Across thee Fence #580
After my story about sitting in the Hauge Church on that quiet hilltop and reflecting on all the changes that have taken place in life since that time, My friend, Bob, who lives in Door County, brought up a great point to me in an e-mail. He said, “Life isn’t any less complicated and challenging today.” Bob and I have talked about this in the past. If the grid goes down, how will people cope?
How many people could go back to living in the 19th century? Would you know how to build a shelter and provide your own food? Have you ever butchered a pig or killed a chicken and prepared it for eating. What if you couldn't get to the supermarket to buy your food? What percent of the population today would be able to do those things? How many people still know how to can and preserve food? In the winter our cellar was filled with food in jars that lined the shelves. How many people know how to make lard to use in cooking? Has anyone made their own soap lately? How many people could use an old wood-burning stove to cook if the electricity was out? First you’d have to find an old stove and get it set up. There‘s a real art to knowing how to cook on a wood-stove. You needed to know where to place things for best results.
Wood burning cook stove in the SummerKitchen.
How many people could function in the dark? Most people don’t even have a flashlight handy if the lights go out. We don’t have lanterns or candles handy to provide light if the power goes down. Without electricity our water won’t run and our garage door openers won’t open or shut, except by hand.
I'm old enough to still remember my mother and grandmother using that old wood-fired stove and cooking on it. I can still see it and smell the aroma’s wafting from the things that were cooking on it.
The cooking stove had a heavy firebox on the left side where the wood went. On the right side was a reservoir that held water to be heated up. Above the firebox were usually six round openings of various sizes, covered with lids. This was where you placed your pots and pans that held your cooking materials. There was a large island in the center of the stove that was used for baking. Above this area were two warming ovens where food was placed to keep it warm. As I thought of the old wood-burning stove that was the central part of our kitchen, I realized how much my mother knew about making it work to perfection. I can see her making lefse on the top of that old stove and loaves of bread in the large oven. I remember the wonderful aroma of fresh, homemade bread that rose from the stove when Ma would open that large front door.
It was also used to warm us on cold days. We’d open the door and heat would radiate out from the stove and help warm up the kitchen. When we came in from outside and were frozen, it was wonderful to sit in front of that open door, and put your feet up on the door. I can still feel the tingling in my feet as they thawed out. That wood-burning stove provided a lot of the heat for the kitchen area. It was also lots of work keeping the fires going. It took a lot of wood to keep the fire at the right temperature and knowing the right size of wood to use. Cutting wood took a lot of time in those days. You needed a large supply to get you through the winter. The left side of the stove over the firebox was the hottest and the area near the reservoir was used for warming.
Wood was an important part of winter survival. That’s another thing that people don't need to worry about today.
Washing clothes and taking a bath were also part of life that has greatly changed since those days. We didn’t have plumbing in the house until I was a sophomore in high school. We still had a two-holer outhouse. That was a real adventure on cold winter days. Taking a bath was an adventure. We used a tub that we filled with water and then added hot water from the reservoir on the stove. Saturday night was bath night. We four kids took turns. The tub was placed near the front of the stove so we had some heat during our bath. There wasn’t a lot of privacy.
Washing clothes is another area that has changed in many ways. How many people would want to go back to using a wringer washing machine?
When I think back, it really wasn’t that many years ago that this is the way we lived. How many of you who lived through that time would want to go back to those old methods instead of the modern way we live today? It may have been easier in some ways, but it was certainly a lot harder in most ways. My friend, Bob, had a good point. We live in a crazy, fast-paced, high-tech world, but the world we grew up in was not easy either.
If the electric grid went down, the Amish would still be able to survive, while most of us wouldn’t have a clue where to begin.
The things I’ve mentioned in this story just scratch the surface of the many things you’d need to know to survive.
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