Comments On Article: The Old Way

If you would like to share your comments for article The old way, this is where to do it! 

Click the Reply To This Topic button below to post yours.

I live in a rural regional area of Australia and am moving house across town. Today I discovered that I am only able to use one retailer for my gas supply. This means that I have no choice and cannot look for better plans. This is the first time in 28 moves in 28 years that I have had this happen and your article prompted me to think that this is one of those 'creeping', insidious ways where we are being forced to pay more. My 8 year old granddaughter asked me why I had the soap scraps in a little mesh bag to wash with - she really had no idea why. So I explained and she understood as she said that we have to take care of our world. They do teach her that at her small country school. Maybe being connected to the land more closely is part of that. The envelope system is what I used to get us out of credit card debt 15 years ago and my children have never forgotten it. My daughter now uses the same but I admit that I have become lazier and not being as mindful with spending as I could. I appreciate all your suggestions and posts. Hello from Australia!

Good morning from Indiana! I love your posts Grandma D because they help me re-focus my priorities and help me appreciate what I have. I grew up with parents and grandparents who lived as you and Charles do in many ways. My husband and I have just been talking recently about things we need to do to get our “life” back on track, with regards to finances, home maintenance, etc. We recently moved into a new home, but it is 70- plus year old home that is in need of a lot of repair. Your blogs help me focus on what is needed for our home, and not the “wants”. Your blog is helping me make wise decisions regarding how we spend our money. Thank you for the wise advise and encouragement. 

Some days (actually most), I feel totally lost in a world I do not recognize. I am sure people of the past felt the same when so-called "progress" created more noise, anger, frustration, greed and jealousy. We are at a place of danger with the evil desire to play God with others lives.

I was born in the 1940's and the country was far different than it has become. I was fortunate to live with my grandparents (maternal and paternal) either in our home or across the street. I thought this was normal. I was taught respect, obedience, kindness, caring and what being part of a family meant. Although our family had many issues, it was still less hectic, less confusing and more meaningful than today. 

I was taught to take care of things to make them last and to make wise choices of quality rather than to waste money on cheap items that would not last. Quality today, as compared to the past, does not exist. Greed on the part of large business entities has debased this country to a point of a very distinct class society again. 

We used to be able to repair everything we purchased with right tools and know how. Today, major purchases are designed to make the customer dependent on the manufacturer for maintenance and repair. Almost no one has the freedom to save money on repairs for vehicles or large appliances these days. They must be maintained by a licensed representative of the manufacturer. Anyone fortunate enough to find old restored appliances or vehicles has found gems of value.

Growing up, I learned how to care for hardwood floors by hand polishing them; how to wash dishes and carefully dry them so they did not chip or break; how to properly set a table; how to sew and how to choose fabric. My paternal grandmother owned a neighborhood grocery store, yet meticulously kept her large home clean and sewed her own clothing. Sewing machines could be oiled and the repairs done at home.

I could go on and on about the moral, financial, spiritual and health benefits of the past, but it would not help because the world, at present, is lost to evil behavior and a totally upside down value system. All we can do is pray and be the best keepers of our homes that we can be.

I think most people will not stop overspending until they are forced to do so; as in a catastrophic event. Unfortunately, they won't be prepared, because those people are happy in their little bubble, believing things will always continue as they have been.

The subscriptions have gotten more than out of hand. It's insanity. I hear that the brand new vehicles now that may have A GPS, or heated seats require a subscription to keep them going. No thanks. 

So many homes here, unless they are high end, haven't the windows to keep it cool. They're awful. No thanks on the new homes too. I'll take the cross breezes when I can. People live like hermits in AZ. They put furniture in front of windows and don't go outside and the yards are so small. It's no wonder homes are no longer homey.

So I just read an article from a woodworking site that mentioned a list of old "homey" kitchens that contained useful items that they no longer build in, in lieu of expansive, white, modern kitchens.  Also the the homey-ness that has gone from homes, removing walls, slathering everything in gray or white, lack of color and carpet.  It's quite sad really.   I'm in desperate need of a comfortable chair, but first I'm not finding a decent furniture store, much less one that has a comfortable chair that isn't "modern." What happened to differing tastes?   This streamlining of our lives to be with the herd I find concerning and utterly depressing. 

I thankfully have a life pre-tech to give me sensibility, a home where it wasn't like everyone else's because there were choices.  The introduction of technology has gotten out of hand - the prices of the phones and all it's silly nonsense it includes. People are spending time videoing themselves and their children and not being actually present in the moment. 

