Rose Cottage Ltd

Please be safe out there and remember little ones will be out and about looking for treats this evening.

I got up this morning remembering Halloweens past and have to admit to becoming a bit nostalgic. Maybe it’s that I took my Mini Cooper to the dealer yesterday with a warning light – to find out the module that must be replaced will cost $1550! That is $300 MORE than I paid for my first car in 1974.

That seems like a lifetime ago and then for some unknown reason I started trying to imagine what my life would have been like if I’d lived in the time of my great grandmother – who was born around 1890. I can guarantee I wouldn’t have been charged $10 for a small pumpkin! And I wouldn’t have a car that needed $1500 worth of work either. I’d probably have a horse or three that would need feeding – and the occasional replacement of a few shoes.

Most likely by this time of morning I would be up and doing something – not sitting on this computer. I’d have probably been up at 5 am to get breakfast ready for the family and any farm hands (my great grandparents had a working farm.) I then have bread to bake or vegetables to get in from the garden.

At this time of year I would probably be canning food for the coming winter and making arrangements with local farmers who raised hogs and cows to make sure I had a ready supply of meat. Nearly 100% of any animal killed would be used to provide food for families – no trophy kills here. My great grandparents also lived on a river so, she and her children might be out fishing later for some late-season fish and would already be wondering if it will be a good season for fresh oysters.

She would not have had electricity or indoor plumbing. Mention of these two missing “necessities” casts a pall on my fond look back at the world. But not for long. People worked around what they didn’t have and in fact, moving the bathroom facilities inside the house seemed a bit strange to many people – for a long, long time. I got this piece of news straight from my great grandmother!

The lack of electricity seems a larger burden to overcome. But again, if I hadn’t had it, I wouldn’t miss it. I’d probably have a few more sinus issues on humid days than I do now since I’d have no air conditioning but then again – my great grandmother never had to get up in the morning and wonder why her internet connection or cable TV was down. I like reading news from around the world via the internet. My great grandmother was also a news hound, but she focused on knowing ALL the comings and goings in her local area – versus having the stress of worrying about so much going on around the world. She didn’t have time in her day to worry about what she couldn’t fix. She also didn’t have all these new and “necessary” monthly bills to pay.

One thing is for certain…if my great grandmother celebrated Halloween, she would have hand-made the treats she was giving out to Trick-or-Treaters – and none would have been thrown out over fears of poisoning or razor blades or any of the other horrific things a few people decided to add to Halloween treats. She could have let her 5 kids go wherever they wanted without much fear except the fact that they might trip over something in the dark.

And she would have grown her own pumpkin.