I’m one of those that lived without electricity or running water as a child. We didn’t get electricity until I was fourteen. I’ll be 96 in a few months and I remember very well what it was like at that time. Of course I’m very thankful I don’t have to go outside to the bathroom anymore, but at the time we didn’t know what it was like any other way. And I have some beautiful memories. We lived on a farm and grew all our own food. About the only thing we bought was sugar, flour and salt,etc. we cut ice on a lake nearby and stored the blocks in sawdust in a shed. In the summer after we did the milking and the chores were done we would make ice cream in a hand turned ice cream maker, and we would have homegrown strawberries on it. That was the highlight of my day! Another favorite thing in the summertime was to lay on my back in the evening after dark and look at the stars, pointing out the North Star and little and Big Dipper. It was so beautiful and now, you can’t even see the stars because of all city lights. I miss going bare footed and going down to the creek and catching polywogs, I could go on and on.
Mom, I remember when Grandma and Grandpa Docken got indoor plumbing/bathroom. For all the time I spent there as a child I really didn't think about the outhouse. It was just there and we used it. That bathroom was so large to a young child. I loved that time. Perhaps more work, but less stress in many ways. Families and communities were close and helped each other. Fond memories or what I knew and the stories you told.
When my great grandmother ( 1887 - 1977 ) passed away I was 18. I'll never forget her telling us how much she loved seeing all the new inventions during her lifetime. From horse and buggy to cars, from the Wright Brothers to the landing on the moon. Her saying with a big smile, " I got to see all of it. "
One of my great grandma's refused to believe we landed on the moon, because it wasn't in the Bible. Didn't matter that her son, my grandpa, worked for NASA. They also lived in Hunstville of all places
The adults in older times were full of innovation. I was born in 1970. Me and my cousins would visit my great grandmother in the hills of Coffyville miss. She use to put clothes in the bathtub and make us have a stumping contest. It was fun. We didn't realize we were washing clothes. She was born in 1895,and passed in 1979. Miss you big mama.
Also born in 1970, 3 of my grandparents were born in the early 1890's....grand parents, not great grand parents believe it or not. It just seemed normal to have huge social and technological changes within a lifetime. Even my parents, born in the 30's and 40's, saw big changes. They used horses, lanterns, out houses and remember when electricity came to their homes in the country.
Prior to 1870 America was on free wireless energy... the innovation was required only after certain companies turned the US into a monopoly and put meters on everything.
As I watch this on my laptop lying on my bed in my air-conditioned house with food I bought from the store, I would just like to say how grateful I am to be alive in 2021.
You'd have been just fine because you wouldn't have known of anything like what you have today. The people of that day could weather the storm because that's all there was. Id imagine they were much stronger, healthier and more mentally stable than we are today.
It’s crazy to think that people back then probably thought they were at the pinnacle of technological advancement and felt bad for their “primitive” ancestors 100 years before. Remember- everything is relative!
I mean today we consider 2010 "primitive" compared to today... everything's changing now, but I don't know if that's necessarily good or not... when I get into comedy and/or writing one of the bits I will do will focus on how my generation who grew up literally as the Internet did have seen as much in 25 years as perhaps the past 3 generations did in 75... if I explained my lifestyle as a 7 year old in 2003 to one in 2021, it would sound like pioneer times to them!
@@Awakeningspirit20 That's because technological progress is exponential. Every 1 to 3 years it doubles in efficiency. It's likely that in 80 years from now super computers with petabytes of data from today will be equal to a mini pc or perhaps even a smartphone of their time and it probably would be considered old tech in 10 years after that.
@@Awakeningspirit20 Try telling kids to go easy on their grandparents who never even had a T.V. or microwave. They won't believe you. Their questions about why the phone is attached to the wall are hilarious, too. Within my lifetime I've known people who farmed with horses and never had electricity until they were adults.
@@newsaddict7737 Time to throw out an anchor. We don't need the crap coming down the pike. The only reason for 5 gee and "smart" anything is control of the population. Wise people are backing off technology and spending more time in nature. Freedom is better than being enslaved by technology.
This was not unlike the life my grandparents were born into in the first years of the 20th century. Grandma often told me about life on the farm without electricity, running water, movies, phones, radios or cars. She told me about the one-room schoolhouse with all grades in it, her mother making soap, the doctor arriving by horse and buggy to make house calls, the long walks to school during winter, the sleigh rides with stones warmed by the fireplace wrapped in towels around their feet. She told me about the barn dances, and helping her older sister Caroline prepare for parties by lacing her corset as tightly as possible. Truly it was another world. Grandma left the farm in 1925 for a job in the big city, where she later met my grandfather. They divorced and she got jobs at GM, Chrysler and finally Ford, from which she retired in the early '70s. Her Saturday visits were pure joy for me and when we sat on the porch and a plane flew overhead, she'd say "look at that! There was nothing like that when I was your age!" And I'd reconsider these things I took for granted as the modern miracles they were.
To Shirley Christensen: I am only 82 but I remember a few of those things. What a great trip down memory lane with this little video and your comments below. I remember my mom making lye soap and I'm so happy to finally see how it was done. We lived a very modern life though as we had an indoor bathroom in Denver, a coal bin for a coal fired furnace (floor grates to stand on if you were cold and it felt so good with that heat coming up...but woe unto you if you accidentally stepped on the floor grate barefooted...you'd get a pattern of squares burned onto your foot. I remember the milkman coming with glass bottles and placing them on your front porch. Sometimes, during winter, the milk would still freeze...even in the milk box that was there to help prevent that...and the cream, which had separated and risen to the top of the milk, would push the little cardboard cap up and ooze out of the top of the bottle. I remember the Helms bakery truck coming every so often and all six of us kids would run out, pick out a donut or whatever and our single mom would pay him for our "breakfast." Of course, there was cardboard in the bottom of your shoes if you happened to wear a hole through the sole of the shoe. Ah, and who can forget the old wringer washing machines when you'd pull clothes out of the washing machine and feed them through the rollers above the machine, hoping your hand didn't get caught between the rollers. My sister got her hand stuck there once. There was an emergency release on the top of the rollers just in case but I'm sure she was petrified. I wasn't there when it happened. And who can forget hanging clothes on a clothesline in the backyard to dry...made them smell so good...except in winter when they would freeze~ Oh, and the big wooden ice box to keep food cold. The ice man brought big chunks of ice that went into the top of the ice box where the air would cool and flow down through the shelves and keep the food cold. Next, the water pan at the bottom would overflow and flood the floor with melted water. We were so lucky when we got our first electric refrigerator ...with the big circular cooler on top. Or was it gas? I remember having a Servel refrigerator at one time around then. Summertime was always spent down at the lake swimming. You either wore your boxers, or, if you had money, you wore Speedos! Yes, that brand was around back then, and everybody wanted them because the Olympic swimmers wore them, and they helped them win the races. Of course, in those days they were much larger and made out of bulky wool which the local YMCA didn't like because they carried a lot of dirt and would sluff off wool strands that messed up the pool filters ..so, at the YMCA you thru swam in the buff. And nobody thought much about it...Skinny dipping wasn't a bad thing back then...in fact one of the Disney movies opened with a scene of boys skinny dipping in a river! No big deal back then. We had a car but since dad worked for the railroad (Denver and Rio Grande) we always got cheap tickets to take the train to our relatives in Utah and we even got to sleep in an upper berth on the train...how exciting were those old steam locomotives! I remember when, in 4th grade, we had a class field trip to the train yards and got to actually walk in the repair pits under a diesel locomotive and see the giant electric motors that made it go. (Hey, I was at a train museum a few months ago...do you know what's in the nose (under the hood) of the diesel locomotive? I didn't either...it's a BATHROOM!!! for the two engineers. Makes sense but who would have thought...!) Even though we lived in the city we still raised rabbits and chickens for Sunday dinner, and I remember the chickens, the hatchet, and the block of wood for chopping the poor unfortunate one that got chosen for Sunday dinner. Dad also skinned the rabbits and turned it inside out and put it over a stretcher to air dry them and then sell them to who knows for whatever they did with rabbit skins. Thank you, Shirley, for bringing back so many memories and I hope you weren't' bored reading some of my memories. Marvin W...San Diego now
Oh boy, Marvin, your memories have got me jumping with excitement! I'm absolutely loving this trip down memory lane you've taken me on! I mean, can you imagine making lye soap or using a coal-fired furnace these days? It's like stepping into a whole new world! And don't even get me started on the milkman and the Helms bakery truck! How cool is that? I can just picture you and your siblings running out to grab a donut or two - what a treat! And cardboard in your shoes? Now that's some old-school problem-solving! But let's not forget the washing machines! That wringer washing machine sounds like something out of a horror movie - I can only imagine the adrenaline rush you'd get trying to feed clothes through the rollers without getting your hand caught! And speaking of clothes, hanging them up on a clothesline was the ultimate in fresh-smelling laundry. Except, of course, in winter when they froze solid! And who could forget the wooden ice box and the ice man delivering huge chunks of ice to keep the food cold? Though I'm sure no one was too thrilled when the water pan overflowed and flooded the floor! But let's get to the fun stuff - swimming at the lake! Boxers or Speedos? It's like choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea! And the YMCA didn't even like woolen swimwear because it clogged up the pool filters - can you believe that? But no worries, skinny dipping was totally cool back then! And did you say you got to ride on steam locomotives and sleep in upper berths on trains? That's the stuff dreams are made of, my friend! All in all, your memories have got me feeling like I missed out on some serious adventure in the past! But thank you for sharing them with me, Marvin! It's been an absolute blast!
The farmer was the most important because all the food came from them, the law man was the most important because all justice came from him, the shop keeper was the most important because they bought what you had and sold you what you needed, the large business owner was the most important because they employed a great many, and on and on and on the point being your comment annoys me.
(my Grandfather did his own smithing and horseshoeing; made his "Rocking GR" brand that he registered Dairied, raised horses, and added being Deputy Sheriff 1951 - 1971 Lost his left arm a little below the elbow at 5 or 6 y.o., after a horse stepped on it...
Let's have a little think about multi-generational family living. Family effort was paramount. Those families that had gay men and women in them, had an advantage over those who did not - built in baby sitters/teachers/cooks, etc. while other family member were out foraging for food and or farming. See how cool nature is? Darwin sure admired her!
Life was tough, but it brought meaning, and each person were assigned their individual roles, bringing the family and community together in harmony. Now, we have everything we desire, but the families are broken, we are isolated amongst ourselves, and we have little to no meaning.
I don't disagree with this statement, we have so much modern technology to make our lives easier yet we are more deppresed than ever , maybe it's because we are spending more time in the virtual world then the physical world nowadays
I went past a small grave yard today and saw several 1819 death dates and I decided to watch a video like this. Amazing to think that we temporarily live or own our land. It's up to us to make it better for the next people that come along. I also realized that 200 years ago, all of life as they knew it has been silent for such a long time. They didn't even think of the possibility that anyone would be holding a small computer, touching the screen and commenting on a video that we just watched.
Yup, I have 13 acres and I always think about those who will be here in 100 years. That’s why I started growing rows of oak trees so they can enjoy them or burn them for firewood.
The stories told by people like Shirley Christensen are the ones I could spend endless hours listening to. It's not about the cliché "everything was better back then" because it wasn't, the very people who lived these times are the first to say it, us younger generations do understand and get the message though that the old days were hard working times but also much more decent,simple and honest days. For a lot of things there is most certainly and secretely something deep inside of us longing for a more basic and honest lifestyle or approach, and through listening to the very few remaining time witnesses that connection and link to the days from the past is kept alive! Thank you for sharing them with us🙏💙
I suggest trying to watch some of the Victorian historical videos... we tend to romanticize those times...and, for the most part, we are shown upper class and working class lifestyles. However, there was NO social relief for people who got sick and lost their job, or had to lose their homes...flop houses, criminal atrocities abounded. Life was hindered by horrid diseases, TB was ever present in areas that were considered slums, chronic bronchitis was an everyday sort of thing. Street vagrants had no shelters at all and contributed to the diseases that were rampant in those days. YES, we still have that situation today, more so than in recent past times, due to a housing market that literally excludes 90 percent of the population, and a rental debacle that puts most rents out of reach for Joe and Jane average person. Tenements were abysmal... Search out the Victorian historical videos...they are an incredible eye opener!! We see Bob Cratchits family, at Christmas, enjoying their little feast. What we don't see are the people clothed in rotting rags that are falling off their body... Hans Christian Anderson wrote the story called THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL It's a short story that reflects, in a far too gentle way, the plight of the desperately poor. READ IT♡ I read it as a child, and it opened my eyes to so many things that stay hidden in all societies.
My grandparents never had an electric or gas stove; they cooked everything on a wood burning stove. Many summer hours gardening, chopping and sawing wood. It was sweet. They also never had a car. I remember their smiling kindness.
My grandparents (My dads parents) used a Glenwood wood cook stove that my dad inherited and it's still in my dads childhood home where he still lives in since my dad was 9 in 1956.