I went to a gas station yesterday that was wonderful.  It asked to zip my card, then it said to begin fueling. I thought, what?  No tv, no loud advertisements, no music blasting from the rafters, just simple fueling up my car.  It was so simple, and so peaceful, it was so noticing that it was an amazing experience!  

I think that while technology is nice and has its place, it's given the opportunity to make people indoctrinated, rude, and completely of the herd mentality.  Sometimes I am glad that I'm 65 because I have good memories of real living without horrible rudeness people seem to be able to get away with and the ridiculous amount of advertisements in my face at every turn. Plus, different stores contained different items - like a chair I actually want that isn't modern.  Do they really think I'm going to buy a chair online without testing it?  Some day the thrift stores will no longer be. They will be full of hobby lobby junk, and cheap/trashy furniture. 

Paper.  They need to bring back paper. You can't hack information on paper. 

Glenda H-2  Yes, yes, yes!!!!!

We bought a new house a few years ago. It has many inconveniences that we've been fixing. My cousin doesn't understand why we are spending money to fix these things and said that's just the way houses are built now, and that we should get used to it. I thought about that, and I think these inconveniences contribute to the stress everyone feels these days, even if they don't recognize it. We put new towel hooks in the bathroom because the sink is over here and the towel hook was over there where you had to drip water on the floor to reach it. Now the towel hooks are right next to the sinks. They are small dragonfly shaped hooks attached to the bathroom vanity because the walls won't hold the hooks because they are that flimsy. I think they look lovely, and they are so convenient. :) Yes, that's a really little thing, but it makes a difference to me. 

We replaced the bathroom faucets, too, because they were too short and you barely had room to wash your hands in the sink. It feels very good to have proper-sized faucets. One thing I couldn't fix is that the faucets are set into the counter top, not in the sink, so your wet hands drip water on the counter as you use the faucet, and it makes water spots on the counter. We can't afford new counter tops, so I have to keep a cloth close by to wipe up after I use the faucets. If I had a regular sink with the faucets in it, I wouldn't have to do this extra work each time. I know it's another small thing, but I think all of these make-work annoyances add up mentally. 

We fixed the bedroom curtains recently too. There are two windows on one wall and they are set too close to the outside walls and they are different distances to those walls! You can't get a curtain rod attached properly to that side. We finally put up new curtain rods and cut off the rod cap on that side to make it shorter and used a pretty finial on the other side of the rod to distract your attention from the short side. This way we can pull the curtains back on the short side on each window. Before, we couldn't pull the curtains back very far and lost a lot of light from our windows being covered. We tried extending the rod on the other side, and it didn't work for how that wall is sized. It's so nice to have more light in that room! We have to have blackout curtains over the blinds because of all of the outside light at night -- another modern thing we had to find a fix for! 

The next thing we are going to fix is the two wrong-sized, framed mirrors in the bathroom. I like the idea of the framed mirrors, but what I don't understand is why they put up the wrong size. They go all the way up under the light fixtures and are set offside to the light fixtures and the faucets so that they draw your attention to their weird proportions. Again, a small thing, but why do it that way? We are replacing them with one horizontal long mirror that doesn't go near the light fixtures and is proportional to the sinks. I don't think it's safe to have the present mirrors that close to the light fixtures. 

My cousin would say why bother, but I am more comfortable without these oddities. 

Ann E, thank you for such an insightful and correct comment. I am so glad that others don't like the ridiculous changes either.

I think the world must burn in order to bring back what was. I read the Bible and Ecclesiastes is very clear on there not being anything new under the sun. "What has been, will be again..."

I am a millennial who very interested in simplifying (even going back to the way it was in the 90s would be nice). We recently moved to a small family farm. We want to make an income from by selling at the farmers market. My husband just retired so we need to tighten our belts. We’re letting all our subscriptions expire and will be using free streaming services or doing without.  We’re already big library people and we love going to free community events.

It’s been unnerving for us to start living only on his pension and my part time income, but we’re excited to learn how to reduce our monthly expenses, reduce debt, and have more time together as a family (after years of being forced apart due to my husband’s work). I hope we succeed so I can show other young families that it’s possible; you don’t have to live like everyone else. 
 

