Could You Live A "1900" Lifestyle?

[sudsomatic]

Laundress,

The "Period House" series of shows is a favorite of mine also, 1900 house being the first "____ House" I ever saw.

 

I think living like it's 1901 would be fun for a short time frame. I would compare it to camping, or renting a rustic cabin for a vacation, something you do for a week or so. An experience to try new things you've never done, reconnect with family or friends without all the distractions of cellphones and internet and Netflix. And a chance to learn a new appreciation for modern conveniences when you go back to your regular everyday.

 

However.... I think a full time,  long term reversal back to that lifestyle would not be fun at all. haha.

 

But for the month or 6 weeks that thes shows comprise, I think I could handle that and rather enjoy it. So long as I could fully go back to 2019 once the project was done.

 

Something that always is frustrating on rewatching 1900 House is what's frustrating with rewatching most of the Period House series.  The idea of the project is to see what life was like then, to experience how people lived, to immerse yourself within it and, in a way, become those people for 3 weeks or a month or however long the project lasts. To learn from it, appreciate how times have changed, and have an amazing experience to look back on.

 

To feel like a bonafide Time Traveler for a month!

 

But in every series so many participants do the opposite, they try to superimpose their 21st century viewpoints on the situation and change the course of history into what that they think it <span style="text-decoration: underline;">should</span> have been, based on what their more modern viewpoint expresses.

 

In 1900 House for example Mrs Bowler firing Elizabeth (The Maid of All Work) because (she claimed) it went against her feelings on women's liberation always confused me, in reality in 1900 England a maid was not only an honest job but sadly one of the only jobs for a woman to get, whether she was alone in the world or providing for her parents and siblings, a job doing domestic chores of some kind whether cleaning, cooking, sewing,  etc was pretty much her only respectable option.  So being fired didn't liberate her or set her free.. it just would have made her homeless and jobless and with no other prospects of surviving than to find a husband and be provided for .. again, by 1900 standards.

 

While the suffrage movement was important and was coming of age at the time the family was 'visiting' it was good to represent it I think. but not in such a backwards, misleading way. Message board gossip says she really fired her because of Mr Bowler.. so there's that.

 

Then there was her 'time warp cheating' and spending what would have likely amounted to a weeks pay (in 1900 dollars at any rate) of their weekly allowance on a contraband bottle of modern shampoo because old fashioned bar soap was too damaging to her follicles.

 

I just like it when you can see the participants 'living' the show, loving every minute of it and soaking it in instead of all the complaining and counting the days until this Hell ends. I love these shows however, just maybe not always the cast. haha

 

 

[sudsomatic]

Sarah...

Hand pumps are fun. no joke haha. I grew up summers going to the UP in Michigan to this old logging cabin with my family for a week each July. The only water to the place was a pump at the kitchen sink, us kids loved that thing.. we'd come up with reasons to use it constantly, pump water for someone else, fill up milk jugs to save later for priming, wash our hands for no reason, pump the water for someone else washing their hands, and take about 80 drinks a day right from the spout. My Mom would joke and say "If I knew that all I had to do to get my kids to drink more water (vs Pop) was get a pump for them to play with I'd have one in every sink"

 

I think you're probably talking more in the apocalyptic /catastrophe kind of sense like how the messages took in this thread but it's a good thing to have in general as well. Looks cool, works a treat, fun to play with, and excellent backup if you're on well water and the power goes out.

 

[norgeway]

I grew up in rural North Carolina

In the same house my Mother was born in in 1929, Until 1938 the house had no electricity, My Mother and Aunt talked about doing homework by the light of a Alladin Kerosene lamp, Until 1954 that house had a wood cookstove, and a outdoor bathroom, It DID have running water even before it had electricity thanks to a device known as a hydraulic ram that pumped water into a wooden water tank in the back yard, A coil in the firebox of the wood cookstove heated the water, Mother often talked of the 3 neighbors getting together on Monday, Building a fire next to the spring house and washing and boiling clothes in a iron pot while it was snowing, All day Tuesday was spent ironing with irons heated on the wood cookstove, Canning inJuly and August in the hot humid North Carolina summers was also done in the small kitchen on a big Majestic wood stove Mother said the nights following that were ALWAYS sleepless because the house was usually near 100 degrees from the heat of the stove,,So NO I don't want to go back the 50s yes before that NO WAY

 

[circlew]

My grandfather Eaton lived in rural southern Mississippi, about 20 miles out from Hattiesburg. His house had probably been built sometime around 1930, though they didn't move there until the 40's.

Electricity had been installed around 1947, so they got a refrigerator at that time. He used propane gas for a couple heaters, in addition to the fireplace on colder days. The only cooling was a couple electric table fans. An electric water pump had been installed when the house was wired, and ran water to an outside faucet and to the kitchen sink. The sink drain just ran out to the field in back. Cooking was done on an old gas range. I believe a 30's Norge when I was little, then later on a used Roper from the 40's.

Until around 1966 the only bathroom facility was the outhouse. Baths were done in galvanized washtubs, with water heated on the range. In hot weather, rinsing off was done with the hose out in back. At this time, my mom, aunts, and uncles decided he should have an indoor bathroom, as he was having some health issues, including diabetes. A water heater was also installed.

Laundry was done in an old GE wringer washer that sat in the wash house out back. According to my mom, prior to electricity being installed it was done in an iron pot over a fire, as Hans mentioned. It was referred to as the "witch's pot", due to its shape.

My grandmother had died in 1957 (at age 53), so only got to enjoy the refrigerator and washer about 10 years. She never had indoor bath or laundry facilities.

I enjoyed visiting there, but was always glad to get back home, or to other relative's homes.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Luxuries back then have become necessities today!

The more that I read here, the more I should be thankful to have been born and raised in the times I live in & enjoy the great modern conveniences and creature comforts we have to this day...

And that my dad loves washing dishes by hand & does throughly and meticulously to this day, whereas it wouldn't be the fact automatic dishwashers weren't invented, when I was around, just that my mom had gotten rid of hers & never bothered replacing it, once my two hands (& my sister's) could finally reach the sink & this was in our perfect & lofty 1980's, when there were still a few people defrosting a refrigerator (not just the freezer) using a wringer on their washing machine and didn't even have Air Conditioning, in their houses and/or their cars...

Heck, I'd read it took until at least 1940 for "ALMOST all homes" to finally get indoor plumbing & later in the decade before "finally NEARLY-all homes" had electricity...

-- Dave[this post was last edited: 9/11/2019-02:00]