We had a wood stove when I was a kid, and we used it for cooking sometimes, though we had a normal house. We did live lakeside in the country, so power went out sometimes for days after a big storm, and we'd bathe in the lake, cook on the stove. As I kid, I thought it was heaven. When I grew up, I bought a house across the bay, and I can still see the house I grew up in when I look out my back deck over the bay.
my gr- grandma died in 1974 in Albuquerque at the age of 95 plus....she experienced it all and saw it all. Her first arranged marriage was when she was 14 to a widower with kids....she outlived 3 husbands. I spent summers with her in rural farming NM...I remember a house without "facilities" and then when I was jr hi age...in came electricity and indoor plumbing and her gray, gun-metal Maytag washer with rollers to wring out sopping wet clothes. a refrigerator and a large electric stove. She washed white clothes first and farmer overalls were washed last....all with the same water, you should have seen the dirt and sand at the bottom of the drum on that Maytag. It was hard work. Thank you Nonny for introducing me to quilting on a singer treadle. now gr-granny NM
I am 75. Many of us in rural South Carolina grew up like this until some of the rural areas didn't have electricity until the 1950's. We had wells then hand water pumps which were out side. We had outhouses and used corn cobs or the Sears catalog. It took many years for the progression of country people. My uncle wondered how people got into to the TV box. It is amazing how much progress has been made in just my life time....
This is how my parents lived in the 60s in Europe. They didnt get electricity until 1963! Houses usually only had 2 bedrooms. 1 room for the parents, 1 room for the sons, and the daughters all slept up in the loft. They didnt have the mattresses we do now. It was basically just a big mattress shaped sheet filled with straw. And all the 4 sisters slept in the same bed. They bathed in the well outside and used a piss pot or an outhouse and wiped with corn cobs or leaves. The women washed the clothes in the rivers and streams. They only had a few articles of clothing. 2 pairs of underwear. 1 pair of shoes. And only 2 or 3 toys. They had no tv. If they wanted to play with a ball it was just a rock and they did it barefoot so the rocks wouldnt destroy their only pair of shoes. They ate no meat except for on weekends and holidays. They would sometimes go hungry or have to eat moldy bread. They ate a lot of soup made with vegetables and wild plants they foraged for. They also used chickens for eggs and not meat, unless someone got sick, then they made chicken soup for them.
My grandma is 96 years old. She still lives in the same house she and my granddad moved into in 1948. It was a one room schoolhouse that was built in 1918. Morgan County, WV sold it and my granddad bought it and made it into a multi room house. He was a carpenter. My grandma has always lived simple. No air conditioner, no indoor bathroom and the only plumbing is the kitchen sink. There is so much history about that old house. Edit: My grandma passed away and wasn't too far from turning 97. The house is still in our family and my mom's sister lives there. We thought she should have it because she took care of her so much.
That is really wonderful. My grandmother would have been 100 in 1996. She too lived without air conditioning, and preferred it that way. They had indoor plumbing into the house from the mid 1940's, but she never lived with flush toilets. You could not drink the water. She used a kerosene stove in the winter. I loved her so much and loved visiting her. She lived on a farm and I thought it was paradise.
We had Moral science in Indian schools as a subject. We learned about respecting elders and helping neighbours etc. Was this not taught in American schools?
Exactly! Like I'm so grateful enough and at so much awe on how "modern" we are now. With all the pipes for our water source, electricity, smartphones, food deliveries through apps, electric cars, wifi, laptops/pcs/game consoles, appliances like ref and the list goes on. I cant imagine how can they even beat us 100 yrs from now. 😂
It will only take 20 years now for life to be unrecognizable - technology is speeding up and the rate of change accelerates. No humans will be left alive in the year 2300, unfortunately.
It goes without saying what my life would have been like in the 1800s. I'm thankful that my ancestors were able to endure long enough to keep the generation going.
@@francesbethodendahl8527 That is the way lye soap has always been made. You can also make soap out of berries from a soap berry tree. They grow wild many places.
@@Growmap I have never used lye soap. Irish Spring, Caress, Ivory, Lever 2000, Dial and Dove. I have used these soaps but never lye soap. I still like the fragrance of Irish Spring🙆💚 it is made from a form of wax and a detergent with a subtle fragrance.
Most soap was traditionally made from ash and fat of some kind (either grease or lard), maybe some spices. It was this way from early in the medieval times, as far as we know, and probably earlier. Soap today is made with a fat source and ash.
Yes, the methods were a bit lengthy but without them, we wouldn't be living as easy as today. I'd like to thank the past generations for building how the day-to-day methods have evolved. It was so simple back then. It was all about being out there...
@@cattycorner8 it would be nice for a little bit but after a while it would just seem miserable that’s why things have changed and become easier more time to actually do the things we want
I know, right? I've never seen one like that before. I wonder if someone could make one. I'll have to see if Lehman's carries them. I'd also like to have that pivot thing she used to swing the pots away from the fire and then back over the fire.
That's one of the coolest things to me about history... Seeing "new" inventions that solve problems we don't even have today. Like the iron with the cavity to hold the hot metal so that you can just switch them out and keep ironing. So cool
I love the churn too. Wouldn’t it be clever to set it by kids while they are gaming? They get a new high score, and fresh butter on their rolls at dinner.
Better Life in old times. Now you have phone, cars etc. Technology grows but human being decrease with fast life and fast food. Stress level increases.
Yeah. We'd be diseased, smelly slaveowners. Bedpans and shit all over the place. Toxic water. Bad hygiene. Short lifespans. It wasn't Disneyland like this dated film implies.
@Uncle Jed You are, very conveniently, missing the bigger picture. To itemize: slavery was an acceptable way of life (doesn't matter that a typical poor family couldn't afford a slave; it's not the point). Women - who had NO Constitutional rights - weren't treated much better than slaves. And - yeah - lifespans were more problematic because of diseases that had no cures at the time, and - in the urban areas - contaminated resources. The main point, however, is that the video above is deceptive in its depiction of that time period, as a "comfortable" and swell way of living. Very dated piece of whitey world propaganda. The reason I'm bitching about it is that it isn't educational at all in today's setting. No more than a day in Sunday School after smoking meth.
@Uncle Jed I wouldn't step into your backward turf for anything. C'mon west, however, and I'll oblige ya. We have gun control here, so you'll have to do it with your fists. Chip on my shoulder? A total euphemism for the contempt I have for middle America. You're a repulsive lifeform, very low on the evolutionary ladder. Anything else I can do for you?
@Uncle Jed You really think I didn't expect that comment? You're an uneducated, illiterate dipshit. The hilarious Marxist shit was TOTALLY predictable. So, what ARE you? A MAGA-league octogenarian?
I know, seeing the baby under the foot of the bed was frightening. But it is like a trundle-crib. It was safe and in the same room as the parents. We like our cribs we want our cribs😁 I agree life was too hard back then.
No, you pulled out the trundle not for the baby but for a toddler who wouldn't stay in his own bed, or whom you wanted to keep close (like a 2 or 3 year old). Trundles were not "shoved under the bed" with the child. They were stored under the bed in the daytime, and pulled out into the room for use at night. Babies slept in cradles and bassinets, older infants in cribs.
@@greenshp I meant like a trundle attached to the foot of the bed. Both were placed under the bed. I was using it as a comparison to today's crib. We do not do use this device anymore, all babies are placed into either a bassinet, cradle or a crib, seperate frim the bed but still self-contained and secure. I do not even think the bassinet is used as much anymore. Bassinet meaning like a basket. Either way it is a separate sleeping area from the parent's bed and most times now it is not kept in the parent's room but in a separate nursery with a camera or an audio box. Most parents like having a newborn near them in eye contact not under the bed when they sleep. Toddlers too are kept in cribs or pens as a safe place. Adults just have a bigger crib with walls instead of bars, their bed room😁 or home.
I’m 37 , I would take these times in a heartbeat . The way things are now , well it feels like the furthest from the way a human is supposed to live than just about anything I can think of .
@@smtsmt1223 lol, somebody doesn't keep up on current events or simply even stay informed. There are slaves right now in several arab countries and africa for starters.
All I can feel is gratitude and respect to these hard-working people who led to our lives being so easy in comparison. We are very fortunate, despite what some in the media (who lack perspective and profit from agitation) would have you believe.
Many of us worked very hard as children. I worked in the high school cafeteria before school and at lunch because I had a fondness for having enough to eat. It is a fairly new thing for working class children to not help around the house. I bet some of them still do. And they get jobs to keep a roof over the family's heads and food on the table, too. What I think would shock most kids today even more than telephones attached to the wall, no microwave and maybe no T.V. is that our bedrooms only contained a bed, a dresser and 1 week''s worth of clothes. 1 pair of shoes per child. 1 coat had to last 4-6 years, so it was huge at first and then way too small. Maybe each child might have 1 favorite toy. Maybe not. The 1 toy might be homemade or a string doll. Nothing else.
Why? All children have a natural desire to help adults; do what they're doing! The parent who doesn't allow them to work is hurting their development a great deal.
I`m hardly ancient, being 57 years old, but can easily remember having toast and tea for breakfast and the bread being toasted by my mum piericng the bread with a poker and holding it over the coal fire. I also easily remember the cast iron ovens built juxtaposed to the fireplace. That was the late 1960`s and early 1970`s England ( UK ).
Yeah well post war England well let's just say labor about drive you too 1800 😉...I was born in the 70s..... my parents had a toaster lol you sound like my grandmother, who was born in the 20s... the milk man. Fire irons etc etc, looong ago though
In Canada at that time, only very remote areas did not have electricity. Even today there are off grid cottages but nowadays they at least have a generator or solar power.
I come back to this time after time to relisten to it partly because the two narrators are SO comforting--their voices are like a cozy blanket or being tucked into bed by your parents as a child w/all right in the world.
Woodstove user here. I live in Maine and it was heartbreaking to see all those people in Texas that went through hell when it snowed there a year or so ago. I was online literally giving advice on how to stay warm because people were actually asking me about it!! It broke my heart to realize that we are so reliant on luxuries like electricity and heaters that many have no idea how to keep warm without electricity. Wherever you live, always have a backup plan in case you lose power. What will you do to stay warm? Is it also safe? Do you need supplies? Plan ahead because you don't wanna get caught in the cold, literally. Learn things beforehand in case you find yourself in a situation where you might need to stay warm. Having an indoor fire of any kind requires knowledge and safety skills. Be prepared!! Be safe!! Stay warm and healthy!!
I have relatives in Texas but I live up in a northern state. 30°F is just an average winter day. Was surprised to see that hardy and independent Texans were caught unprepared. Country people and some homeowners up here and in the city, have backup generators. They know to open faucets so the pipes don't burst, and have pipes insulated. Having lived in marginally heated city apartments when I was a student, has sparked the discussion of using Crisco covered candles to distribute heat. It works well! But always good to have a few gallons of water on hand, wool/alpaca blankets, flashlight, matches, first aid kit, jumper cables, fire extinguisher/lots of baking soda, snackable food, toilet paper, cash on hand... And that's all I can think of. Just basic emergency preparedness. This was how they lived - close to nature and the elements. They had an understanding of the world outside, and what should stay there! They were resourceful. We have come to rely on everything automated, without knowing how to empower or protect ourselves. Like we used to. Always good to have life skills/hacks!
the texans freezing was just embarrassing. I get that they aren't used to the cold or snow but like damn bro it's not that hard to warm yourself up if you are at home, even without electricity or gas, or a firepit
@@muscleman125 apartments aren't easy though to heat. There are many in Texas. Unless you have a gas stove or gas heat you are out of luck because you can't have a fire pit inside but if it were you or I we could just smoke a whole lot of weed and at least something would be burning!! 🤣 I agree it was crazy to see how terrible they fared during the power outage and finding out the electric company was screwing everyone made things even worse. I hope the people that survived it learned some skills they can use if this ever happens to them again
Ice storms don't happen in Texas very often, so it's no wonder people weren't prepared. Not many people have fireplaces in Texas nor do they have gas heating (it's a waste of money). It's the same thing with A/C up north. A lot of people up there (especially in Maine) do not have A/C and would think it's weird for a home to have A/C.
I grew up in northern minnesota. one room school, wood burning stove, well for our water, outhouse, and we had just gotten electricity when i was a child. one light hanging from the ceiling.
@@muurisoras5878 trust me, humanity has the endurance to engage in sex no matter how severe the weather conditions maybe. Not only that, but it also helps keep you warm!
I can remember my grandmother churning butter. They had their own garden she always fixed a big dinner every day. I wished I had been more help for her cause I sure do miss the days back then. She canned her own food and had a root cellar to store them in ❤
@Nino Brown righttt, it’s like everyone seems to have forgotten what people other than white had to go through. Tryna sugar coat it\ ignore it like it never happened.
We take way too many things for granted in our daily lives, thinking we'll never have to live like this. But you never know what'll happen. Knowing how to take care of yourself from scratch and being at least somewhat self-sustaining might be crucial in case of emergency.
My dad grew up with a wood stove. Told me this story later in his 70's. "I was very young boy and ran out to the stove one morning to warm up. My little boy "wee wee" was hard and it touched the stove! Learned my lesson not to run to the stove first thing in the morning" Lol RIP Dad! Love and miss your stories.
