A Nostalgia For Simple Living
I have a nostalgia for simple living and the simple straightforward childhood I had in the countryside.
Everyone moved slower but everything got done.
It’s kind of amazing how that happened.
The food got cooked. And cobblers were baked with the blackberries picked from the garden. Vegetables were grown and picked and brought in to cook meals. Fresh vegetables without pesticides or chemicals.
The chickens were fed. I gathered the eggs, hurrying to get from the hen house back to the gate without the rooster pecking my skinny legs.
We didn’t have an automobile. At the time I thought that was terrible. But now I’m glad I got to live that kind of life. There was no oil to change or tires to check. It was so uncomplicated.
We walked almost everywhere we went. To town and back. If we needed to go to a nearby town, we rode the bus.
How did all that get done if there wasn’t a car to rush us places? I find that curious now.
Sometimes a chicken was killed so we could eat fried chicken. I hated that, but you know I did eat the fried chicken.
Food tasted so good back then. But then there were no additives. We mostly ate food from the garden, and it was canned for wintertime meals. The jars were kept on rustic shelves in the old cellar and taken down when needed.
How To Live Old-Fashioned On Purpose:
Yesterday I stumbled upon a book, and then the author’s blog. The book is “Old-Fashioned On Purpose.” I thought that title was quite clever.
Back when I was young, I’d never have wanted to be old-fashioned on purpose. Now it’s a way of life many want to embrace.
Jill Winger’s blog is “The Prairie Homestead” if you’d like to check it out.
About The Book Old-Fashioned On Purpose:
When the pandemic hit in 2020, flour and vegetable seeds flew off the shelves. But homesteader and entrepreneur Jill Winger believes these longings for sourdough bread and fresh veggies are more than a trend.
As our society races toward progress, we’ve left something important behind. We are more connected than ever before, yet we’re still feeling unfulfilled. In Old-Fashioned on Purpose, Winger shows how simplifying our lives and adopting retro skills such as gardening and handiwork can be the key to creating the happy and healthy life we’re yearning for. Inside these pages, readers will learn:
- How to find joy in the kitchen (even if you hate to cook)
- Proven strategies for growing your own groceries
- The surprising stress-relievers that can be found in your backyard
- How to craft a more grounded routine and save money in the process
- Clever tips and creative DIYs to help you embark on your old-fashioned journey
You don’t have to live on a farm to cultivate a simpler life. This inspiring and practical book offers a powerful new sense of purpose, with plenty of tomatoes, chickens, and bread making along the way.
This Life I Live:
The book has a foreword written by singer, songwriter, and New York Times bestselling author Rory Feek. I wrote a post in 2017 about “This Life I Live”.
Apparently I lost that book somewhere along the way. But I remember that I truly enjoyed reading it.
In This Life I Live, Rory Feek helps us not only to connect more fully to his and Joey’s story but also to our own journeys. He shows what can happen when we are fully open in life’s key moments, whether when meeting our life companion or tackling an unexpected tragedy.
He also gives never-before-revealed details on their life together and what he calls “the long goodbye,” the blessing of being able to know that life is going to end and taking advantage of it. Rory shows how we are all actually there already and how we can learn to live that way every day.
I admire these two authors. For how they live, how they think, and how they teach others. And of course how they came to be where they are.
You can usually learn a thing or two from someone else. What to do; what not to do. Glean knowledge from their observations and put it to work in your own life.
A Nostalgia For Simple Living:
I live a pretty simple life as it is. It’s a good life. I’d rather be home than anywhere in the world. My beloved cat Ivy is a good companion to live alongside.
I must have adopted that simplicity from my childhood, where we rarely left home. Home was comforting, and there was so much work my grannies did in a day’s time.
Plant the garden; weed the garden. Pick vegetables from the garden; cook the vegetables. Create three homemade meals a day.
I didn’t realize what a big deal that was then. But I sure do now.
Breakfast was usually gravy and biscuits with eggs and sausage. Lunch was often leftovers from the evening before. Then more food was cooked for supper. And the cycle continued.
