It seems there are a plethora of skills that generations before ours had to master, out of necessity, that we have been able to, in this modern age, live without: things like sewing, knitting, canning, farming, hunting and giving birth in beet fields.
They are all things that people can now pick up as a hobby or a side interest, but we really don’t need to do any of them, thanks to all the 24-hour SuperShops which have all the crap we’ll ever need to survive.
Part of me is so glad I don’t have to hand-wash my menstrual cloths in the river while churning butter with my free hand, but another part of me realizes how all of the conveniences that surround us can really make us lose touch with our own humanity.
It’s hard when it doesn’t make financial sense to act like a pioneer, though. Take sewing, for instance. I would love to learn how to sew, but you know what? It’s just a whole lot cheaper to buy clothes than it is to purchase the material and spend hours trying to piece together a pattern.
I have lost the ability to be resourceful because often it costs less to buy a new piece of crap than to bother fixing the old one.
Oh, Wal-Mart. What have you done to us?
Do you ever yearn for a simpler time? Do you have a love-hate relationship with this modern age we find ourselves in?
i disagree with the canning…it’s awesome and cheap! i have 8 flats of “stuff” downstairs that will get used up quick. i find knitting very satisfying and therapeutic. also, can’t snack when watching television! i wish things would just slow down a bit. everyone is in such a hurry to be somewhere 5 seconds faster.
You could take it one step further and realize that not only are our children not learning these skills from us, but at the rate technology is changing, I am learning the ever needed skills from my kids. I sometimes wonder how I would survive without them to guide me. The wealth of knowledge has changed direction and passing the wrong way through time. Technology is working so fast that the recipes of the gernerations are going the opposit way. Get ready, grandmas knitting bee will soon be called “tweeters for tea”!!!
In her journals, L.M. Montgomery, who wrote Anne of Green Gables, talks about this. She write of how her mother learned everything from her mother and aunts. For generations they all lived the same way and passed down the same tips, tricks, techniques and lore. But that all changed in her lifetime. There was a simplicity that was lost. On the other hand, she embraced all the new technology and how much easier it made the lives of women. Then again, she never had to deal with a superstore…
I will say it is still cheaper to make a meal or host a dinner party than it is to go out. Then again, who gets to clean up?
I agree! It’s no longer thrifty to do homemade. Canning, sewing, quilting, etc. All so much cheaper to go out and buy. I do long for the ‘old days’ in many ways …. while also loving many of the conveniences of today!
YES!! Just… yes.
I try really hard not to over-shop. I try to take care of our things, so they don’t need replacing… but let’s face it: it’s IS often just cheaper to replace on piece of broken crap with another inexpensive crap that is shiny and new.
I know. I know.