I am a history buff. From what you have seen , depending on the era the Wilsons may be upper middle class with all that and a brick chimney. Not to get to long , It was common for people in my area to have wooden chimneys and used charcoal until around 1800 . In some places you can still see the charcoal mounds where they made it.
The house I grew up in was built around 1880. Down in the basement was a large opening (which was boarded up) in the outside wall on the Rock driveway side. It's where the coal was delivered to be burnt in the furnace for heating. Lincoln Nebraska.
@@desertodavid There was an old farm house removed from a near Park in Boston, Mass. In those days people would move houses; today they are renovated or torn down. Well, this house was placed upon a stone foundation that was built on a flat granite ledge. Initially, the new owner thought that the basement was only 8 ft. deep. Later on he realized that it was 12 ft. deep. The old couple that sold had a coal heating furnace, that was built on a stone platform 4 ft. off the floor. They just filled the entire basement with coal dust. In the day one would put the buckets out on the curb and the city trash dept. would pick it up once a week. He realized there wasn't a dirt cellar floor when he needed to fix the stair bottom going outside. Hired a dumpster & conveyer to empty the basement. He converted to Oil, because the Boston Gas Company could not provide a Gas line due to the ledge. Oh well !
Yes, glad you caught the fact that the documentary example, was of a upper middle class home of the day. Most folks were poorer than the dirt which they their planted crops.
We should still be living like this, I remember my grandmother saying she would walk to town because the horses were to tired from working in the fields all day. She was a widow and built the log cabin she raised my mother and two uncles in. She was an amazing lady
Infant mortality rate was horrific back then, death and disease was rampant. You would not want to live back in those days. Now getting back to basics and finding more fulfillment in the simple things, that I'd agree with.
@@CaptApril123 dude your right it was bad then and life was hard and not fir the weak. But who cares it was still much better than life is today. I'd go back there in a hart beat. That was a time where a man could forge out his own destiny like on his own terms truly free.
I'm 62 now ~ I remember my grandmother sharing stories about her growing up in Lenox Kentucky she was born 1919. She lived way upon a hill and had to wash clothes down in the creek that is still there today. On Sundays they would all ride the wagon to church she loved visiting with all he friends and family on Sundays . When she was nine her dad died of pneumonia on Christmas day ~ she helped her mother prepare her dad for visitors . Her older brothers had to dig his grave . Then they all had to move because no one was able to handle the farm work her dad did. She said people had good times back then and a lot of bad times because some men started making their own moonshine and the men would get drunk and troubles would always follow. I sure do miss my grandmother.
It's not that modern people COULDN'T live a disgusting pig soap life in a shack, we just have higher standards for ourselves. If I lived back then, I would never be so lazy as to not invent machines to do stupid work.
Teaching manners and morals, God how I wish they still taught that today. So many lack that and common knowledge or sence. This was so well put together. I really enjoyed watching this. I also feel blessed to have been born in the 1980s and daily life wasn't such a chore. God bless all those who have made this country what it is today. Beautiful
In 1980 when i was 12 my mom brought me back to where she grew up in Sparta, Greece. The village where her mother grew up was on top of a mountain. They still had only 1 dirt road in & out, no electricity, phones or running water. It was like going back 1000 years in time. Small village, not many people, everyone traded, no money, everyone raised chickens, goats and grew olives and whatever they ate.
I did live then. I've been here over and over. My soul keeps coming back. I remember the 1880,s very well. I died in the civil war on the battle field and again in world war II
Kid to his 90 year old great grandfather in 1800. “Gramps what were things like around here when you were a kid?” “Basically the same as now only those trees over there were shorter.” 😂
@@randymoyan7871 Hmm I don't know... 1800 - 1890 saw considerable changes even more so than the 20th century. For one he could have told his great-grandson there were no railroads which by 1890 could whisk you across the whole country within a week. Oh and there wasn't even a "country" past the Appalachian Mountains he could add as there was still something called the "frontier".
Lol, That's ridiculous. Obviously there were major changes in every aspect of life between 1710 and 1800 in North America in what is now the United States of America.
@@chrisk6668 first of all I was making a joke, but I wouldn’t call it ridiculous. My point being, a day in a life of a person born in 1700 compared to 1800 was very little difference in comparison to 21st century living. 1700/1800 no iPhones, computers, tv, radio, airplane, automobiles, trains, telephone, telegraph etc etc....
Amazing reminder of how easy is life today! Thank you a lot! In "my time" it was a real happening when go to the theather and watch a movie... Today there is 800 tv channels and over hundreds movies playing on the same time... What to say... :)
The Genesee County Billage & Museum in Mumford NY is a recreated village which includes historically accurate houses, a church and a general store, each meticulously moved to the location piece by numbered piece. When they located the general store, they discovered a complete and detailed inventory from 1840.
Mom told me stories of churning butter took turns with her sisters , Grandma had a bakers dozen,for those who aren't familiar with the term that's 13 children , everything was homemade including soap , there is nothing that compares to the taste of homemade bread and butter ,jams and fruits, my favorite was tomato jam so delicious, for me those are unforgettable and Wonderful memories, thank you for a trip down memory lane .
My uncle did our ancestory tree and it’s so amazing that we had a relative born in Philadelphia in 1776.. then each generation of his family moved further and further west.. truly amazing times
I'm currently doing my ancestry right now from DNA and the furthest relative I can date back is born in 1555 in Ireland. I still have family there and remember family reunions when I was a kid (20years ago) and they came to visit. They hit the east coast of MD in the 1700s and many moved further south some stayed.
2:25. The boy climbs a staircase in the back of the house, located next to a huge fireplace. There are many old houses still existing in the New England area that originally had this design, but were altered, and had additions made to the point, that these architectural features got engulfed inside the walls and partitions of the new house floor plan. Occasionally people are remodeling and break through a wall, only to find a huge colonial fireplace or an enclosed, hidden staircase generally ending in a deadend at the ceiling above it. They are totally shocked to discover they've been walking past these buried features in the walls of their home for years or decades. Even more interesting is that often the stairways will have graffiti from young children who had lived in the home hundreds of years ago.
I grew up in a rural area in the 70's, on Sunday's we would go visiting (young people today don't understand this term). We would travel out in the countryside to visit old relatives. They didn't have electricity or plumbing and lived like the people in this video. Life "was not" hard to them, they were quite happy, and they kept themselves busy. There was no man/woman weird stuff like today and they weren't bored or depressed....those are modern people illnesses.
I'm a 90s baby and I did that growing up. Me and my parents would visit some of my relatives (Dad's side) out in the country almost every Friday night. On Sundays, we would go see my grandmother (Dad's side) at her house.
Shhhh......people today are supposed to think that the past was so much worse than it really was. That's because then they'll think today's society is much better than it really is.
I used to volunteer at a museum that did the time period from about 1620 to 1700. I actually enjoyed living like that. We built furniture and made soap, food, and we did laundry just like they did then.
Depends on region. Places like Europe were a hotbed for clashing empires at the time. China was decaying in a "Century of Humiliation." The African kingdoms were conquered by the aforementioned empires.
My grandmother went from horse and buggy on the farm, an 8th grade education, to living in a large city with a huge home and several children and grand children with college degrees. They were Doctor's, Lawyers, teachers and scientists. We were all together on the day of the moon landing and watched it on TV. Everyone came to our house, as we were the only ones with a color TV. She got really quiet and then talked to all of us grandchildren about what life was like for her and her parents. I wish I had listened harder to be able to share it all with my kids, but my memory isn't that good. I do remember her talking about how things were so much better now. She had been stricken with Polio and had to struggle to learn to walk again. Antibiotics and modern medicine meant she was the first in her knowledge to not lose any children to childhood diseases. We live in a good age, people now look back at the 70's and 80's and talk about how much better things were then.... Life is as you make it.
@@Aztec339 she didn’t say anything about the moon landing video being in color. She said because they had a color TV, which was a huge luxury, others gathered at their house to watch it.
Watching a real blacksmith make a horseshoe, or anything really, is fascinating. My son-in-law has decided to start making things in a forge in his garage. It is amazing watching him make stuff. He's not very good yet, but he's improving every week. Good times!
@@nicksacco5041 Discarded rebar. He works in construction and pulls old rebar out of trash piles and takes it home. With the permission of his boss, of course.
There's an old house on the corner where I live that dates back to the 1780s. in the living room there was a bunch of paneling and when the family renovated the house, they tore down the paneling and there was an ancient fireplace just like you see in this video.
life without cars or phones might have been harder but hey, they didn't have to go to school past 3rd grade or sit through hours of traffic back then 😅
@@annikasurann9274 this is true! Different time, different way of life! I was born in ‘75 and I still remember life without cellphones and internet. As a kid, we spent so much time outdoors..even after Atari was released and we got our first Beta player. 😊
Millions of Americans still live close to this. I’m always amazed at how little lower class society is understood. Anyone who has spent time living in a trailer or homeless roughly gets this way of life. To be brutally honest, I would have considered a lot of this luxury when I was a homeless kid.
This is luxury. Even by today standards. If you take a close look at the video, you can see that these families were well to do. The men in these type of household probably owned businesses, or were in politics.
Id like to see anyone today live like this given their current life and still say it's privileged or luxiourious. People had work ethic and respect regardless of their social status, and were closely connected to nature and humanity is all
@@bubbagumption9938 Most third world countries and refugees would consider this paradise, forget the fact that they’re free people. For their time, the family in the video lived in luxury, as much as an upperclass in the US could. Many white Americans were in poverty, with the upper classes, those showcased in this video, making up a smaller number of white Americans. Poor whites could even live in conditions worse than some slaves did (plantations had to provide some food or protection at least to keep their slaves living) I would love to live in a mansion with organic food and little environmental waste. That way of living is beautiful but you have to remember how those people attained it. I wish we could all live like that and in peace with one another
"Since the war, since the country had become independent; there were schools everywhere." I don't know why, but this line really drove home how young this country still is.
@@marianamachado2992 Compared to Independent India, USA is old, India got it's independence in 1947 . But compared to India in Totality.. including its oldest civilizations.. India is far older than the US
The Greenland Shark lives 5-600 years. That means for a Greenland shark in what would be human years of 40-50, they were kids when America was being started. It is not that old at all. What is most remarkable is how much things changed in the past 100-120 years. There has never been a greater change in all history than over the past 120 years. We went from horse and buggy to traveling to Mars
My wife and I visited an Amish style home used for tourist. Everything in there was authentic. One of the first things I noticed was the absence of the "Sound of Technology". It was so serene in there I thought, wow! this would be ideal to maintain one's sanity, then I realized, how long could I even do this? Not too many people could make the transition from modern to archaic!
I remember a power failure at work a few years ago. Everything electric went off. It was so peaceful without the constant background electrical hum of the computers and fluorescent lights. I actually felt physically better. A person from the past transported to now would go crazy with all the noise we don't consciously notice- even the fridge motor! But then I'd rather have the hum and a means to keep food safe and fresh, than no hum and spoiled food. As a side note, I've almost been hit several times when an electric car backed up in front of me. I didn't hear it coming.
@@kelseymathias3881 When you have more individual ly we need each other less. But you can still come together for all kinds of reasons, such as churches, recreation, entertainment, holidays, festivals or work events..
Your life would definitely be more full. The problem we have today, all this consumerism, is because we are not staying busy doing productive things. So, our time becomes filled with things other people produce. That's my 50 year take on it.
@MH The BEST way to do this, IMO, is to start a garden. It's a process that will have you busy most of ever year. * composting * weeding * repairing and making tools * making trellis and frames * planting seeds * harvesting * winnowing seeds and drying them out *cultivating Farmer in medieval times were busy with gardening year-round. Try creating a Three Sisters Garden!
My Great Great Uncle was born in 1890, I am now 63 and remember his stories about growing up on a farm in Indiana. They were pretty self-sufficient growing their own food, chickens, turkeys, and had horses and a couple cows. They had a massive amount of acreage growing corn that got 7 feet high and nearly falling sideways from the sweetest corn ever. By the time my Grandmother came along in 1914 the family carried on farming adding 18 acres of strawberries. They began growing watermelons and green beans, cucumbers. They planted plum trees. People met from other farms and got married, there are 6 of these generational marriages, so we end up somehow related to the whole town. Lots of kids to help run that farm. Had to get up before school and do chores, gather eggs, milk cows, etc. Ultimately they opened a mercantile/grocery store in the town AND a tavern. Women were not allowed in the tavern. Then my Mom was born in 1939, family was considered well-off by those standards. I have no idea how this works, but when my Grandmother let tenant farmers work the land she brought in enough to support the family single handed. She has married at 18 to a man her parents liked that was 42. Total womanizer and drinker. She threw him out and divorce was a big deal. I watched hard working people achieve. Other family members worked at the saw mill, the rock quarries, the railroad. My family helped found and build the church which is still in use. The women sewed, crocheted, quilted and cooked from scratch. Sundays family had dinner in the summer kitchen which was screened in. I could go on and on, but the past hold special memories. Especially the milk wagon, the horse travelled the same route for near 20 years, he literally could make this route by himself to make deliveries. People knew which days he came, where he stopped, and the milk was in the wagon. 😊
@@Lisabug2659 very cool, I've been researching my Swiss German ancestors who migrated to Berne, Indiana. The town sounded similar to ours - families marrying into each other! From the census I can see that my great grandmother and great grandfather lived houses apart for their whole youth. I'm wanting to put some information together on the women in my family, how life might have been like for my great great great grandmother and going down through the ages. Hearing the stories is great - I have 4 children, college educated, and work a full time job from home. I can't imagine having my entire life revolve around gathering water for the day and keeping the fire alive just to keep everyone alive! Though sometimes I wonder if, in the absence of technology, social media, and the blending of work and family, keeping your mind busy with the next task of survival lended to a more focused and wholesome state of mind.
