This
week on PBS television, they’re having
a program called “Colonial House”. If
you get a chance to see it, do so.
This is a semi reality program along
the lines of two previous ones put out
a couple of years ago. The first was
“The 1900’s House” and the second was
“The Wyoming House”. In the 1900’s
house, a townhouse in London is taken
apart and then put back together as it
existed in the early 1900’s. No
electricity, only outdoor
plumbing…coal burning stoves. As I
recall over three hundred people
signed up for this three-month
experience. The family that was
selected thought it would be great fun
to go back in time and live ‘a simpler
life’. By the time the three months
were over they were about to get a
divorce and she was about to have a
nervous breakdown. So much for
clothing that weighs three times as
much as ours of today along with
washing and cleaning six or seven days
a week without modern soaps and
chemicals. The women were especially
hard hit due to the fact they could
not wear any cosmetics or use any
modern day beauty aids. It was not a
pretty picture.
In the Wyoming House, it was pretty
much the same; only in this case some
of the ‘settlers’ had to build their
living quarters from scratch. Plenty
of pain and anguish during their three
months as well. You almost expect to
see armed warfare break out among the
participants before the experiment
ends. 1870 Wyoming was not a pleasant
place to live. As I recall one of the
families actually did get a divorce.
Colonial House takes us back to the
Northern part of the United States in
about 1648. The settlers arrive in a
boat and have to carry everything they
are to use to the village. This is
where the first signs of a mutiny take
place. “Where’s the bus?” Cabins have
been built, but they are assigned to
the members by rank and status. One
family is chosen to be the governor
and several members are assigned to be
indentured servants. Early democracy
in action. “What do you mean…I can’t
be the governor?” Needless to say, the
work is hard and plentiful and soon
trouble begins to brew in paradise.
This should not have been a big
surprise to any one who signed up for
this insanity trip. Church attendance
in that era was mandatory and several
of the modern day members are totally
against any form of organized worship
or prohibition against profanity. I
suspect the stocks are looming in the
next episode.
My question to you, is why would
anyone want to volunteer for one of
these? It’s tough enough to live in
today, much less in a society of 400
years ago or even 100 years in the
past. I mean what did they expect to
happen to them? You had to chop wood
for everything that required
heat…there wasn’t any wood delivery
service. Toilets and bathrooms were
primitive to say the least. Sanitary
conditions were virtually
non-existent. What could you buy?
Certainly, not much in the 1900’s,
less in the 1870’s of Wyoming and
nothing in the earliest settlements of
this country. You wanted milk? You
went to the barn and found a cow. Not
exactly conducive to a midnight snack.
No department stores or any kind, so
most of your clothing had to be made
at home. I’ll bet that stuff was fun
to wear.
Most of the complaints from women had
to do with shampoo…apparently our
modern shampoos didn’t arrive on the
shelves of the stores until sometimes
in the 30’s, so early hair washing was
limited to lye soaps or other harsh
products made from animal fat. These
seemed to have a very limited ability
in their efforts to keep women looking
their best. Lots of whining about
beauty care and lack of products for
these time periods.
The food in those ‘good old days’
certainly wasn’t anything to write
home about either. In the Colonial
House series, the beef and fish had to
be salted down for preservation and
then boiled to make it useful for
cooking. The vegetables had to be
planted and cared for or you had none.
Research certainly wasn’t available to
tell you what kind of soil conditions
you had at your place. You couldn’t
call your county agent to find out
when and where to plant what kind of
crops. You had to take care of your
animals and livestock or you might be
in danger of losing your life. Your
daily life in all of these periods
seemed to be more about just staying
alive and eking out a living than
anything else. The entertainment
seemed to revolve around dancing and
playing cards. No television, radio,
stereo, Internet or game boys…just
dancing and cards or other soon to be
boring games. Oh, yes, there did seem
to be quite a bit of drinking. Alcohol
was a popular pastime. In some cases
it was the only past time. Pleasure
and fun were not terms used on an
every day basis.
Not for me, even with the traffic,
bills to be paid, politicians to
listen to, bad programming on
television and inflation…this is still
the best of all times in my opinion.
The good old days are just that to
me…. old.
