I agree, I like modern conveniences. . . but do wish life could be more quiet and peaceful.

My Dad's Mom came from a big family, (10 kids to maturity). After witnessing us five kids calling dibs on the toilet on our way home, she told us in her family growing up they tried to not be among the first to the outhouse. They'd rather sit their precious fannie's on a warm seat- not a freezing cold one!

Don't even get me started on outhouses! As a 6 year old I got locked in one and I was pretty sure I would die before someone found me! :cry: I'm in my 60's now and would rather piddle behind a bush than use an outhouse! :x :roll:
Feathers

Outhouse, inhouse, or a bush....all the same to me....when ya' gotta, ya gotta! :lol: I prefer the mixed version, all the idealistic nostalgia, with the modern convenience...and a great big quilting room!

Amen, Sister!

Man, I really started something this time! LOL!
When I was born, and until the summer I was 3.5, we lived in a 10 foot wide trailer with no running water. There was a well that Mom carried all of our water from. The toilet/outhouse was probably 150 or more feet away, and through a gate/fence where the cow was.
Mom had an old ringer washer outside she did laundry in with rain water and a line to dry them on. Mostly, we had to go to the laundry mat.
I got a bath in an inch more or less of water...or in the sink in a big orange dish pan. :D
Mom would carry a bucket of water up to the trailer several times a day and put a little in the tub and use the rest for cleaning and things...the stopper in the tub was not functional, so she stuffed a wash cloth in the hole....and sometimes I would take it out! She'd have to go fetch more water for the bathtime that way! Of course, she always heated up some hot water and added to the tub before the bath.
We were dirt-poor! I remember some of it.
I'm SO glad I don't have to live like that with kids! I know how hard it is to take care of them with water and all the modern things. I can't imagine how hard Mom's job was.
BUT...her childhood was way, way, way more UN-Modern than the first 3.5 of mine.
Mom says she doesn't like to camp now. She camped for 3.5 years with me. She says, really, all she had was electric. Most campers/Travel Trailers are way nicer than what we had back then....
oh, the good ole days!
:D

Buttercream:
Are we related? All that you described I remember exactly how we lived, too until I was about 5 years old. My mom had a wringer washing machine until I was about 10 or 12. I remember mom hanging clothes on the line in the winter time and telling us NOT to touch the clothes or bend them because they would break because they were frozen stiff. We always had plenty to eat but didn't have many material things until later.

Feathers

Feathers!~could be!?
My Mom has 5 brothers and 5 sisters. She was the youngest daughter. They about starved to death as kids.
She says she remembers not having hardly anything to eat even while pregnant with me. Dad worked, it was just hard times then. She said they didn't even have a jar of coffee. :(
But...YOU KNOW WHAT!!??!!
It's all fine and dandy. Hard times bring out the best in us.
This was in the 1980's, by the way....
and...I want to say that I don't regret a thing. I think it makes us more creative to work with what we have. I love knowing that I could make it if I would have to! (A country girl can survive!--Thank you, Hank!)
:lol:

I was born at Grandma's house in the hills, and when my Mother moved to Ohio with Dad and kept on having kids, she gae me the best gift of all, letting me live with Grandma and Grandpa till he died. Living in the hills we were poor but I didn't know it because everyone else was too. We had a cow and a pig and chickens, could go out and shoot anything that we could find for extra meat, all the while during the depression in big cities people were fighting to get to soup kitchens for free food.

Looking back, going to the little house out back wasn't that bad since we each had a thunder mug under each bed. (You had to clean up your own if you were old enough).
And with running water, you ran out and pulled it up from the well, except for a cow tail pump in the kitchen that had to have water poured into it to get it to give up lots more from deep in the earth. Sleeping in a cold attic or spare room with corncob mattress that crinkled at every breath, and covered with heavy, warm quilts made from old woolen clothes made you feel warm and cozy with the wind hurling rain and sleet against the windows. Grabbing clothes and pulling them on while running for the warm kitchen to finish dressing because most of the house wasn't that well insulated. (Come to think of it, I never even heard the word=insulation= till I was in my 20s!!

No, I wouldn't gripe too much at that sort of life, but I do love my computer and electric sewing machines and fridge and freezer, and lights to read by. Guess I'm too old to change, don't even want to go camping any more, even though we did that with kids all our married life.