Life was about survival then. Chores were meaningful and sometimes fun but necessary. Today, if there was suddenly no electricity, lights, heat, cooling, or communications, 90% of us would die within 1 year.
@@lemonaid8678 Not everyone back then grew their own food. The farmers had markets where they sold what they grew and the livestock they slaughtered. You did have to know how to cook though. There were no microwaves or Grubhub delivery.
New discoveries in electromagnetism and radio waves made it possible for thousands of new inventions to be conceived of almost overnight. All it takes is one or two really kickass discoveries to set off a massive acceleration of technology in general
The last quadrant of the last 2000 years were prophetically important. Started with the Age of Discovery, the Renaissance, the founding of America, the Industrial Revolution, and like you say, the last 200 years were nothing like the last 4000 years since Babel.
Imagine the technological boom to come now that Artificial Intelligence has made a huge leap forward? We're on the cusp of such a monumental boom, I can see, hear, not quite taste, and feel it.
@@apolloaegletes7116 I'm not entirely excited for the new AI technologies that are yet to exist only because i don't really have a good feeling with technology taking over us.
@Uncle Jed No, just white supremacist thugs who could treat you like crap and kill you if they didn't like the way you looked. Marxist thugs are just as bad as white supremacists. Its weird you have a problem with one evil group but not the other.
@@Hodaboi96 you mean urbanization took over. Capitalism lives in every economy. It's just called a black market it some. You blame human nature and label it wrong. CNN or MSNBC???
@@thisrippleeffect8042 capitalism has a definition and it doesn’t just mean “money”. Back then mercantilism was the dominant economic mode. I suggest you look something up for once.
@@brygos7436 I suggest looking into human nature. But I'll warn you, if you actually do, it'll cause you to become familiar with yourself and your actual lack of intelligence. Cheers bud!
Over a hundred years ago, and yet the daughter still received a better music education than myself, someone who has been writing songs since childhood, but who was denied a music education, and who now, as an adult, is having to pursue her music education on her own.
I appreciate this film for it's effort to educate and accurate depiction of spaces, furnishings and so on. That said, much of the narrative is simply without merit. Flint and steel are not difficult to use (the film depiction was 100% wrong) and it only takes about five minutes to learn. Fires were not kept burning so "the gentlemen could light their pipes". This is pure hyperbole. Fires were kept burning in warm/hot weather so as to reduce humidity in the home (else it become damp and riddled with mold and mildew), create movement of fresh air into the house via stack effect, and to draw moisture out of the exterior walls to reduce rot and mold growth. Building materials of the 19th century were entirely organic, and thus absorbed moisture, so that they required drying to both the outside AND inside. Furthermore, blacksmiths may not have received "formal" educations within school settings, but they did serve long apprenticeships during which time they had to learn not only the crafts of fire, metal and hammer but also geometry and fractional tables in order to process raw ore, blend metals to produce steel and brass, and to fashion the metal goods needed. Yes, producing horseshoes was common, but the most common thing they produced, usually by the apprentices, were nails. That said, they also made cast iron pots and pans, small brass or silver accoutrements like buckles, pins and needles, bridle and harness pieces, wagon wheel and barrel hoops and every other piece of metal manufactured for purposes. Also, paper spills may have been "all the rage" in the eastern states and the big cities, but long wooden slivers called "tapers" were the most commonly used method of lighting candles and pipes. Paper was too valuable for food preservation and for use in the outhouse or privvy.
I agree. The film says more about the period in which it was produced than the period it depicts. There are values in the interpretation that scream mid-twentieth century--namely, as you described, an eagerness to over-emphasize the difficulty of every day life, in juxtaposition with the post-WW2 obsession with technological invention and convenience. As another replied, there is also a denial about the role of Black Americans in the era, and no mention of human enslavement whatsoever--despite it being vitally important to actually understanding the era. Clearly, American mythology-making was strong in the 20th century!
The documentary/educational film of this period was much more information rich, and much less sensational hype panorama music crescendo than much of today's dead space filled analogs.
Indeed, everything today requires a scene change every 50 milliseconds to the point where you question what you just saw and rewind over and over. Gotta get more ever more adverts in after all. (Note, I did upgrade to UA-cam Pro to skip the ads)
I love the details they add which helps bring understanding and context. For example, the table was close to the fire, as everything was so heavy. Or the everyday items with 'new' features that made things a bit easier for people - like the iron with the iron inserts. A really good video that stands the test of time in my opinion.
My grandpa used to farm with mules in the '40's. Kinda nice to think gen z's are bringing back some stuff like knitting and sewing, food preservation etc. Just kinda sad that there's so few people left to show us how But much happier with heated water on demand and a warm house
I'm only 43 and I used to see people doing all of those things (knitting, sewing and food preservation) growing up, there are still plenty of people around who know how to do all of those.
Heated water and plumbing, so underrated and taken for granted. If we all in this generation we're forced back to living like that I'm sure we'd all miss things that we never thought of missing, and I think hot water would be close to the top of the list.
As a person born in 1946, I must say I have seen a lot of changes. God Bless America I’m second generation, both sided of my Grandparents came to America in 1910. They loved this country.
I’m one of those that lived without electricity or running water as a child. We didn’t get electricity until I was fourteen. I’ll be 96 in a few months and I remember very well what it was like at that time. Of course I’m very thankful I don’t have to go outside to the bathroom anymore, but at the time we didn’t know what it was like any other way. And I have some beautiful memories. We lived on a farm and grew all our own food. About the only thing we bought was sugar, flour and salt,etc. we cut ice on a lake nearby and stored the blocks in sawdust in a shed. In the summer after we did the milking and the chores were done we would make ice cream in a hand turned ice cream maker, and we would have homegrown strawberries on it. That was the highlight of my day! Another favorite thing in the summertime was to lay on my back in the evening after dark and look at the stars, pointing out the North Star and little and Big Dipper. It was so beautiful and now, you can’t even see the stars because of all city lights. I miss going bare footed and going down to the creek and catching polywogs, I could go on and on.
Mom, I remember when Grandma and Grandpa Docken got indoor plumbing/bathroom. For all the time I spent there as a child I really didn't think about the outhouse. It was just there and we used it. That bathroom was so large to a young child. I loved that time. Perhaps more work, but less stress in many ways. Families and communities were close and helped each other. Fond memories or what I knew and the stories you told.
Waste of oxygen
Such beautiful memories
Thank you for sharing those beautiful memories.
And now you're writing about it on the internet. What will everything be like 96 years from now?
When my great grandmother ( 1887 - 1977 ) passed away I was 18. I'll never forget her telling us how much she loved seeing all the new inventions during her lifetime. From horse and buggy to cars, from the Wright Brothers to the landing on the moon. Her saying with a big smile, " I got to see all of it. "
One of my great grandma's refused to believe we landed on the moon, because it wasn't in the Bible. Didn't matter that her son, my grandpa, worked for NASA. They also lived in Hunstville of all places
@@danvondrasekThat's sad...
That's so amazing bro i also had a great interest about how is the life of 19th century 😀
Az, NM, Utah was Mexico so yeh , and native Americans were happy living hunting Buffalo 🐃
@@danvondrasekThat's hilarious lol.
I wish I could send this to my dad. He loved stuff like this. I miss you daddy. Day 48 without you and it sucks.
Sorry for your loss
@@farishope6540 Thank you
that's sad, sorry to read that. I hope he lived a long and happy life, and I'll pray for his soul.
Sorry for your dad man god bless
My dad died a day before his 57th bday, about a month ago too. We will see them again ❤
The adults in older times were full of innovation. I was born in 1970. Me and my cousins would visit my great grandmother in the hills of Coffyville miss. She use to put clothes in the bathtub and make us have a stumping contest. It was fun. We didn't realize we were washing clothes. She was born in 1895,and passed in 1979. Miss you big mama.
Also born in 1970, 3 of my grandparents were born in the early 1890's....grand parents, not great grand parents believe it or not. It just seemed normal to have huge social and technological changes within a lifetime. Even my parents, born in the 30's and 40's, saw big changes. They used horses, lanterns, out houses and remember when electricity came to their homes in the country.
So ur mother was 75 when she birthed you.
@@younglife4089 this is my great grandmother.
Prior to 1870 America was on free wireless energy... the innovation was required only after certain companies turned the US into a monopoly and put meters on everything.
As I watch this on my laptop lying on my bed in my air-conditioned house with food I bought from the store, I would just like to say how grateful I am to be alive in 2021.
Your really right.... The fan we have.... The movies on our phone
@Abhinandan Zambare Pertinent and pithy persiflage.
Finally someone sincere about modern day technology, instead of the millions of "dreamers" out there.
Truly blessed.
You'd have been just fine because you wouldn't have known of anything like what you have today. The people of that day could weather the storm because that's all there was. Id imagine they were much stronger, healthier and more mentally stable than we are today.
It’s crazy to think that people back then probably thought they were at the pinnacle of technological advancement and felt bad for their “primitive” ancestors 100 years before. Remember- everything is relative!
I mean today we consider 2010 "primitive" compared to today... everything's changing now, but I don't know if that's necessarily good or not... when I get into comedy and/or writing one of the bits I will do will focus on how my generation who grew up literally as the Internet did have seen as much in 25 years as perhaps the past 3 generations did in 75... if I explained my lifestyle as a 7 year old in 2003 to one in 2021, it would sound like pioneer times to them!
@@Awakeningspirit20 That's because technological progress is exponential. Every 1 to 3 years it doubles in efficiency. It's likely that in 80 years from now super computers with petabytes of data from today will be equal to a mini pc or perhaps even a smartphone of their time and it probably would be considered old tech in 10 years after that.
I've always wondered that myself
@@Awakeningspirit20 Try telling kids to go easy on their grandparents who never even had a T.V. or microwave. They won't believe you. Their questions about why the phone is attached to the wall are hilarious, too. Within my lifetime I've known people who farmed with horses and never had electricity until they were adults.
@@newsaddict7737 Time to throw out an anchor. We don't need the crap coming down the pike. The only reason for 5 gee and "smart" anything is control of the population. Wise people are backing off technology and spending more time in nature. Freedom is better than being enslaved by technology.
This was not unlike the life my grandparents were born into in the first years of the 20th century. Grandma often told me about life on the farm without electricity, running water, movies, phones, radios or cars. She told me about the one-room schoolhouse with all grades in it, her mother making soap, the doctor arriving by horse and buggy to make house calls, the long walks to school during winter, the sleigh rides with stones warmed by the fireplace wrapped in towels around their feet. She told me about the barn dances, and helping her older sister Caroline prepare for parties by lacing her corset as tightly as possible. Truly it was another world. Grandma left the farm in 1925 for a job in the big city, where she later met my grandfather. They divorced and she got jobs at GM, Chrysler and finally Ford, from which she retired in the early '70s. Her Saturday visits were pure joy for me and when we sat on the porch and a plane flew overhead, she'd say "look at that! There was nothing like that when I was your age!" And I'd reconsider these things I took for granted as the modern miracles they were.
What wonderful memories you have to cherish!!
Indeed. I struggle to envision the world lit only by fire and moonlight after sundown.
❤
My Grandma always loved to tell the story of going to school one day in the cart and the horse falling over dead as an old tree stump. 😂
My parents grew up like that. My dad in Texas and my mom on the island of Trinidad. My mom never new winter till she moved to Oklahoma in the mid 40s.
