to be relearned. I don't think its *unreasonable* to discuss how our technology has made that moment a much harder one and how it has taken things from us too.

Like now, its 30 degrees and drizzling freezing rain. The heater won't come on. I think I can fix it but in the meanwhile am dressed in multiple layers and am using the pan of steaming water on the stove method to help things a bit. And an electric heater but its not doing much. What if when it gets really cold you don't ever have central heating (or the gas heater I have, or will again soon I hope)? How fast can one rediscover how to stay warm?

I don't think its evil to appreciate technology. I enjoy what I enjoy. But we should remember it could go away easily. We live with a tech world which is far more precarious than we like to think. There is nothing wrong with also considering and even trying things out without all that stuff.

When I moved here I got the type of heater I have for the *specific* reason it doesn't take power. The winter before a friend who lived here lived in front of the fireplace for week since an ice storm knocked out the power for the city. I atleast will have heat (once the dust is blown out of the thing) even if the ice gets the power. I don't know for sure this will happen but its smart to think of the 'what ifs'.

Like stocking up before a storm. The one that blocked the street a few years ago for a week with snow made me glad of that.

Read up on the electical grid and how tenuous it could be and how long it would take to fix it if a power surge took out key parts. We have failing bridges and electical lines and water ways. We aren't doing much about them. Just once, take a couple days and don't use power and pretend the water is off and see how much hurt we'd be in if .....

[Cheektowaga_Chester]

Originally Posted by thatguydownsouth

Honestly if I could live in a hobbit hole, garden/farm, not have to even use currency, just barter, and not have to pay taxes or worry about anything but the simple things in life...Id do it in a heartbeat.

And you'd quit in three days as soon as the drudgery and hard labor and uncomfortable lifestyle hit you.

And what are the "simple things in life"?

TV?
Internet?
Braces for your kids?
Library books?
Air conditioning for your home?
A car?
A microwave?
A fridge?
Sun block?