Do you ever feel like you were born the wrong year?

[EweSheep]

Red Tie, we are also Civil War reenactors too, so is my sis in law and her hubby and my father in law...looks like it runs in the family! What unit are you on? We are the Terry TX Rangers on the Confederate side and 6th Illinois Dismounted Calv. for Union.

I dont mind doing that living history for the weekend but after five days dressing like it, I was ready to toss the hoops, dress, petticoats and ALL in the suitcase and dont take it out until the next month's reenactments. Hot weather can get to me and it really behooves me how they dont use AC back in those days.

 

[Red Tie]

We are the Michigan Cavalry Brigade. Thankfully I don't have to do the hoop skirts and what not. I am a mounted trooper. My dad is 68 and he rides with us too! Our youngest son is now 19 and he was dismounted until he was "legal" at 16 to ride with us. He is in the National Guard now and doesn't play with us anymore.....

The best part of doing this is realizing just how easy our life is today compared to back then. I can't imagine not being able to go home after a long weekend of riding and fighting and sleeping on the ground and not taking a hot shower!

 

[2manyhats]

I love this thread. I always say that I was born 100 years too late. I moved to central NY to live a slower life than I had in north western NJ. I have since learned so much about the value of hard work and the wonderful feeling of being physically tired at the end of the day. I love to garden, raise farm animals, fix up my house myself, can vegies, bake, crochet, sew, quilt and more. My brothers find it hard to understand and ask if we really grew up in the same suburban home. My mom doesn't get dirty. She didn't teach me to cook nor sew. I work full time out of the home in my own Physical therapy practice and often have more to talk about with my patients who are 80-100 years of age rather than those my own (41). I love my family's way of life. DH and I tried to stop the farming, but missed it enough to start again. Our teens are not always on board, but have learned about responsibility and respecting life. They have learned that it takes hard work on someone's part for them to eat. Food doesn't just appear. I hope that through our excitement, we can turn another generation into hard working, self sufficient folks.

 

[Beekissed]

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Honey, I was around in the 60s and--trust me--hippies were dirty, lazy, and looking for a free ride! Never met a single one who would actually WORK for ANYTHING! Naw, we are "back-to-the-landers" and that's a whole 'nuther critter entirely!

Amen!!! I get very odd looks from all the neighbors and passersby here....and I live smack dab in the middle of hillbilly country! They've forgotten their roots, is all!

 

[HorseFeathers]

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I know EXACTLY how you feel. I have no TV, wear my mom's 60s skirts (ankle legth, sweeping, flowy. My friends say I would fit in rwally well in the 60s...), and listen to the Beatles (and other groovy 60s-70s music like Led Zepplin, Blondie... my dad plays in rock bands and I'm in one to.). How out of place can you get? But my friends and family love me for it.

(P.S. my mom just showed me her new purchases from Gap and commented that it's exactly the same hippie stuff she wore in high school! Now passed on to me... And I wear it all the time

!)

By the way, you rock for doing things the homestead way. If everyone was like you, the world would be a MUCH better place. (i.e., no nuclear weapons, rising oil prices, etc.)

 

[farmgirlie1031]

Yep. I wish I was living in the period where we still used horses for transportation. Though it would take a long time to get somewhere. I do love my electricity and A/C though. Can I have that and go back to horses for transportation also?

LOL I raise chickens and garden. My cousins are maybe 4 years younger and can't live without the mall. I could care less. I hate the mall. But, I am not your normal 20-something person either. They have asked why I would live in "the sticks" as they called it with my parents when I could come back to the city. I think they are the crazy ones. Now that I can actually have my horses in the backyard and not board and have chickens too I won't be giving that up. Now, if a farm house came up for rent down the street some I'd move out of my poor parents house but they don't mind too much that I still live there.

 

[HorseFeathers]

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Totally! Then my mom would HAVE to let me get a horse!

 

[BowChickaBowMow]

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That's sweet!

I'm opposite! My mom worked full time (PLUS) got home around 8pm -10pm through the week, worked Saturdays too. My dad was a trucker, so gone all the time. We raised ourselves basically... and I vowed to never be like that.

I've almost always been a stay at home mom (worked part time here and there to get extra money for things) but kids were watched by family while I worked, never put in daycare. None of my friends did that. Nobody ever "got" me. But I didn't have children, for someone else to raise them.

I've only just started w/ chickens! That's realy raised some eyebrows! And that's just the beginning! We're already talking about adding other critters.

So yeah, maybe I was born in the wrong year? The closest I've ever come to people sort of like me, is here in BYC!