To Shirley Christensen: I am only 82 but I remember a few of those things. What a great trip down memory lane with this little video and your comments below. I remember my mom making lye soap and I'm so happy to finally see how it was done. We lived a very modern life though as we had an indoor bathroom in Denver, a coal bin for a coal fired furnace (floor grates to stand on if you were cold and it felt so good with that heat coming up...but woe unto you if you accidentally stepped on the floor grate barefooted...you'd get a pattern of squares burned onto your foot. I remember the milkman coming with glass bottles and placing them on your front porch. Sometimes, during winter, the milk would still freeze...even in the milk box that was there to help prevent that...and the cream, which had separated and risen to the top of the milk, would push the little cardboard cap up and ooze out of the top of the bottle. I remember the Helms bakery truck coming every so often and all six of us kids would run out, pick out a donut or whatever and our single mom would pay him for our "breakfast." Of course, there was cardboard in the bottom of your shoes if you happened to wear a hole through the sole of the shoe. Ah, and who can forget the old wringer washing machines when you'd pull clothes out of the washing machine and feed them through the rollers above the machine, hoping your hand didn't get caught between the rollers. My sister got her hand stuck there once. There was an emergency release on the top of the rollers just in case but I'm sure she was petrified. I wasn't there when it happened. And who can forget hanging clothes on a clothesline in the backyard to dry...made them smell so good...except in winter when they would freeze~ Oh, and the big wooden ice box to keep food cold. The ice man brought big chunks of ice that went into the top of the ice box where the air would cool and flow down through the shelves and keep the food cold. Next, the water pan at the bottom would overflow and flood the floor with melted water. We were so lucky when we got our first electric refrigerator ...with the big circular cooler on top. Or was it gas? I remember having a Servel refrigerator at one time around then. Summertime was always spent down at the lake swimming. You either wore your boxers, or, if you had money, you wore Speedos! Yes, that brand was around back then, and everybody wanted them because the Olympic swimmers wore them, and they helped them win the races. Of course, in those days they were much larger and made out of bulky wool which the local YMCA didn't like because they carried a lot of dirt and would sluff off wool strands that messed up the pool filters ..so, at the YMCA you thru swam in the buff. And nobody thought much about it...Skinny dipping wasn't a bad thing back then...in fact one of the Disney movies opened with a scene of boys skinny dipping in a river! No big deal back then. We had a car but since dad worked for the railroad (Denver and Rio Grande) we always got cheap tickets to take the train to our relatives in Utah and we even got to sleep in an upper berth on the train...how exciting were those old steam locomotives! I remember when, in 4th grade, we had a class field trip to the train yards and got to actually walk in the repair pits under a diesel locomotive and see the giant electric motors that made it go. (Hey, I was at a train museum a few months ago...do you know what's in the nose (under the hood) of the diesel locomotive? I didn't either...it's a BATHROOM!!! for the two engineers. Makes sense but who would have thought...!) Even though we lived in the city we still raised rabbits and chickens for Sunday dinner, and I remember the chickens, the hatchet, and the block of wood for chopping the poor unfortunate one that got chosen for Sunday dinner. Dad also skinned the rabbits and turned it inside out and put it over a stretcher to air dry them and then sell them to who knows for whatever they did with rabbit skins. Thank you, Shirley, for bringing back so many memories and I hope you weren't' bored reading some of my memories. Marvin W...San Diego now
so cool (:
Oh boy, Marvin, your memories have got me jumping with excitement! I'm absolutely loving this trip down memory lane you've taken me on! I mean, can you imagine making lye soap or using a coal-fired furnace these days? It's like stepping into a whole new world! And don't even get me started on the milkman and the Helms bakery truck! How cool is that? I can just picture you and your siblings running out to grab a donut or two - what a treat! And cardboard in your shoes? Now that's some old-school problem-solving!
But let's not forget the washing machines! That wringer washing machine sounds like something out of a horror movie - I can only imagine the adrenaline rush you'd get trying to feed clothes through the rollers without getting your hand caught! And speaking of clothes, hanging them up on a clothesline was the ultimate in fresh-smelling laundry. Except, of course, in winter when they froze solid! And who could forget the wooden ice box and the ice man delivering huge chunks of ice to keep the food cold? Though I'm sure no one was too thrilled when the water pan overflowed and flooded the floor!
But let's get to the fun stuff - swimming at the lake! Boxers or Speedos? It's like choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea! And the YMCA didn't even like woolen swimwear because it clogged up the pool filters - can you believe that? But no worries, skinny dipping was totally cool back then! And did you say you got to ride on steam locomotives and sleep in upper berths on trains? That's the stuff dreams are made of, my friend!
All in all, your memories have got me feeling like I missed out on some serious adventure in the past! But thank you for sharing them with me, Marvin! It's been an absolute blast!
This was a very interesting read.
I'm 97
Loved reading this
Back when the blacksmith was the most important member of the community and family effort was critical to survival. This was a terrific film.
The farmer was the most important because all the food came from them, the law man was the most important because all justice came from him, the shop keeper was the most important because they bought what you had and sold you what you needed, the large business owner was the most important because they employed a great many, and on and on and on the point being your comment annoys me.
Sounds like the blacksmith was the “essential” worker of his day!
They were often super wealthy and many times even involved in banking. Smiths did super well for themselves
(my Grandfather did his own smithing and horseshoeing; made his "Rocking GR" brand that he registered
Dairied, raised horses, and added being Deputy Sheriff 1951 - 1971
Lost his left arm a little below the elbow at 5 or 6 y.o., after a horse stepped on it...
Let's have a little think about multi-generational family living. Family effort was paramount. Those families that had gay men and women in them, had an advantage over those who did not - built in baby sitters/teachers/cooks, etc. while other family member were out foraging for food and or farming. See how cool nature is? Darwin sure admired her!
Life was tough, but it brought meaning, and each person were assigned their individual roles, bringing the family and community together in harmony. Now, we have everything we desire, but the families are broken, we are isolated amongst ourselves, and we have little to no meaning.
People back then lived hard lives but were closer to God, life is easier now but God is now just a myth to most people
I don't disagree with this statement, we have so much modern technology to make our lives easier yet we are more deppresed than ever , maybe it's because we are spending more time in the virtual world then the physical world nowadays
Indeed, nothing comes for free. Give some take some.
@@Jcon4002 situation is equally miserable now everywhere on planet
Yet two world wars happened
I went past a small grave yard today and saw several 1819 death dates and I decided to watch a video like this. Amazing to think that we temporarily live or own our land. It's up to us to make it better for the next people that come along. I also realized that 200 years ago, all of life as they knew it has been silent for such a long time. They didn't even think of the possibility that anyone would be holding a small computer, touching the screen and commenting on a video that we just watched.
Peace and quiet.
Yup, I have 13 acres and I always think about those who will be here in 100 years. That’s why I started growing rows of oak trees so they can enjoy them or burn them for firewood.
@@cha-ka8671 Awesome! Pine trees would be good too.
@@cha-ka8671 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Crazy!
The stories told by people like Shirley Christensen are the ones I could spend endless hours listening to. It's not about the cliché "everything was better back then" because it wasn't, the very people who lived these times are the first to say it, us younger generations do understand and get the message though that the old days were hard working times but also much more decent,simple and honest days. For a lot of things there is most certainly and secretely something deep inside of us longing for a more basic and honest lifestyle or approach, and through listening to the very few remaining time witnesses that connection and link to the days from the past is kept alive! Thank you for sharing them with us🙏💙
I suggest trying to watch some of the Victorian historical videos... we tend to romanticize those times...and, for the most part, we are shown upper class and working class lifestyles. However, there was NO social relief for people who got sick and lost their job, or had to lose their homes...flop houses, criminal atrocities abounded.
Life was hindered by horrid diseases, TB was ever present in areas that were considered slums, chronic bronchitis was an everyday sort of thing.
Street vagrants had no shelters at all and contributed to the diseases that were rampant in those days.
YES, we still have that situation today, more so than in recent past times, due to a housing market that literally excludes 90 percent of the population, and a rental debacle that puts most rents out of reach for Joe and Jane average person.
Tenements were abysmal...
Search out the Victorian historical videos...they are an incredible eye opener!!
We see Bob Cratchits family, at Christmas, enjoying their little feast. What we don't see are the people clothed in rotting rags that are falling off their body...
Hans Christian Anderson wrote the story called
THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL
It's a short story that reflects, in a far too gentle way, the plight of the desperately poor.
READ IT♡
I read it as a child, and it opened my eyes to so many things that stay hidden in all societies.
96 years old. It’s BS
As a person born in the early 2000's, i really want to time travel to different centuries to see how people used to act and live
You have history knowledge. People change according to laws and how they are raised, but in basic every human being are the same.
Philippine Revolution against Spain (1896)
@Taylor Monte Lol. 2000 kids must look like babies to you and yet so grown up!
@@taylormonte2874 lol.....well I'm in college now
DON'T pick the 1300s!!!!
My grandparents never had an electric or gas stove; they cooked everything on a wood burning stove. Many summer hours gardening, chopping and sawing wood. It was sweet. They also never had a car. I remember their smiling kindness.
laaaaaaaazy
My grandparents (My dads parents) used a Glenwood wood cook stove that my dad inherited and it's still in my dads childhood home where he still lives in since my dad was 9 in 1956.
Amen to that
We had a wood stove when I was a kid, and we used it for cooking sometimes, though we had a normal house. We did live lakeside in the country, so power went out sometimes for days after a big storm, and we'd bathe in the lake, cook on the stove. As I kid, I thought it was heaven. When I grew up, I bought a house across the bay, and I can still see the house I grew up in when I look out my back deck over the bay.
@@The1stHomosapien What a dumbass comment!
So few people today appreciate how fortunate we are to have our lives filled with modern conveniences.
HAHAHA yeah right!!!!!!
my gr- grandma died in 1974 in Albuquerque at the age of 95 plus....she experienced it all and saw it all. Her first arranged marriage was when she was 14 to a widower with kids....she outlived 3 husbands. I spent summers with her in rural farming NM...I remember a house without "facilities" and then when I was jr hi age...in came electricity and indoor plumbing and her gray, gun-metal Maytag washer with rollers to wring out sopping wet clothes. a refrigerator and a large electric stove. She washed white clothes first and farmer overalls were washed last....all with the same water, you should have seen the dirt and sand at the bottom of the drum on that Maytag. It was hard work. Thank you Nonny for introducing me to quilting on a singer treadle. now gr-granny NM
I am 75. Many of us in rural South Carolina grew up like this until some of the rural areas didn't have electricity until the 1950's. We had wells then hand water pumps which were out side. We had outhouses and used corn cobs or the Sears catalog. It took many years for the progression of country people. My uncle wondered how people got into to the TV box. It is amazing how much progress has been made in just my life time....
Did anyone see the blacks hanging from their necks? That's the 1800s of America. Slavery.
Is your uncle OK now ?
@@den264 yes he is OK now, he died 20+ years ago...thanks for asking...
Your uncle is so cute and innocent❤
This is how my parents lived in the 60s in Europe. They didnt get electricity until 1963! Houses usually only had 2 bedrooms. 1 room for the parents, 1 room for the sons, and the daughters all slept up in the loft. They didnt have the mattresses we do now. It was basically just a big mattress shaped sheet filled with straw. And all the 4 sisters slept in the same bed. They bathed in the well outside and used a piss pot or an outhouse and wiped with corn cobs or leaves. The women washed the clothes in the rivers and streams. They only had a few articles of clothing. 2 pairs of underwear. 1 pair of shoes. And only 2 or 3 toys. They had no tv. If they wanted to play with a ball it was just a rock and they did it barefoot so the rocks wouldnt destroy their only pair of shoes. They ate no meat except for on weekends and holidays. They would sometimes go hungry or have to eat moldy bread. They ate a lot of soup made with vegetables and wild plants they foraged for. They also used chickens for eggs and not meat, unless someone got sick, then they made chicken soup for them.
Props to the cameraman for going back in time and bringing us this footage.
It's that time machine! Lol
My grandma is 96 years old. She still lives in the same house she and my granddad moved into in 1948. It was a one room schoolhouse that was built in 1918. Morgan County, WV sold it and my granddad bought it and made it into a multi room house. He was a carpenter. My grandma has always lived simple. No air conditioner, no indoor bathroom and the only plumbing is the kitchen sink. There is so much history about that old house. Edit: My grandma passed away and wasn't too far from turning 97. The house is still in our family and my mom's sister lives there. We thought she should have it because she took care of her so much.
My house was built in 1918, you just reminded me
My Dad spent a lot of his childhood in Morgantown, WV.
That is really wonderful. My grandmother would have been 100 in 1996. She too lived without air conditioning, and preferred it that way. They had indoor plumbing into the house from the mid 1940's, but she never lived with flush toilets. You could not drink the water. She used a kerosene stove in the winter. I loved her so much and loved visiting her. She lived on a farm and I thought it was paradise.
My Daddy is 84 and spent a lot of his childhood in Morgantown WV.
@@tonyadurst-scarlett1542 I have heard that West Virginia is God's Country.
Mrs Wilson sounds like a keeper😊
You're funny.
Teaching manners and morals at school...imagine that.
We had Moral science in Indian schools as a subject. We learned about respecting elders and helping neighbours etc. Was this not taught in American schools?
@@khyati1229 It was taught in the home, expected in schools. Obviously there has been a lack of parental guidance for quite some time.
Arguably more important than pre calculus
Needed now.
Do you really want the government deciding what morals children should have?
So many people in the comments have shared such beautiful memories from a time gone by - thank you all! ❤
Imagine people in 2300s looking back at us as we are looking at people in 1800s
Life is still like this in some remote areas
Amish maybe?
@@JosephJohnson-kg5yrNot Amish just poor
Exactly! Like I'm so grateful enough and at so much awe on how "modern" we are now. With all the pipes for our water source, electricity, smartphones, food deliveries through apps, electric cars, wifi, laptops/pcs/game consoles, appliances like ref and the list goes on. I cant imagine how can they even beat us 100 yrs from now. 😂
It will only take 20 years now for life to be unrecognizable - technology is speeding up and the rate of change accelerates. No humans will be left alive in the year 2300, unfortunately.
