Some things we have today are very nice features, like dishwashers and sewing machines, yet, even though the people who lived during that time period seemed rather primitive, there was something of value to their lives that seems to be missing from our lives today.
Not sure what it is, but maybe there was more appreciation for things. After all, if you spend a lot of time working on something, you better appreciate it, right?
Today we have factories to do much of our hard work. Appreciation is lost for things can be made in a fraction of the time that it used to take to make something.
But still, there was something there that we can't see. Simple things, like a square dance event, seemed to make many happy. Pulling taffy was another old pastime that people enjoyed. There were no television sets yet, nor were there any stereo sets or sound machines. The music they listened to was from Pa playing the fiddle or someone singing songs.
We need to come back, not to primitive ways of living, but to take something and see the value and History in it. We need to be grateful for indoor plumbing and carpeting.
I think we can learn from these books and from what Laura Ingalls Wilder taught in her biographies. We learned that if you give a pig taffy, his mouth might get stuck shut! We learned that clothing that has been washed, can be freeze dried on a clothes line. We learned how to dry food for the winter. Did you know that the people in that day knew what years a blizzard was going to take place? Every 7 years, a blizzard took place, and every 21 years, a bad blizzard took place.
What I really like about these books is the way that children played back then. What do children do today in their spare time? They play video games and watch television. In my day, children rode bikes and climbed trees. In the days of Little House on the Prairie, children had lots of space to run around in and play. They had lots of animals to take care of and watch. They had a good balance of play and responsibility.
Most of the children grew up with a mom and a dad who stayed together. People weren't thinking that they could have done better with someone else. No one left their marriages because they weren't happy. The family unit was strong, and the whole community was like one big family unit!
Not everything was happy though. People were killed in horse carriage accidents or died from a disease or drowning. But the community was there to carry one another's burdens. People valued life because they understood that every person was created in God's image and was to be treated with respect.
What did they do when the locusts came and ate up all the crops? It was especially bad when they were banking on a good crop in order to pay for a loan. When the crops didn't come to fruition, they had a serious loss. Somehow, they worked through it all though.
They used the bartering system to buy many goods they needed. They would bring their eggs down and trade them for other goods like material to make clothing with. In one of the television shows, Ma was making a nice work shirt for Pa, out of calico material. Pa was less than thrilled about his new shirt!
Then there was the time when Ma slapped a bear! She thought the bear was Suki, the family pet. Because it was dark out, Ma did not see what the animal was.
Wouldn't it be cool if we could have communities like that again? How I loved reading the Little House books and watching Little House on the Prairie when it came on! I need to find the channel that hosts this program again and look for the books (unless someone has taken them to their house)! I'm all inspired to learn some of the tricks of the trade they used back then. Some of those things can be implemented again and made to work to serve us in a way that technology could never match, no matter how technical we end up becoming. There are just some things that are priceless.
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