I'm Going to Stop Complaining Now

We live in a time where insulation, heat, electricity, running water and a wealth of material possessions are the norm for most of us.

Children are entertained by more toys and gadgets that most people could store in one small room of their homes.

We live in homes that are spacious, privacy and 'a room to call your own' is nothing unusual.

Most of us have cupboards, refrigerators and freezers store an excess of food. We don't have to worry about keeping our vegetables from freezing or keeping our milk cool enough so that it doesn't go sour.

We turn on the radio, the television set, the computer and entertainment is at our fingertips. We don't think twice the numerous electrical appliances that make cooking a meal easy.

We take all that we have for granted. And (if you are like me), you actually complain about being cooped up in a 1000 sq ft home (2000 sq ft, if you count the basement which is fully developed and utilized) with a young family of three.

As I finished writing my last post, I suddenly heard voices from the past calling out to me. Here are a few excerpts from the book of memories that my mom's family compiled:

Imagine … living in a two story 9’ X 12’ uninsulated house in the middle of the prairies. Your nearest neighbors are a half mile away. Your only sources of transportation (other than walking) are some horses, a (horse drawn) cart, wagon and sleigh. A trip to town and back takes an entire day.

There is no electricity, your water sources are an open well, the slough, rain or snow. Heat is a coal and wood stove in the kitchen and a coal and wood heater in the living room. There is no such thing as ‘indoor plumbing’ – you have an outhouse. And in the winter … well, you don’t even want to think about winter!

Your only income is that which you can earn on the farm (remember, you have only your horses and plow to clear and farm your land). You can grow your own vegetables and raise your own milk and meat sources. But there isn’t a fridge or freezer to store the fruits of your labor. Oh, and just for the fun of it, let’s throw in a drought that lasts the better part of ten years.

And … imagine doing all of this while raising your family of five (four of which, were born within a four year time span) in this small, cold house without any of today’s conveniences.

This is not a two week camping trip. This is your life. This is what it was like to live in the time My Mom's Family grew up.

“Winter!!! What can I say about those months of freezing cold, snow and blizzards. Of which, we experienced all.”

They would wake up in the morning and the blankets (heavy homemade quilts and one horse hair hide) on top would be stiff from the frost. “If it wasn’t for us four kids in bed together we would have froze.” It was pretty cold everywhere – in fact the barn was far warmer than the house, from the heat of the animals. There was really very little heat until summer arrived.

In winter, to keep warmer, the girls wore pantaloons (like bloomers - elastic at the waist and knees), with stockings, held up with an elastic garter (or quite often a sealer ring) and the top flopped down. When winter set in, you wore moccasins with overshoes that buckled over top of the moccasins. They were usually used for two winters and it seemed as though they always had holes in them, though they would have had to have been new at one point. You had a winter coat and that was it. You didn’t have a jacket for all seasons as we do these days.

"The winters were very severe, with no roads – only those made by the teams of horses driven in winter to schools, town and anywhere you went.

“Homes and schools were heated by wood and coal, with no such thing as insulation heard of yet. It made for very uncomfortable living at times, not to mention our cold trips to school (by sleigh, with heated stones to keep our feet from freezing).”

“The one incident that I will never forget – our dad was bringing us home from school in a blizzard. Our team of horses got bogged down in deep snow and couldn’t go any further. Fortunately, we were right near a neighbor’s driveway. We walked there, three of us kids (the youngest was in Grade 1 at the time) and our dad. Our horses were put in their barn and us kids were taken straight to the house, where we were made very welcome. Their housekeeper immediately made us hot chocolate, which we could not drink (as our hands were shaking so, with cold). Eventually we thawed out and we drank our hot chocolate. We had to sleep upstairs, all three of us in one bed, in a dark, strange room. How scary! I can’t remember, but there were probably more tears, but it was a very happy ending to a very worried day. My dad and a friend of theirs took a fresh team of horses and a bob sleigh and both went on home and got there safely. You can imagine what an enormous relief that was to our mother.” There were other incidents like this, involving other families in the district. It was a time where there wasn’t the convenience of a phone in the home, to put a person’s mind at rest. The only thing a person could do was wait it out and hope for the best.

“The winters were really hard. Very cold and the housing was poor. When it was 35 to 40° (Fahrenheit) below zero, with any wind it was just about impossible to keep the house warm. We all sat as close to the stove as we could. In the morning, we would jump out of bed, run downstairs into the kitchen and stand on the oven door. All four girls, but alas, one day the oven door broke. ‘Poor Mom.’ I don’t remember how long it was before it was fixed. Yes, we ‘all’ did stand on the oven door at the same time. We were all very small, skinny kids at that time.”

The theme throughout the collection of these memories was acceptance. This was their life. They grew up in the years of the Depression and knew no different. And as my mom's oldest sister wrote:

"One the whole, it was a good life – a real learning experience. Something the generations after us (I am sure) could never understand or believe. That is why we are writing this – to help keep them in touch with the past. We are all very happy we lived in the era we did – me, my sisters and our brother."

I am going to go and enjoy this cool, winter day cooped  up with my young daycare family now. I shall endeavor to appreciate every convenience that this day brings.