With no dishwasher??
While bemoaning our current dishwasher-less state, I was thinking about my mother's grandmother who homesteaded in eastern Montana. The word Montana might whisper of mountains to you, but eastern Montana absolutely defines the plains. The flat, flat plains.
This woman would be my great-grandmother and she lived out in the middle of nowhere (no exaggeration) with none of the following: running water, hot water heater, electricity, cars, microwave oven, and (gasp!) no dishwasher. Imagine raising 9 kids (or maybe it was only 8?) with none of those things. Granted, she didn't have to run them all over town for soccer practice or piano lessons, and she didn't find things she needed at Target on a daily basis, but life surely was a lot of hard work.
I got to thinking about which modern convenience I would send to my overworked ancestor. I think if I could send anything back in time to her, it would not be a dishwasher. It would be hot and cold running water, right into the ol' kitchen. Either that or Triple Chunk Brownie mix.
So I pose the question to you, dear reader(s?). Lurkers and regular commentors alike, what would you send to your forebears to make their lives easier? (And no fair saying something like "the wheel". I'm not talking that far back.)
This woman would be my great-grandmother and she lived out in the middle of nowhere (no exaggeration) with none of the following: running water, hot water heater, electricity, cars, microwave oven, and (gasp!) no dishwasher. Imagine raising 9 kids (or maybe it was only 8?) with none of those things. Granted, she didn't have to run them all over town for soccer practice or piano lessons, and she didn't find things she needed at Target on a daily basis, but life surely was a lot of hard work.
I got to thinking about which modern convenience I would send to my overworked ancestor. I think if I could send anything back in time to her, it would not be a dishwasher. It would be hot and cold running water, right into the ol' kitchen. Either that or Triple Chunk Brownie mix.
So I pose the question to you, dear reader(s?). Lurkers and regular commentors alike, what would you send to your forebears to make their lives easier? (And no fair saying something like "the wheel". I'm not talking that far back.)
posted by Left Coast Sister at 7:52 PM
11 Comments:
I would definitely send electricity. And secondly, I'd send a car.
A flush toilet. Preferably connecting to your nice warm heated bedroom. But even if not, a toilet that flushes is certainly the first order of business for me.
Refrigerator, no more digging holes in the tundra to keep your milk cold!!!
Carrie
I think that I am with you....clean running water. You can just do so much with it.
man, this is hard...electricity or running water---yeah, it's a toss-up between those two, I reckon.
Disposable diapers. Gets rid of the need for running water (well, almost).
By the way: nearly the same conditions prevailed for our grandmother--which is not really that long ago. She had four children--two in diapers at one point--with no dishwasher, no clotheswasher, no disposable diapers.
Egads.
I'm liking the flush toilet idea, which obviously brings running water too. Having been pregnant a couple times now I can't imagine having to hoof it out to the ol outhouse 8 times a night.. And bedpans just don't sit well, literally.
That's right. Grandma (as in OURS) had no running water or electricity either. And (this is weird) our MOM remembers the day electricity came out to their house. And now she prowls the internet.
Change change change.
I remember when my dad put a flush toilet for the first time in our house. And when my kids were little, I hung (hanged?) cloth diapers on the clothes line because I had no dryer and of course no dishwasher.
I remember when our dishwasher didn't have the spinny thing under the top rack...
OK, just kidding, I do remember no dishwasher and no dryer. And a hand-washing machine with the rollers to squeeze the water out of the clothes ("Don't put your fingers near that...")
As to what I'd send my grandfather, I think ESPN...
Another mother here who pinned up diapers and rubber pants on the clothesline when my kids were babies.
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