During the summer there were sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and onions on the table. Fresh from the garden.
It seemed so simple I didn’t appreciate it then.
What Home Is:
Home is not only where you live. It is where you create and tell your story.
It’s where you chronicle your decisions and mistakes.
Then you get up the next day and start a new page or chapter.
Home is where you turn those pages, looking back while also stepping forward.
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Beautiful Brenda, I love your stories and hope that someday you will write a book.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/the-case-against-travel
Here’s an essay I think you might enjoy.
This was a beautiful post. It made me smile bringing back my own childhood memories, much like everyone else’s. Good times. “The good ole days.”
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I was remembering things about my grandmother and grandfather tonight with my husband, who knew them well too. They always lived in an almost poor fashion…even when it was not required. They gave to their family in so many ways. But lived a very simple life. Grandma did not make many different recipes, but whatever she fixed, no one made it better!! Tonight I made us a simple supper (kind of to celebrate our engagement 52 years ago tonight)…just some swedish meatballs, instant mashed potatoes and some green beans, with some canned apricots for dessert. Can’t get much simpler. But as I told my hubby and he agreed, no restaurant around here that we have tried cooks any better (and it costs a lot less to do at home too). I told him in a way, it was peasant food, but in a way we are peasants and would not want it otherwise. And you are so right…the food we had growing up DID taste better and was healthier!! A lot of it home grown. (I know eating canned fruit is less than the best…but here, other than apples and bananas, you can forget decent fruit anyway, for ANY price. At least the canned is not thrown away because it never ripened. This is a smaller town…must get all the leftover fresh stuff not wanted elsewhere…)
Growing up in the midwest, my favorite breakfast was fried apples with homemade biscuits. My grandmother picked the apples from the huge tree in our backyard. I so wish I could remember the name of that apple tree. The ones I get out of the grocery store are always so tart or mealy-textured. Seems I remember the names Rome and Winesap.
I absolutely crave sites like these. They give me such peace. Thanks for another great link! A woman after my own heart!
I sometimes yearn for simpler ways, too. I like my modern conveniences (especially having a car!), but I’d love a bigger garden (we don’t have enough sun on our tiny piece of property), for one thing. My mom grew up much like you did, and lived some of her childhood with her grandparents. Her granny used to kill their chickens for dinner and my mom would always say she wouldn’t eat them. But then that fried chicken would appear on the table and look and smell so good…and when you’re hungry… 😉
I would love to learn to can, if I could do it alongside someone who knew what they were doing. I have no desire to learn how to do it via a book or youtube.
I’m going to check out that blog and book of the first woman you mentioned, thanks.
Here’s a blog you might enjoy and she’s written a couple books
She’s in Australia
https://down—to—earth.blogspot.com/
Memories, yes Brenda different times for sure. My parents didn’t have a car, nor a telephone back in the “olden” days, 1940’s. My Mom had a small garden in the backyard of the house we rented. I remember the tomatoes, and lots of flowers, don’t remember what else was in the garden, but I loved the smell and the taste,of course, of those tomatoes.
Back in the day, I played outside all day long, with the neighbor kids, roller skating on the sidewalks, playing hop scotch, jumping rope, playing marble games or Jacks. Lots of quiet days with a best friend sitting under a shade tree, with our dolls, or paper dolls.
Wonderful sweet memories. So long gone…
Bonnie, you brought back so many happy memories of my childhood. Playing with the neighborhood kids, especially my best friend. We would play “house” in my garage with our dolls. We also had paper dolls. I had a doll house. Played with jacks and marbles and jump ropes, roller skated. The good old days for sure!
Beautifully written!
Even though I live in a large city I live a pretty quite, happy life. I love making my own plant based food, I don’t make bread anymore as it was never a success. Its easy not to buy as many clothes as I used to now I am retired. I don’t buy anything I don’t need, ok probably I do splurge on pretty paper for my crafts and a few craft tools. My husband and I love gardening and just being in the garden, the wildlife are welcome, even skunks if they are just passing through. It is good feeling to feel content with what you have and what you are doing to make your life enjoyable.