Just when I start to think I'd like to time travel...
...something happens that reminds me how much I love modern technology.
It sounded so romantic when Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about waking up to frost on the windows, breath hanging suspended in the air and so on.... but when it happens to you, all you can really think about is: "I am freezing freezing freezing," or, "Just get socks on the baby--who cares if they match? My fingers are fumbling too much to sort through this basket--and she needs two or three pairs on anyway!"
Our outdoor wood-burning furnace died today... And boy, are three-centuries old houses drafty. We could actually see our breath floating out in front of us, wispy clouds of...oh, forget it. It just isn't poetic in real life.
Besides, despite getting some oil heat going, my fingers are still fumbling a bit too much to type anything that sounds pretty.
Still, a new appreciation has been awakened in me for the women who lived in my home for the centuries before I was born. It's fun to think about....the colonial housewife cuddling her baby by the fireplace...the stylish young ladies of the mid 1800's, somehow stuffing their hoop skirts through that narrow doorway...the dismay that some wife of last century must have felt when it was decided that this whole electricity thing was inevitable. Apparently there was a neighbor several years back who remembered stories her mother told of fancy dinners and dances held here in the 1920's, with a gas-lit chandelier hanging over the dining room--can't you just imagine the swishy dresses and the sparkling jewels and the music blaring over the phonograph?
There I go, getting romantic again. Let me just take a deep breath of this frigid air and thank God that I was born in the twentieth century.
It sounded so romantic when Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about waking up to frost on the windows, breath hanging suspended in the air and so on.... but when it happens to you, all you can really think about is: "I am freezing freezing freezing," or, "Just get socks on the baby--who cares if they match? My fingers are fumbling too much to sort through this basket--and she needs two or three pairs on anyway!"
Our outdoor wood-burning furnace died today... And boy, are three-centuries old houses drafty. We could actually see our breath floating out in front of us, wispy clouds of...oh, forget it. It just isn't poetic in real life.
Besides, despite getting some oil heat going, my fingers are still fumbling a bit too much to type anything that sounds pretty.
Still, a new appreciation has been awakened in me for the women who lived in my home for the centuries before I was born. It's fun to think about....the colonial housewife cuddling her baby by the fireplace...the stylish young ladies of the mid 1800's, somehow stuffing their hoop skirts through that narrow doorway...the dismay that some wife of last century must have felt when it was decided that this whole electricity thing was inevitable. Apparently there was a neighbor several years back who remembered stories her mother told of fancy dinners and dances held here in the 1920's, with a gas-lit chandelier hanging over the dining room--can't you just imagine the swishy dresses and the sparkling jewels and the music blaring over the phonograph?
There I go, getting romantic again. Let me just take a deep breath of this frigid air and thank God that I was born in the twentieth century.
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| But we can't help pretending sometimes! :) Lucy got very good at carding wool this summer, but Zoe definitely beat her at looking like a proper 18th century miss. |
Your house is three centuries old? That is SO cool. But I can see how it can also be challenging! Hope you get the heat fixed soon. Drink lots of hot chocolate. =D
ReplyDeleteMmmm...good idea. I kept the tea water bubbling all day, and that helped!
DeleteHappy New Year, Faith! Yes, I am glad for my modern conveniences, especially now that I'm a mom. When I was a kid I was convinced I was born in the wrong century, too! Your daughters are so cute! What a full life you must all lead in your old, old house.
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing...until I needed surgery when I was thirteen, without which I would have died. Oh, well. ;)
DeleteHappy new year to you, too, Amy! I hope it brings you a contract!
We read Little House in the Big Woods when we had an ice storm. The first day was brilliant, and the first night romantic. But the next few days I almost packed up the kids and went to my in-laws ...
ReplyDeleteYour girls are adorable, and I too, am grateful for all the modern conveniences.
You need to sell a book now!
Yep...I was almost packing up, too, but we managed by keeping close to the fireplace. Not many chores got done in the rest of the house... :)
DeleteWe'll just pray that a book sells soon, huh?
I loved the Little House books. I've always said if I were to go back to a certain era, that would be it. I hope you get some heat in that house of yours soon!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rena! Things are warming up today, though we don't have a permanent solution yet.
DeleteAnd I think I might have to jump into Regency England, but maybe I could visit the American pioneers. :)
Reading about it? Fun. Pretending it? Fun. Actually living back then? Definitely not fun. Good luck with your heat and stay as warm as you can. (And if it gets too cold, go to the store and wander the aisles until you warm up.)
ReplyDeleteExactly. :) But now that it's over, it's fun in retrospect...
DeleteAll I need to do is read The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and I'm cured of ever wanting to live back then.
ReplyDeleteStill have no heat? Love this picture of Lucy and Zoe, both are very cute.
ReplyDeleteThat's one thing I love about the East -- some houses are actually that old. Not much built here before 1850. No gravestones dating to the 1600s. Imagine if I ever went to Europe and saw something REALLY old.
ReplyDeleteBut with time travel, we could come back to the heat whenever we wanted. But....ooooh.... have to find out what L.M.Montgomery heroine I am. Neat!
ReplyDeleteWe lost our heat for a couple of days last week. I'm not so happy about 20th Century prices! :)
ReplyDelete