It goes without saying what my life would have been like in the 1800s. I'm thankful that my ancestors were able to endure long enough to keep the generation going.
What would your life be like???
I like to think I was a knight.
@London Bridges God bless you.
@@liberalbias4462 One can dream.
For women it seemed extraordinarily difficult
Yup. I would’ve been in the house cooking and cleaning for a bunch of lazy assholes.
Never in a million years would I think of combining ash and kitchen grease to make soap. Truly incredible!
I can't believe it either.
@@francesbethodendahl8527 That is the way lye soap has always been made. You can also make soap out of berries from a soap berry tree. They grow wild many places.
But wouldn't grease make your skin greasy? How the heck they found out? Must've been passed along by visiting aliens, that's my take 😎
@@Growmap I have never used lye soap. Irish Spring, Caress, Ivory, Lever 2000, Dial and Dove. I have used these soaps but never lye soap. I still like the fragrance of
Irish Spring🙆💚 it is made from a form of wax and a detergent with a subtle fragrance.
Most soap was traditionally made from ash and fat of some kind (either grease or lard), maybe some spices. It was this way from early in the medieval times, as far as we know, and probably earlier. Soap today is made with a fat source and ash.
Yes, the methods were a bit lengthy but without them, we wouldn't be living as easy as today. I'd like to thank the past generations for building how the day-to-day methods have evolved. It was so simple back then. It was all about being out there...
Everything was slower, and that sounds marvelous to me now.
true bro very true...nice statement man
..”You didn’t build that.” -Barak Obama
Stephen: Yeah. B.O. was never big on the truth. He's agenda only.
@@cattycorner8 it would be nice for a little bit but after a while it would just seem miserable that’s why things have changed and become easier more time to actually do the things we want
That rocker butter churn was a cool invention, how innovative .
I know, right? I've never seen one like that before. I wonder if someone could make one. I'll have to see if Lehman's carries them. I'd also like to have that pivot thing she used to swing the pots away from the fire and then back over the fire.
That's one of the coolest things to me about history... Seeing "new" inventions that solve problems we don't even have today. Like the iron with the cavity to hold the hot metal so that you can just switch them out and keep ironing. So cool
I love the churn too. Wouldn’t it be clever to set it by kids while they are gaming? They get a new high score, and fresh butter on their rolls at dinner.
Better Life in old times. Now you have phone, cars etc. Technology grows but human being decrease with fast life and fast food. Stress level increases.
Kick Butter ©️
I live in a town preserved in the 18th and 19th century. My home is from the 19th century and I absolutely love it.
awesome 👍
If all of us spent a summer doing this, we would be better people. God bless
Especially the young people!
Yeah. We'd be diseased, smelly slaveowners. Bedpans and shit all over the place. Toxic water. Bad hygiene. Short lifespans. It wasn't Disneyland like this dated film implies.
@Uncle Jed You are, very conveniently, missing the bigger picture. To itemize: slavery was an acceptable way of life (doesn't matter that a typical poor family couldn't afford a slave; it's not the point). Women - who had NO Constitutional rights - weren't treated much better than slaves. And - yeah - lifespans were more problematic because of diseases that had no cures at the time, and - in the urban areas - contaminated resources. The main point, however, is that the video above is deceptive in its depiction of that time period, as a "comfortable" and swell way of living. Very dated piece of whitey world propaganda. The reason I'm bitching about it is that it isn't educational at all in today's setting. No more than a day in Sunday School after smoking meth.
@Uncle Jed I wouldn't step into your backward turf for anything. C'mon west, however, and I'll oblige ya. We have gun control here, so you'll have to do it with your fists. Chip on my shoulder? A total euphemism for the contempt I have for middle America. You're a repulsive lifeform, very low on the evolutionary ladder. Anything else I can do for you?
@Uncle Jed You really think I didn't expect that comment? You're an uneducated, illiterate dipshit. The hilarious Marxist shit was TOTALLY predictable. So, what ARE you? A MAGA-league octogenarian?
"welp, time for bed."
yawns. stretches. shoves the baby under the bed before blowing out the candle.
I know, seeing the baby under the foot of the bed was frightening. But it is like a trundle-crib. It was safe and in the same room as the parents. We like our cribs we want our cribs😁 I agree life was too hard back then.
Best comment.
No, you pulled out the trundle not for the baby but for a toddler who wouldn't stay in his own bed, or whom you wanted to keep close (like a 2 or 3 year old). Trundles were not "shoved under the bed" with the child. They were stored under the bed in the daytime, and pulled out into the room for use at night. Babies slept in cradles and bassinets, older infants in cribs.
@@greenshp I as being silly with my post... but thank you for the educational explanation xD
@@greenshp I meant like a trundle attached to the foot of the bed. Both were placed under the bed. I was using it as a comparison to today's crib. We do not do use this device anymore, all babies are placed into either a bassinet, cradle
or a crib, seperate frim the bed but still self-contained and secure. I do not even think the bassinet is used as much anymore. Bassinet meaning like a basket. Either way it is a separate sleeping area from the parent's bed and most times now it is not kept in the parent's room but in a separate nursery with a camera or an audio box. Most parents like having a newborn near them in eye contact not under the bed when they sleep. Toddlers too are kept in cribs or pens as a safe place. Adults just have a bigger crib with walls instead of bars, their bed room😁 or home.
I’m 37 , I would take these times in a heartbeat . The way things are now , well it feels like the furthest from the way a human is supposed to live than just about anything I can think of .
I was about 16 when 9/11 attacks.
So you would want to live in a time where humans were enslaved?
@@smtsmt1223 get real! that's been going on since God
@@smtsmt1223 lol, somebody doesn't keep up on current events or simply even stay informed. There are slaves right now in several arab countries and africa for starters.
You know 1800 is a long time before abolishment, right?
All I can feel is gratitude and respect to these hard-working people who led to our lives being so easy in comparison. We are very fortunate, despite what some in the media (who lack perspective and profit from agitation) would have you believe.
Absolutely excellent! So many artifacts and details about everyday life that I never heard before.
The most shocking thing I saw in the film were children actually working and helping around the house...
Many of us worked very hard as children. I worked in the high school cafeteria before school and at lunch because I had a fondness for having enough to eat. It is a fairly new thing for working class children to not help around the house. I bet some of them still do. And they get jobs to keep a roof over the family's heads and food on the table, too.
What I think would shock most kids today even more than telephones attached to the wall, no microwave and maybe no T.V. is that our bedrooms only contained a bed, a dresser and 1 week''s worth of clothes. 1 pair of shoes per child. 1 coat had to last 4-6 years, so it was huge at first and then way too small. Maybe each child might have 1 favorite toy. Maybe not. The 1 toy might be homemade or a string doll. Nothing else.
GrowMap Exactly.
Why? All children have a natural desire to help adults; do what they're doing! The parent who doesn't allow them to work is hurting their development a great deal.
What a shame society has went from this Decent ways. To the Evil ROT of Today
👉🙏🇺🇸❤🇺🇸🙏 GOD ALMIGHTY BLESS AMERICA IN EVERY WAY.
They probably glossed over the beatings 😆
I`m hardly ancient, being 57 years old, but can easily remember having toast and tea for breakfast and the bread being toasted by my mum piericng the bread with a poker and holding it over the coal fire. I also easily remember the cast iron ovens built juxtaposed to the fireplace. That was the late 1960`s and early 1970`s England ( UK ).
I too was born in 1963 and I remember the old Milk chute. My dad lost his house once and had me crawl through it to open the door.
Don't forget dropping a shilling in to keep the gas metre on.
Yeah well, when you're amish it's always 1800 isnt steve, you butter churning mule jockey.
Yeah well post war England well let's just say labor about drive you too 1800 😉...I was born in the 70s..... my parents had a toaster lol you sound like my grandmother, who was born in the 20s... the milk man. Fire irons etc etc, looong ago though
In Canada at that time, only very remote areas did not have electricity. Even today there are off grid cottages but nowadays they at least have a generator or solar power.
I come back to this time after time to relisten to it partly because the two narrators are SO comforting--their voices are like a cozy blanket or being tucked into bed by your parents as a child w/all right in the world.
I agree. Their narration is wonderful & rare. Love it.
Woodstove user here. I live in Maine and it was heartbreaking to see all those people in Texas that went through hell when it snowed there a year or so ago. I was online literally giving advice on how to stay warm because people were actually asking me about it!! It broke my heart to realize that we are so reliant on luxuries like electricity and heaters that many have no idea how to keep warm without electricity. Wherever you live, always have a backup plan in case you lose power. What will you do to stay warm? Is it also safe? Do you need supplies? Plan ahead because you don't wanna get caught in the cold, literally. Learn things beforehand in case you find yourself in a situation where you might need to stay warm. Having an indoor fire of any kind requires knowledge and safety skills. Be prepared!! Be safe!! Stay warm and healthy!!
I have relatives in Texas but I live up in a northern state.
30°F is just an average winter day. Was surprised to see that hardy and independent Texans were caught unprepared.
Country people and some homeowners up here and in the city, have backup generators. They know to open faucets so the pipes don't burst, and have pipes insulated.
Having lived in marginally heated city apartments when I was a student, has sparked the discussion of using Crisco covered candles to distribute heat.
It works well!
But always good to have a few gallons of water on hand, wool/alpaca blankets, flashlight, matches, first aid kit, jumper cables, fire extinguisher/lots of baking soda, snackable food, toilet paper, cash on hand...
And that's all I can think of.
Just basic emergency preparedness.
This was how they lived - close to nature and the elements.
They had an understanding of the world outside, and what should stay there!
They were resourceful.
We have come to rely on everything automated, without knowing how to empower or protect ourselves. Like we used to.
Always good to have life skills/hacks!
Things are kind of a mess these days. Without all the creature comforts provided for us, we are like little helpless babies.
the texans freezing was just embarrassing. I get that they aren't used to the cold or snow but like damn bro it's not that hard to warm yourself up if you are at home, even without electricity or gas, or a firepit
@@muscleman125 apartments aren't easy though to heat. There are many in Texas. Unless you have a gas stove or gas heat you are out of luck because you can't have a fire pit inside but if it were you or I we could just smoke a whole lot of weed and at least something would be burning!! 🤣
I agree it was crazy to see how terrible they fared during the power outage and finding out the electric company was screwing everyone made things even worse. I hope the people that survived it learned some skills they can use if this ever happens to them again
Ice storms don't happen in Texas very often, so it's no wonder people weren't prepared. Not many people have fireplaces in Texas nor do they have gas heating (it's a waste of money). It's the same thing with A/C up north. A lot of people up there (especially in Maine) do not have A/C and would think it's weird for a home to have A/C.
We can relate to all this in India just one generation back..but what an amazing story.. unimaginable today
I grew up in northern minnesota. one room school, wood burning stove, well for our water, outhouse, and we had just gotten electricity when i was a child. one light hanging from the ceiling.
How can you compare this to a a tropical weather part of the world? How did these westerners manage to engage in sex during winter?
@@muurisoras5878 what
@@muurisoras5878 trust me, humanity has the endurance to engage in sex no matter how severe the weather conditions maybe. Not only that, but it also helps keep you warm!
@@muurisoras5878 Why sex is the first thing came to your mind after watching THIS video?
I can remember my grandmother churning butter. They had their own garden she always fixed a big dinner every day. I wished I had been more help for her cause I sure do miss the days back then. She canned her own food and had a root cellar to store them in ❤
They still do this in some countries. And honestly that's the best way to live. Dependant on your own skill.
@Nino Brown righttt, it’s like everyone seems to have forgotten what people other than white had to go through. Tryna sugar coat it\ ignore it like it never happened.
We take way too many things for granted in our daily lives, thinking we'll never have to live like this. But you never know what'll happen. Knowing how to take care of yourself from scratch and being at least somewhat self-sustaining might be crucial in case of emergency.
Agree. I'm planning to make my own homestead.
My dad grew up with a wood stove. Told me this story later in his 70's. "I was very young boy and ran out to the stove one morning to warm up. My little boy "wee wee" was hard and it touched the stove! Learned my lesson not to run to the stove first thing in the morning" Lol RIP Dad! Love and miss your stories.
Lmao
No one wants to hear this.
I am a history buff. From what you have seen , depending on the era the Wilsons may be upper middle class with all that and a brick chimney. Not to get to long , It was common for people in my area to have wooden chimneys and used charcoal until around 1800 . In some places you can still see the charcoal mounds where they made it.
@Chris i do not understand what you are saying about oak and igloos .
Watch You tube ..... Repairing Our Homestead Log Cabin - Chimney Maintenance .... for an example
The house I grew up in was built around 1880. Down in the basement was a large opening (which was boarded up) in the outside wall on the Rock driveway side. It's where the coal was delivered to be burnt in the furnace for heating. Lincoln Nebraska.
