Walkin into the kitchen by the front door, one can already smell the delilcious odor of homemade light bread bakin in the oven of the old Home Comfort wood cookstove. The flicker of the kerosene lamp takes some of the darkness away and one can also see the big pot of mush simmer'n on that same stove too. A large wooden table with chairs on one side and a long bench on the other side. The Home Comfort is keepin the kitchen warm but the rest of the house is heated by other wood heaters. The front porch is loaded down with spllit and stacked oak firewood-easily reached by steppin through the front door and grabbin an armload. This cornmeal mush already mentioned could just as easily have been some hog meat fryin or maybe even chicken. Either way---it was all homegrown. Not shot full of chemicals and antibotics to trouble the partakers of this grub sometime in the future. I remember the saving of hog guts to stuff with homemade sausage but later on we just bought them already cleaned and ready to stuff. It was rather difficult to peel those layers of the guts off just to get to an inside layer that was used. I suppose they use something else now as the "gut cleanin" is probably outdated and "gross" to some.

Fresh homegrown eggs, homemade sausage, light bread, mush, bacon, pork chops, bisk-ets, syrup and lots of coffee could all be found on the breakfast table of a farm family 50 years ago. Those days started before sunrise usually preceding a day of hard but satisfying work. Prductive yet enjoyable work where you could see something accomoplished and it gave you a warm feelin inside to know you made a difference. Go back? Nopee! The lifestyle was slower and friendships were common amongst nighbors but some other things were not good at all. Medical science was still kinda in the "dark ages" then compared to now, with people dying young from diseases that are now considered minor.

Progress is wonderful in lots of ways but the hustle and bustle of todays' modern world is just a little bit more than what I like. Thats why I choose to live where we do. The dead end road we live on can get crowded at time---that is when our neighbor has company! I am not anti-social at all but don't really want to "hobnob" with bunches of people either. I love my privacy and don't like being bothered---especially by unannounced visitors and most certainly the telemarketers on the phone.

Some have asked me how will I get along in Heaven with lots and lots of people there. My answer is---I'll manage quite nicely! He's coming soon. Are you ready? Matt.24:44

-- hoot (hoot@pcinetwork.com), May 10, 2001

Answers

Thanks for the 50 year old memories. I had similar ones 35 years ago at my grandparents. We sorta get em today, but D.J.s 50 year memories will be of Lynns bread machine and the free standing hooded fireplace. I guess changes are inevitable, but life can always be good.

-- Jay Blair in N. Al (jayblair678@yahoo.com), May 10, 2001.

I think it is great now days because we can "choose" which world to live in. If we choose to, we can live the old ways but still have modernization.

If we have a cold we can mix up the "home remedy"...but if we get cancer or stroke.... we have modern medicine!

We can cook on the old wood cookstove all the old comfort foods we know and love...but warm up the leftovers for lunch in the microwave.

Also, just a thought...even the poorer folks today live better than even the kings and queens did years ago. Something to think about when the bills are gettin' ya down.

Okay, so there are some things worst today...the deterioration of religion, more crime, etc. But we are not persecuted for our religion like it was years before (although I believe we will see it again) and crime has always been there (read old newspaper accounts), etc, etc.

So all in all...let me homestead the old ways but be able to get advise 24 hours a day 7 days a week from this forum. Take away my woodstove...but by golly....leave my computer!!!

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), May 10, 2001.

Wow, Hoot I was relivin' my younger years of childhood at my grandparents farm. And I'm just 36, so maybe 50 'aint so far off after all. My grandmother was the best example of a Christain I've ever known, Those are all good memories. Thank you,

-- Thumper (slrldr@aol.com), May 11, 2001.