What are your memories of a more simple life?  My husband and I have been talking about summers when we were children.  People were outside early in the mornings and again in the evenings — walking, playing, chatting.  Meals were simple because no one wanted to use the oven.  Both of us remember going to the public library in the summer, where they had air conditioning and of course, books for us to borrow and read at home.  We played in sprinklers (pools were for rich people) and the water we played in was also watering the grass.  Summer ended up being a restful, restorative season after the school year.  Youth sports were done for the season, scouts didn’t meet, our band instruments were put away, and we were allowed to simply be.  Day after day was spent at home or roaming the neighborhood on bicycles and roller skates.  We played with the neighbor children when the sun was setting.  Our parents weren’t running errands every night, the groceries were bought once a week and usually our parents bought whatever was needed at the grocery store, even my mother’s cosmetics came from the grocery store.  If we ran out of milk my father would drive through the dairy on his way home from work.  Each day unfolded before us to be filled however we saw fit, as long as it didn’t cost money or require someone to drive us.  Boredom was common, and it spurred us to be creative and come up with things to do.  I realize now that as children our nervous systems were being given a reset, an opportunity to truly recover from the cumulative stresses of the school year.  Now in retirement we are starting to do the same thing, to weed out the unnecessary stressful things in our lives.

What has changed?  People are so stressed and busy now, even when we aren’t in a war or recession.  They are distracted and unhappy.  They are disconnected from each other in meaningful ways, while thinking they are staying connected through social media.  We sit on our front porch each evening and for the most part the only people we see go by are walking their dogs.  The other night we saw a mother pushing her child in a stroller, and the mom was focused completely in her phone — I couldn’t even see how she kept the stroller going in a straight line.  Most people are looking at phones and never even look up and see us, people who are waiting to say hello to them if we can catch their eye.  I think it is very hard to be human in our current society, most are cogs in the economic machine and don’t have time to rest, and also are always worried about money and how to make ends meet in a system that is designed to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

What do you feel should have stayed the same?  I feel really strongly that children should be able to have a season to reset.  Now the young people we know have lists of books they have to read before school starts again.  They do paid summer school and are tutored.  They have to practice their instruments.  Some children are on travel sports teams.  These days summer seems to be all about improving for the next school year, doing activities that help with university admissions, and basically using their time to “optimize” themselves for when they are adults.  Their parents and caregivers also carry the burden of all this activity.

What do you think that we should have never started?  I would probably say the ability to buy things on credit is something we shouldn’t have started, debt is a terrible thing and it is the easy credit that convinces people to buy things they don’t need.  Also, I would say smart phones.  I do think mobile phones have been helpful to people in some situations, such as when a car breaks down or when a doctor needs to take a call, turning the phones into smart phones has been detrimental to our society, especially our children and young adults.  As far as computers go, I think maybe we should have stopped with desktop computers that have to be used at home.  Oh, add in cable TV and streaming services, and the ability to watch something new on TV 24/7/365.  My husband and I were talking about how there was nothing we wanted to see on TV in summer, because it was all reruns.  We remember the TV stations being done airing for the day.

Do you have someone special in your life that taught you  how to live a sensible life just by the way they lived?  My paternal grandparents were the most financially sensible people I knew growing up, and they also ended up being the most financially comfortable in retirement (not rich, just frugally comfortable).  As a child I marveled at how they used layaway, it was common.  They lived in small homes.  They ate simple meals and they rarely went to restaurants.  A big thing I can see now is that they didn’t inflate their lifestyle and they didn’t jump on trends.  My grandfather preferred high quality items that would last a long time, and would save his money to buy them or use layaway.  They had many friends and maintained strong social connections as older adults.  They had hobbies.  They volunteered, but just enough, not so much that it felt like a job.  My grandmother kept her home clean enough to be healthy, but not so much as to be unhappy.  She wasn’t the kind of grandmother with a kitchen full of homemade baked treats, but she loved me and I knew it

It is a cycle. I do agree that we adopt new technology and advances too rapidly, without thinking any of it through, all in the name of innovation and profit. I do not think that is new, or at least it isn’t new since the first rumblings of the Industrial Revolution back in the late 1400s! I am careful not to romanticize the past too much, though. Even as little as 50 years ago when I was born, people like my family suffered from misplaced fear and hate, and in some places it can still be that way. As Grandma Donna points out, not everything about the past needs to be brought back!

A simple, slower life, though, that I am on board with! We have been slowly helping our elderly friend/neighbor/landlord clean up his property. It had become too much for him over the last decade, so there is much to do. We have the orchard back in order, and are working on the back five acres now. This area is full of wonderful native tree varieties that he planted 35 years ago, but the invasive blackberries have encroached and are starting to smother them. The “civilized” parts of the property are done now, as well — all the little rock gardens and landscape beds are cleared and only need regular maintenance now. Much easier to keep up with! Today we are wresting back the lane that leads onto the property, because the blackberries are threatening to engulf it!