@@desertodavid There was an old farm house removed from a near Park in Boston, Mass. In those days people would move houses; today they are renovated or torn down. Well, this house was placed upon a stone foundation that was built on a flat granite ledge. Initially, the new owner thought that the basement was only 8 ft. deep. Later on he realized that it was 12 ft. deep. The old couple that sold had a coal heating furnace, that was built on a stone platform 4 ft. off the floor. They just filled the entire basement with coal dust. In the day one would put the buckets out on the curb and the city trash dept. would pick it up once a week. He realized there wasn't a dirt cellar floor when he needed to fix the stair bottom going outside. Hired a dumpster & conveyer to empty the basement. He converted to Oil, because the Boston Gas Company could not provide a Gas line due to the ledge. Oh well !
Yes, glad you caught the fact that the documentary example, was of a upper middle class home of the day. Most folks were poorer than the dirt which they their planted crops.
We should still be living like this, I remember my grandmother saying she would walk to town because the horses were to tired from working in the fields all day. She was a widow and built the log cabin she raised my mother and two uncles in. She was an amazing lady
Infant mortality rate was horrific back then, death and disease was rampant. You would not want to live back in those days. Now getting back to basics and finding more fulfillment in the simple things, that I'd agree with.
@@CaptApril123 my grandmother passed at the age of 101,, I think that was a full life..
@@joedirt9600 she must have been lazy
Joe she sounds like she was an amazing lady I bet she told you a lot if stories of the old days.
@@CaptApril123 dude your right it was bad then and life was hard and not fir the weak. But who cares it was still much better than life is today. I'd go back there in a hart beat. That was a time where a man could forge out his own destiny like on his own terms truly free.
I'm 62 now ~ I remember my grandmother sharing stories about her growing up in Lenox Kentucky she was born 1919. She lived way upon a hill and had to wash clothes down in the creek that is still there today. On Sundays they would all ride the wagon to church she loved visiting with all he friends and family on Sundays . When she was nine her dad died of pneumonia on Christmas day ~ she helped her mother prepare her dad for visitors . Her older brothers had to dig his grave . Then they all had to move because no one was able to handle the farm work her dad did. She said people had good times back then and a lot of bad times because some men started making their own moonshine and the men would get drunk and troubles would always follow. I sure do miss my grandmother.
As a Wilson, I approve of this representation of my family.
Lmao
As a Karen I don't.
My great grandparents were Wilsons.
Wiiiilson?
🏐 🏐 🏐
Some say they still use news paper sticks to light their joints
It was a type of life that many people today couldn’t do...modern conveniences have softened and spoiled us way too much lol!
Right especially not being a slave right?
@@Jojo.255 modern day slavery is social welfare bud. Nothing has changed at all.
Indeed. I wish there was a course or simulation on how to live this way.
It's not that modern people COULDN'T live a disgusting pig soap life in a shack, we just have higher standards for ourselves. If I lived back then, I would never be so lazy as to not invent machines to do stupid work.
@@DarthHater100 high standard doesn't mean its better for us. Entitlement mentality is destroying this country.
Teaching manners and morals, God how I wish they still taught that today. So many lack that and common knowledge or sence. This was so well put together. I really enjoyed watching this. I also feel blessed to have been born in the 1980s and daily life wasn't such a chore. God bless all those who have made this country what it is today. Beautiful
Your morals do not have to be the same as somebody else’s morals.
@@vshcvsh98 says the immoral woke Gen Z. Stfu
In 1980 when i was 12 my mom brought me back to where she grew up in Sparta, Greece. The village where her mother grew up was on top of a mountain. They still had only 1 dirt road in & out, no electricity, phones or running water. It was like going back 1000 years in time. Small village, not many people, everyone traded, no money, everyone raised chickens, goats and grew olives and whatever they ate.
I did live then. I've been here over and over. My soul keeps coming back. I remember the 1880,s very well. I died in the civil war on the battle field and again in world war II
Fantastic. A gost who knows how to use wi-fi. Oh how we've progressed.
Kid to his 90 year old great grandfather in 1800. “Gramps what were things like around here when you were a kid?”
“Basically the same as now only those trees over there were shorter.” 😂
Truth. LOL
@@randymoyan7871 Hmm I don't know... 1800 - 1890 saw considerable changes even more so than the 20th century. For one he could have told his great-grandson there were no railroads which by 1890 could whisk you across the whole country within a week. Oh and there wasn't even a "country" past the Appalachian Mountains he could add as there was still something called the "frontier".
@@Scambush I think you're missing the mark by a century
Lol, That's ridiculous. Obviously there were major changes in every aspect of life between 1710 and 1800 in North America in what is now the United States of America.
@@chrisk6668 first of all I was making a joke, but I wouldn’t call it ridiculous. My point being, a day in a life of a person born in 1700 compared to 1800 was very little difference in comparison to 21st century living. 1700/1800 no iPhones, computers, tv, radio, airplane, automobiles, trains, telephone, telegraph etc etc....
I used to watch Little House on the Prairie and being fascinated that people used to live so quaintly
me too!
Amazing reminder of how easy is life today! Thank you a lot! In "my time" it was a real happening when go to the theather and watch a movie... Today there is 800 tv channels and over hundreds movies playing on the same time... What to say... :)
When I was a teacher I showed this 16mm film to my class. Good film.
The Genesee County Billage & Museum in Mumford NY is a recreated village which includes historically accurate houses, a church and a general store, each meticulously moved to the location piece by numbered piece.
When they located the general store, they discovered a complete and detailed inventory from 1840.
Pretty amazing from 1840, since we can't seem to get a fast food order from a drive- thru correct in 2021.🤔
How wonderful it would be to be able to read it!
I remember going to Mumford on a field trip in elementary school, back in the late 80's. The good ol days.
That was a great place to go growing up.
Is this area located in Wisconsin?
That image of Sir Walter Raleigh getting doused with water is still funny to this day!
And I bet they both had a hearty laugh over the slaves misunderstanding!
Don't smoke kids
Mom told me stories of churning butter took turns with her sisters , Grandma had a bakers dozen,for those who aren't familiar with the term that's 13 children , everything was homemade including soap , there is nothing that compares to the taste of homemade bread and butter ,jams and fruits, my favorite was tomato jam so delicious, for me those are unforgettable and Wonderful memories, thank you for a trip down memory lane .
My uncle did our ancestory tree and it’s so amazing that we had a relative born in Philadelphia in 1776.. then each generation of his family moved further and further west.. truly amazing times
Wish I could trace my ancestry back to 1776
@@vinnydeville4675 that’s a white privilege
@@kingloui9819 they love remembering, but want us to forget
I'm currently doing my ancestry right now from DNA and the furthest relative I can date back is born in 1555 in Ireland. I still have family there and remember family reunions when I was a kid (20years ago) and they came to visit. They hit the east coast of MD in the 1700s and many moved further south some stayed.
@@vinnydeville4675 me too
2:25. The boy climbs a staircase in the back of the house, located next to a huge fireplace. There are many old houses still existing in the New England area that originally had this design, but were altered, and had additions made to the point, that these architectural features got engulfed inside the walls and partitions of the new house floor plan. Occasionally people are remodeling and break through a wall, only to find a huge colonial fireplace or an enclosed, hidden staircase generally ending in a deadend at the ceiling above it. They are totally shocked to discover they've been walking past these buried features in the walls of their home for years or decades. Even more interesting is that often the stairways will have graffiti from young children who had lived in the home hundreds of years ago.
Love a back staircase.
Wow
I grew up in a rural area in the 70's, on Sunday's we would go visiting (young people today don't understand this term). We would travel out in the countryside to visit old relatives. They didn't have electricity or plumbing and lived like the people in this video. Life "was not" hard to them, they were quite happy, and they kept themselves busy. There was no man/woman weird stuff like today and they weren't bored or depressed....those are modern people illnesses.
Yes indeed I agree with that
I'm a 90s baby and I did that growing up. Me and my parents would visit some of my relatives (Dad's side) out in the country almost every Friday night. On Sundays, we would go see my grandmother (Dad's side) at her house.
Shhhh......people today are supposed to think that the past was so much worse than it really was. That's because then they'll think today's society is much better than it really is.
I believe you.
@@frankpontone2139 no in door plumbing
Beautiful story of history...well done. Thank you.
I used to volunteer at a museum that did the time period from about 1620 to 1700. I actually enjoyed living like that. We built furniture and made soap, food, and we did laundry just like they did then.
And then you went home at the end of the day to your cable TV and microwave dinners.
COOOOOOL
@@lreking8929 umm ok…
What a wonderful video. It makes you appreciate what we have today, yet wish for the peace of days gone by.
Well said.
I don't know about peace. I doubt it.
Peace? In 19th century america? ahahaha
@@prod.jimmyhd I guess peace for some 💀
Depends on region. Places like Europe were a hotbed for clashing empires at the time. China was decaying in a "Century of Humiliation." The African kingdoms were conquered by the aforementioned empires.
My grandmother went from horse and buggy on the farm, an 8th grade education, to living in a large city with a huge home and several children and grand children with college degrees. They were Doctor's, Lawyers, teachers and scientists. We were all together on the day of the moon landing and watched it on TV. Everyone came to our house, as we were the only ones with a color TV. She got really quiet and then talked to all of us grandchildren about what life was like for her and her parents. I wish I had listened harder to be able to share it all with my kids, but my memory isn't that good. I do remember her talking about how things were so much better now. She had been stricken with Polio and had to struggle to learn to walk again. Antibiotics and modern medicine meant she was the first in her knowledge to not lose any children to childhood diseases. We live in a good age, people now look back at the 70's and 80's and talk about how much better things were then.... Life is as you make it.
Ah the moon landing film was in black and white. Sorry.
@@Aztec339 she didn’t say anything about the moon landing video being in color. She said because they had a color TV, which was a huge luxury, others gathered at their house to watch it.
Now we will soon be going to Mars. I say in the next ten years.
It was so much easier to became a lawyer, doctor, and such back then. 😕
Cool story! How did your grandmother go from the farm to living in the big city? Love stories like this.
Adding mint leaf to the soap was a luxury item. All day long , you'd smell minty fresh.
Watching a real blacksmith make a horseshoe, or anything really, is fascinating. My son-in-law has decided to start making things in a forge in his garage. It is amazing watching him make stuff. He's not very good yet, but he's improving every week. Good times!
Something real that a man makes with his own two hands.
Wow, I’m so proud of your son in law!! That’s amazing that he would have even the slightest interest in it at all… wishing him much success !!
I’m not even sure how you’d begin a hobby like that. What does he use to make the metal malleable enough to forge?
@@nicksacco5041 Discarded rebar. He works in construction and pulls old rebar out of trash piles and takes it home. With the permission of his boss, of course.
There's an old house on the corner where I live that dates back to the 1780s. in the living room there was a bunch of paneling and when the family renovated the house, they tore down the paneling and there was an ancient fireplace just like you see in this video.
Wow. I would have restored it!
@@Growmap They did leave it open and got some vintage kettles to put in it
Imagine asking the teachers of today to teach morals.
The teachings of morals start at home not at school.
They would probably teach a twisted set of morals nowadays.
@@TH-qb5fx It wouldn't hurt to learn about morals at both home and school.
@@TH-qb5fx Good morals are sexy and very attractive to me.
They wouldn't have the first clue how to. You can't teach what you were never taught.
2023 here... living hard back then would be a welcome sight for what we have nowadays.
Man, this made me feel so lazy, compared to what they had to do.
I’m sure you’d do it if you had to do probably not lazy just living in today’s privilege
Hi kG
life without cars or phones might have been harder but hey, they didn't have to go to school past 3rd grade or sit through hours of traffic back then 😅
@@annikasurann9274 this is true! Different time, different way of life! I was born in ‘75 and I still remember life without cellphones and internet. As a kid, we spent so much time outdoors..even after Atari was released and we got our first Beta player. 😊
They don’t have to stare at screen for 18 hours a day
This video is a reminder of how good we’ve got it.
What we have today is built on the work of our ancestors, just as what our descendants will have will be based on what we do.
Millions of Americans still live close to this. I’m always amazed at how little lower class society is understood. Anyone who has spent time living in a trailer or homeless roughly gets this way of life. To be brutally honest, I would have considered a lot of this luxury when I was a homeless kid.
This is luxury. Even by today standards.
If you take a close look at the video, you can see that these families were well to do.
The men in these type of household probably owned businesses, or were in politics.
@@comments2473 yes.
I don’t know anyone living like this. People here are to lazy to even bath or keep their house clean. It’s awful
Id like to see anyone today live like this given their current life and still say it's privileged or luxiourious. People had work ethic and respect regardless of their social status, and were closely connected to nature and humanity is all
@@bubbagumption9938 Most third world countries and refugees would consider this paradise, forget the fact that they’re free people. For their time, the family in the video lived in luxury, as much as an upperclass in the US could. Many white Americans were in poverty, with the upper classes, those showcased in this video, making up a smaller number of white Americans. Poor whites could even live in conditions worse than some slaves did (plantations had to provide some food or protection at least to keep their slaves living) I would love to live in a mansion with organic food and little environmental waste. That way of living is beautiful but you have to remember how those people attained it. I wish we could all live like that and in peace with one another
The fact that the film itself is really old just makes this documentary feel all the more special.
"Since the war, since the country had become independent; there were schools everywhere."
