[Michael G.]

Growing up in a small town in Wisconsin back in the 40's,
I remember some things that most people never heard or seen of today.
Can you add to some?

Here is a my list:

#1 Cisterns in our basement.
#2 Coal bins
#3 Making our own soap.
#4 A pump in the kitchen to pump water.
#5 Wood burning and cooking stove.
#6 Keeping a pot under the bed at night.
#7 Ice box in the kitchen.
#8 Installing storm windows in the winter.
#9 Wringer washing machines.
#10 Push lawn mowers
#11 Horse blankets on our beds to keep warm.
#12 Raw milk was all we used.
#13 Vegetable garden is a must.

[superbat1]

Add outthouse, we had one.

[Ecuadog]

Did you have a hand-crank phone?

[Bogie Shooter]

List reads more like the late 20’s to early 30’s.

[ThirdOfFive]

1950s, Northern MN...

- Banking the house with snow to help keep it warm in winter;
- Making our own ham and sausage;
- One-room schoolhouse;
- Ice 1/2" or so thick on the bottom INSIDE of the windows in winter;
- Sawing and splitting wood by hand for winter heating;
- Hand-cranked telephone on the wall;
- Growing enough potatoes in summer to feed a family of seven all year;
- Mom and Sister making most of our "school" clothes by hand;
- Hitch-Hiking 20 miles home after school football practice;
- 17" Black-and-White TV that got ONE station...sometimes.

Etc...

[superbat1]

kerosene lamps

[asianthree]

Originally Posted by Michael G.

Growing up in a small town in Wisconsin back in the 40's,
I remember some things that most people never heard or seen of today.
Can you add to some?

Here is a my list:

#1 Cisterns in our basement.
#2 Coal bins
#3 Making our own soap.
#4 A pump in the kitchen to pump water.
#5 Wood burning and cooking stove.
#6 Keeping a pot under the bed at night.
#7 Ice box in the kitchen.
#8 Installing storm windows in the winter.
#9 Wringer washing machines.
#10 Push lawn mowers
#11 Horse blankets on our beds to keep warm.
#12 Raw milk was all we used.
#13 Vegetable garden is a must.

Have you been in the towns outside of large cities
Coal still around
Soap making is high end now, and very common place as money making hobby
Wood burner still used
We drink raw milk
Vegetable fruit and chickens are common place in many communities because you know what is in your food.

So maybe 40s just evolved into better quality of life with carryover of old.
Numbers 4-10 describes our family log cabin until the 70s

[mtdjed]

1/ Saving soap bar ends, put in tin cans with holes in bottom, use for dish washing soap.
2/ Mixing yellow food dye with white margarine and putting into ice cube tray to simulate butter. Pre tinted margarine was not available (May have been banned by state at the time.
3/ Walking to store with a handheld milk can to get milk.
4/ Getting a dump truck full of used bowling ten pins to use for firewood.
5/ Doctor visiting house
6/ Dog lived outdoors in dog house
7/ Crystal Radio

[fdpaq0580]

Candel holders for lighting the Christmas tree.
Navigation tools: sextant, tafrail log.
Daily Bakery truck delivery
Daily Milk delivery

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter

List reads more like the late 20’s to early 30’s.

Must of been city dweller.

[Topspinmo]

Canning, chicken coops, coal oil stoves (kerosene ), wood burning cook stoves, clotheslines, firewood, ash clean out duty, and root cellars. And heating bricks wrapped in paper to keep feet warm in sub zero weather.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Michael G.

Growing up in a small town in Wisconsin back in the 40's,
I remember some things that most people never heard or seen of today.
Can you add to some?

Here is a my list:

#1 Cisterns in our basement.
#2 Coal bins
#3 Making our own soap.
#4 A pump in the kitchen to pump water.
#5 Wood burning and cooking stove.
#6 Keeping a pot under the bed at night.
#7 Ice box in the kitchen.
#8 Installing storm windows in the winter.
#9 Wringer washing machines.
#10 Push lawn mowers
#11 Horse blankets on our beds to keep warm.
#12 Raw milk was all we used.
#13 Vegetable garden is a must.

For some of us that was as late as late 50’s.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Ecuadog

Did you have a hand-crank phone?

and party lines.

[Two Bills]

Air raid shelters.
Going out always with gas mask.
Food rationing
Queues at every shop, and saving mums place in queues.
Burning half the furniture in the winter of '47 to keep newborn sister warm, until we got some coal.
Mum doing washing in boiler, with scrubbing board, and using Mangle to get water out.
A wireless.
Outside toilet, with newspaper, or San Izal toilet paper, which was like greaseproof baking paper. (I used it for tracing as well)
Asking American soldiers for chewing gum, or candy. "Got any gum chum!"
A shilling to see the doctor, so you had to be at death's door before getting to see him.

It was hard, but unlike the adults, we kids had never known anything else, so it was just normal to us.
That's why when I saw all the panic buying and shenanigans on display during the Covid Pandemic, I just shook my head, and thought, you lot will never cope if the poop really hits the fan.

[Caymus]

My childhood house in Pennsylvania had a coal furnace until the late 60's. We were very close to the anthracite coal fields. I remember shoveling ashes and using them to provide traction to cars stuck in the snow. Very few 4 wheel or front wheel drive cars at the time.