One thing we uncovered was a huge rhubarb bed. Much like the fruit orchard, our friend isn’t much interested in it anymore, so he told us it was ours to do with as we pleased. I’ve done a bit of baking and I also discovered that rhubarb is lovely when shredded into a coleslaw. I also made Chicken Veronique “bowls” (I only use a cup of shredded chicken instead of whole thighs, add extra onions, and serve it as a bowl meal over rice — less meat needed that way). Instead of grapes, I used sliced rhubarb tossed with a bit of honey, and it came out wonderfully. 

The bulk of the rhubarb is being preserved as rhubarb candy. It’s simple to make, especially if you have an electric or solar dehydrator. I toss the sliced rhubarb with a bit of sugar and let it sit and soak for an hour or so, then I dehydrate it. It stores well. Eaten as is, it is like a healthier version of a sweet and sour gummy candy. You can add it as-is to wet batters, such as cake or scones, or you can rehydrate it by simmering it in a bit of water for things like pies and crumbles. It doesn’t need any extra sugar added to cut the sour before baking, either, which is nice. 

It’s still early days in the garden, but so far my tomatoes and peppers are flowering, the cucumbers and zucchinis are putting out vines, and everything else is chugging along. I’ll have the first peas and beans soon. We’ve already been regularly trimming (and drying) all the herbs, and strawberries are coming in (these are for fresh eating or dried for winter snacking and baking). I’ve dried a lot of stinging nettles for tea and pesto sauce, and soon I will be digging the garlic. We’ve already preserved some cherries — whole canned and by making 5 gallons of cherry wine. We also made 1 gallon of rhubarb wine. We haven’t made that one before, so want to try it before expanding production next year. It takes 6 months to make rhubarb wine, and a year for cherry wine to be ready, so it is a patient process! 

As for the rest of the fruit, plums are next, followed by blueberries, then Asian pears and apples, then the wild blackberries. I have a ton of raspberry canes that look like they are doing well, but I don’t know how well they will produce this year as they are still in pots (we won’t be able to get the raspberry bed in until next year, because it is going by an outbuilding that is still being built).

The only subscription we do isn’t really a subscription, but our annual donation to our local PBS station. We drive older cars — a 1992 “Kei” truck (Japanese mini truck), and a 2010 Prius. The truck is as uncomplicated as they come with no computer components, and the Prius is as uncomplicated as a modern hybrid vehicle comes, so no need for subscriptions to make it operate! 

I recently took a part time job at a bookstore, and it is heartening to see how many people are reading these days, especially with the internet talking heads going on about how no one reads anymore. I do notice that my generation isn’t well represented in our customer base, though. Most of our customers are over the age of 65 or under the age of 35. The 35 to 65 year old contingent doesn’t seem to read as much, but at least the young adults are buying books by the armload! We’ve recently seen a surge in orders for slightly older reference type books. I think this is because AI is making people lose trust in internet information and newer books (which may have been written with AI). We also sell lots of physical music and movie media to young people, as they do not want to subscribe to streaming services for music or movies anymore. They would rather have records, CDs, and DVDs.

I don’t want to bring back the world that once was. That world hurt a lot of people because it contained a lot of unnecessary fear and hatred. Instead, I think we should work to create a new world that uses all the best parts of the past and present, from every culture and walk of life.

Katherine H I am sure you can do it! Once we set our minds to take up these challenges, we find all kinds of ways to make it work. Plus, Grandma Donna is the Queen of thinking up new ways to do things. I love to reread her old posts because I get so many good ideas, and the comments are always full of them too. 

All of the work I've put into creating a more sensible life is paying off. I've found that I have adopted a regular, slower, relaxed pace. It used to feel like the outside world was constantly attacking me in one way or another, but now I have made enough changes to my life that I feel safe in my home. I know unexpected things can happen, we just had that big hailstorm recently, but I feel prepared now instead of worried. 

When my husband quits his present job at the end of the year, we will have time to visit family more often. I am looking forward to packing our cooler with homemade food for the road and eating it at rest stops. :) 

As far as memories of a more simpler life, I think people worried a lot less in the past. You could buy things at the store instead of having to order them online. You could talk to people instead of trying to resolve your online issues with AI bots. The food was better. :) 

I agree with Kimberly F that smartphones should never have started. I think they are the worst change we have now. I know some people need them for work, my husband does, but the constant access is very harmful in my opinion. 