I don't know why, but this line really drove home how young this country still is.
Damn, your comment just did the same for me.. hope we can hold on to it
Not that young tho usa got its independence at 1775 its still along time ago
Compared to most European countries or China it is extremely young.
@@marianamachado2992 Compared to Independent India, USA is old, India got it's independence in 1947
.
But compared to India in Totality.. including its oldest civilizations.. India is far older than the US
The Greenland Shark lives 5-600 years. That means for a Greenland shark in what would be human years of 40-50, they were kids when America was being started. It is not that old at all. What is most remarkable is how much things changed in the past 100-120 years. There has never been a greater change in all history than over the past 120 years. We went from horse and buggy to traveling to Mars
My wife and I visited an Amish style home used for tourist. Everything in there was authentic. One of the first things I noticed was the absence of the "Sound of Technology". It was so serene in there I thought, wow! this would be ideal to maintain one's sanity, then I realized, how long could I even do this? Not too many people could make the transition from modern to archaic!
I remember a power failure at work a few years ago. Everything electric went off. It was so peaceful without the constant background electrical hum of the computers and fluorescent lights. I actually felt physically better. A person from the past transported to now would go crazy with all the noise we don't consciously notice- even the fridge motor! But then I'd rather have the hum and a means to keep food safe and fresh, than no hum and spoiled food. As a side note, I've almost been hit several times when an electric car backed up in front of me. I didn't hear it coming.
@@kelseymathias3881 So true. There is a price to pay for all our "modern conveniences."
@@jameswood231 It's always been the best of times and the worst of times.
@@kelseymathias3881 When you have more individual ly we need each other less. But you can still come together for all kinds of reasons, such as churches, recreation, entertainment, holidays, festivals or work events..
@@francesbethodendahl8527 Very true!
i feel like if i did live normally like this, i would honestly love life a lot more than i do now
They would have you working making all the barrels!
Your life would definitely be more full. The problem we have today, all this consumerism, is because we are not staying busy doing productive things. So, our time becomes filled with things other people produce. That's my 50 year take on it.
@@atlantic_love I agree with you 100%
@MH The BEST way to do this, IMO, is to start a garden. It's a process that will have you busy most of ever year.
* composting
* weeding
* repairing and making tools
* making trellis and frames
* planting seeds
* harvesting
* winnowing seeds and drying them out
*cultivating
Farmer in medieval times were busy with gardening year-round. Try creating a Three Sisters Garden!
@@atlantic_love pretty accurate
My Great Great Uncle was born in 1890, I am now 63 and remember his stories about growing up on a farm in Indiana. They were pretty self-sufficient growing their own food, chickens, turkeys, and had horses and a couple cows. They had a massive amount of acreage growing corn that got 7 feet high and nearly falling sideways from the sweetest corn ever. By the time my Grandmother came along in 1914 the family carried on farming adding 18 acres of strawberries. They began growing watermelons and green beans, cucumbers. They planted plum trees. People met from other farms and got married, there are 6 of these generational marriages, so we end up somehow related to the whole town. Lots of kids to help run that farm. Had to get up before school and do chores, gather eggs, milk cows, etc. Ultimately they opened a mercantile/grocery store in the town AND a tavern. Women were not allowed in the tavern. Then my Mom was born in 1939, family was considered well-off by those standards. I have no idea how this works, but when my Grandmother let tenant farmers work the land she brought in enough to support the family single handed. She has married at 18 to a man her parents liked that was 42. Total womanizer and drinker. She threw him out and divorce was a big deal. I watched hard working people achieve. Other family members worked at the saw mill, the rock quarries, the railroad. My family helped found and build the church which is still in use. The women sewed, crocheted, quilted and cooked from scratch. Sundays family had dinner in the summer kitchen which was screened in. I could go on and on, but the past hold special memories. Especially the milk wagon, the horse travelled the same route for near 20 years, he literally could make this route by himself to make deliveries. People knew which days he came, where he stopped, and the milk was in the wagon. 😊
Which part of Indiana?
@@lydiaschmidt5659 Southern IN near Evansville
@@Lisabug2659 very cool, I've been researching my Swiss German ancestors who migrated to Berne, Indiana. The town sounded similar to ours - families marrying into each other! From the census I can see that my great grandmother and great grandfather lived houses apart for their whole youth. I'm wanting to put some information together on the women in my family, how life might have been like for my great great great grandmother and going down through the ages. Hearing the stories is great - I have 4 children, college educated, and work a full time job from home. I can't imagine having my entire life revolve around gathering water for the day and keeping the fire alive just to keep everyone alive! Though sometimes I wonder if, in the absence of technology, social media, and the blending of work and family, keeping your mind busy with the next task of survival lended to a more focused and wholesome state of mind.
Life was about survival then. Chores were meaningful and sometimes fun but necessary.
Today, if there was suddenly no electricity, lights, heat, cooling, or communications, 90% of us would die within 1 year.
1 year? Lol, try 1 month
@@mikehaynes1769 I know right most people don’t even know how to get their own food if the grocery store didn’t have it ready made for them.
It's true. Try a major blackout from a sun storm and we all revert back to the stone age.
@@lemonaid8678 Not everyone back then grew their own food. The farmers had markets where they sold what they grew and the livestock they slaughtered. You did have to know how to cook though. There were no microwaves or Grubhub delivery.
Yep some of the pepl in Texas didn't know how to survive when their power went off.
This is so very nice. Thank you for sharing a wonderful look into our days of yesteryear!
Conveniently leaving out the slaves. From 700,000 in 1790 to 4 million in 1860.
It's crazy how fast technology grows in just about 200 years
New discoveries in electromagnetism and radio waves made it possible for thousands of new inventions to be conceived of almost overnight. All it takes is one or two really kickass discoveries to set off a massive acceleration of technology in general
The last quadrant of the last 2000 years were prophetically important. Started with the Age of Discovery, the Renaissance, the founding of America, the Industrial Revolution, and like you say, the last 200 years were nothing like the last 4000 years since Babel.
Imagine the technological boom to come now that Artificial Intelligence has made a huge leap forward? We're on the cusp of such a monumental boom, I can see, hear, not quite taste, and feel it.
@@apolloaegletes7116 I'm not entirely excited for the new AI technologies that are yet to exist only because i don't really have a good feeling with technology taking over us.
Had I lived in America back in 1800, I wouldn't have been very happy.
Many thanks for recreating and remembering history and old innocent times !
Of what lmaoo ?
Innocent??? Dream on.
@@gardenjoy5223 lol yea he’s high 🤣🤣🤣
@Uncle Jed they did...they’re call white people mate...
@Uncle Jed No, just white supremacist thugs who could treat you like crap and kill you if they didn't like the way you looked. Marxist thugs are just as bad as white supremacists. Its weird you have a problem with one evil group but not the other.
It's crazy to think that if I lived back then, how productive and creative I would have been....doing it by force and for FREE.
U and me both fam!I
Don't forget watching our loved ones being raped.
You can do it now. Just stay off social media.
@@Rob774... 😂
That chip on your shoulder is weighing you down.
@@Rob774 It did not happen to slaves any more than it did to white women.
All our young people need to see this
Im from morocco i like this vidéo simple life is beauteful
I would love to travel in time and live there, on a farm, away from today for sure.
Not if your black lol
You don't have to time travel to live like that
You can do it today, just join the amish or mennonites
Sounds great if you are a straight white male. Anyone else didn't have it this easy. Keep dreaming though.
Just stop paying your water and electricity bills.
So people back then seem to know how to handle household accounting, now that seems to be a rare skill.
Capitalism took over
@@Hodaboi96 you mean urbanization took over. Capitalism lives in every economy. It's just called a black market it some. You blame human nature and label it wrong. CNN or MSNBC???
@@thisrippleeffect8042 capitalism has a definition and it doesn’t just mean “money”. Back then mercantilism was the dominant economic mode. I suggest you look something up for once.
@@brygos7436 lol, who said anything about money? If you're arguing a barter system, I understand, but you might want to read up a bit yourself.
@@brygos7436 I suggest looking into human nature. But I'll warn you, if you actually do, it'll cause you to become familiar with yourself and your actual lack of intelligence. Cheers bud!
This dated reel being also from the past made it almost seem like they were actually there in the past. But filming in color lol
Over a hundred years ago, and yet the daughter still received a better music education than myself, someone who has been writing songs since childhood, but who was denied a music education, and who now, as an adult, is having to pursue her music education on her own.
Cool knowing about you.
You're weird
It is completely INSANE that we have advanced so far in technology in such a short time.. Thanks for posting. 🥰🥰
I appreciate this film for it's effort to educate and accurate depiction of spaces, furnishings and so on. That said, much of the narrative is simply without merit. Flint and steel are not difficult to use (the film depiction was 100% wrong) and it only takes about five minutes to learn. Fires were not kept burning so "the gentlemen could light their pipes". This is pure hyperbole. Fires were kept burning in warm/hot weather so as to reduce humidity in the home (else it become damp and riddled with mold and mildew), create movement of fresh air into the house via stack effect, and to draw moisture out of the exterior walls to reduce rot and mold growth. Building materials of the 19th century were entirely organic, and thus absorbed moisture, so that they required drying to both the outside AND inside. Furthermore, blacksmiths may not have received "formal" educations within school settings, but they did serve long apprenticeships during which time they had to learn not only the crafts of fire, metal and hammer but also geometry and fractional tables in order to process raw ore, blend metals to produce steel and brass, and to fashion the metal goods needed. Yes, producing horseshoes was common, but the most common thing they produced, usually by the apprentices, were nails. That said, they also made cast iron pots and pans, small brass or silver accoutrements like buckles, pins and needles, bridle and harness pieces, wagon wheel and barrel hoops and every other piece of metal manufactured for purposes. Also, paper spills may have been "all the rage" in the eastern states and the big cities, but long wooden slivers called "tapers" were the most commonly used method of lighting candles and pipes. Paper was too valuable for food preservation and for use in the outhouse or privvy.
Thanks for the good information! 🙂
It was funny how many times the steel pounded the flint instead of scratching for sparks. Bic lighters don't pound the flint, they scratch it.
I agree. The film says more about the period in which it was produced than the period it depicts. There are values in the interpretation that scream mid-twentieth century--namely, as you described, an eagerness to over-emphasize the difficulty of every day life, in juxtaposition with the post-WW2 obsession with technological invention and convenience. As another replied, there is also a denial about the role of Black Americans in the era, and no mention of human enslavement whatsoever--despite it being vitally important to actually understanding the era. Clearly, American mythology-making was strong in the 20th century!
Manners, morals and history were taught in school. Wish they still were.
i was taught history but manners were never covered and it would've been unthinkable to teach morals. i was born in 93
Imagine being white and relying on schools to teach your kids manners, morals, and history.
Wouldn’t that be perfect
Великая страна, великие люди ! USA 🔥👍🏻
А ты про свою страну лучше напиши.
The documentary/educational film of this period was much more information rich, and much less sensational hype panorama music crescendo than much of today's dead space filled analogs.
Agree 💯%
Indeed, everything today requires a scene change every 50 milliseconds to the point where you question what you just saw and rewind over and over. Gotta get more ever more adverts in after all. (Note, I did upgrade to UA-cam Pro to skip the ads)
I'm in awe at these beautiful, strong people!
yuck.
Hey 👋 how are you doing?
I love the details they add which helps bring understanding and context. For example, the table was close to the fire, as everything was so heavy. Or the everyday items with 'new' features that made things a bit easier for people - like the iron with the iron inserts. A really good video that stands the test of time in my opinion.
This is not accurate though. Didn't all white people had black slaves?
@@Gemini530 No. Vast majority never owned slaves.
Me too honey!!!! I love the details❤️❤️
it wasnt that the table was heavy. it was placed there to obsorb as ,much heat as possible. no energy was wasted
I loved Cooperstown growing up. We always made one trip every summer to visit the Farmers Village, of which I have very fond memories...
ThNk you for providing this eye-opener. Gratitude to our ancestors!
Hello 👋how're you doing?
My grandpa used to farm with mules in the '40's. Kinda nice to think gen z's are bringing back some stuff like knitting and sewing, food preservation etc. Just kinda sad that there's so few people left to show us how
But much happier with heated water on demand and a warm house
I'm only 43 and I used to see people doing all of those things (knitting, sewing and food preservation) growing up, there are still plenty of people around who know how to do all of those.
Heated water and plumbing, so underrated and taken for granted. If we all in this generation we're forced back to living like that I'm sure we'd all miss things that we never thought of missing, and I think hot water would be close to the top of the list.
Amber Baker I noticed how the kids are picking some of these arts and crafts up again.
People today don't know how good we have it, here in America.
& what we've worked so hard for is being all undone...
Why?
Trevor, you are spot-on!
@@francesbethodendahl8527 Why do the marxists do what they do? For power and control, I guess. It's hard to empathize with evil people.
@@trevorgrindz5556 marxists? lol. Found the cvntserative! Fear-mongering at it's finest.
As a person born in 1946, I must say I have seen a lot of changes. God Bless America I’m second generation, both sided of my Grandparents came to America in 1910. They loved this country.