My daughter walks to school and one of the reasons we live in our town is because we can all walk to work or school. We have lovely safe paths and lots of crosswalks too. It is a classic New England small town. However, sadly, a child was struck by a car crossing to my daughter’s middle school today. Thankfully, the child is in stable condition at the hospital but the school principal sent a note to parents reminding people to slow down and focus on the road. I am sure my daughter will be shaken by what she witnessed and I can’t help but think about how long ago people were less distracted driving when there were no phones. I zip my phone into my purse or place it in the console so I cannot fiddle with it when driving. I wish folks slowed down and focused on the task at hand both for their safety and our children.

We also live in a town where we can walk and bike many places, and we see a big difference in how distracted drivers are now compared to the 90s and early 2000s before there were smart phones.  Yes people had cell phones back then but at first they were too expensive to use for anything other than emergencies (I carried one because I drove 50 miles to work each way and part of the drive was very isolated), and once texting became a thing it would have been impossible to text someone while driving because you had to use the numeric keypad and press the numbers multiple times to get each letter.  Smart phone use in the car, plus stressed drivers, makes for unsafe conditions when it comes to pedestrians and cyclists.  We have even noticed that cars don’t stop for pedestrians waiting to cross at crosswalks and corners (considered unmarked crosswalks) — the thought now is that they have the right of way and we are a nuisance, even though the laws hasn’t changed that says drivers must yield to pedestrians.  Many people here won’t let their children walk to school, which is sad.  The high schoolers have to walk, drive, or be dropped off, as there is no bus service for them.  Our friends daughters was hit by a car when she was walking to school, and every year there is at least one child hi.  But it is still a benefit to live where we do.  My husband walked or biked to work for 32 years, and now our son bikes to work.  The library, post office, outdoor amphitheater, shops, cafes, mechanic, and more are all within walking distance.

Stephanie G, I too am feeling the slower, more relaxed pace at home.  This is the living like the past, not living in the past.  I think in the past things were simpler (but also much worse in many ways, as Jenny Wren points out) and because of that life was slower in some ways.  If the market closed at 6PM no one was running their errands after dinner.  Kids had less homework and fewer extra curricular activities.  Most people ate their meals at home.  When I was a child we didn’t go anywhere after dinner except to church on Wednesdays (and sometimes on Sunday evenings as well, depending on the church).  Now I am willing to leave my house in the evening to go to church activities (we live very close to our church) and to free summer concerts we can walk to.  I won’t do errands in the evenings!  I am starting my days slowly, with a dog walk and time on the porch before I start any chores —the chores will still be there whether I get at them right away or not, but the calm I get from a slow start stays with me all day.  I love listening to the birds!  We rarely eat takeout or restaurant meals because we save money but also because we aren’t making that decision over and over again.  I know what I cook for dinner on Mondays (beans, rice, vegetables, tvp for the guys, salmon for me), but in the past when we would eat out we would spend so much time trying to decide where — it was exhausting!  We don’t enjoy it anymore.

I love hearing how you are changing your own home to be more useful to you — that is the best thing to do!  I hate when people won’t make changes to their homes because they are afraid of “resale value”.  You are doing the good work to make a more sensible home.  We have three hooks on each bedroom door, they are so convenient for hanging sweaters or light jackets, and my purse too.  Our coat closet was converted to a bedroom closet when the previous owners converted the clothes closet to a half bathroom, so we need places to hang coats, and hooks work well.  I really love hooks, we have hooks on the bathroom door as well, which works better for us than the towel bar.

I can't wait to go back through and finish reading the comments – they doubled up on me while I had the tab open but was away doing something else.

One part of this blog post that stood out to me were these two lines: "What helps us to live a more simple life is to have the simple things around us to use.  These items make me want to live like my generations before me and it does help to keep the cost down." There is absolutely something to the concept of actually having simple/old-fashioned items on hand and visible that encourages their use. 

I want to get better at conserving water when I do dishes so I'm looking for an enamel bowl to fill up and use that as my dirty water instead of filling and refilling my small sink over and over. I think it's natural to use what you see most often or see other people using, so if I want to be deliberate in how I live my life, I've got to make sure I'm surrounded by what allows me to do that.

One other thing that's new in my simple living life, and has been a bit of an adjustment, is really taking my time before making a purchase to check the fabric content on clothes and even the origin of my items. I desperately need summer pajamas but I am slow in purchasing any because I want cotton or linen and it just takes longer to a) source them, b) afford them these days, and c) try my best to know where they were made. It's not as easy as finding something quickly and clicking "add to cart" with it ready to ship to me the very next day. I have to take my time and that's been an adjustment.