Then and Now

I always find it terribly funny to compare things in our generation, to things in the 1800's. There are some very amusing differences if you stop to think about it. Some people have the impression that things were so much more moderate back then, but alot of things are more moderate still now! :) Here are some of the things that have made me laugh:

In the eighteen hundreds, you scandalized folks if you were climbing into your carriage and showed an ankle. (Now? Well, I am sorry to say it, but "people" aren't scandalized by much.)

The regular dinner hour for fashionable society was not till 8 or 9 o'clock p.m. (Now? 5-6 p.m.)

There were "Cinderella balls" that went till midnight for young ladies, and then grown-up balls often stopped dancing only at 4 a.m.! (Now? Well, in our circles, we just about turn into pumpkins or shrivel up and die if we aren't home from something by 10:30 or 11:00!)

If someone died, the women in the house wore mourning clothes for at least a year or two. i.e. dark blues, blacks, and purples at the brightest. (Now? Well....people try to wear black on the day of the funereal! :)

A women, during the last month or so of her pregnancy went into "confinement", in which she never went out, and very seldom received visitors. (Now? Well, Mama was in the mall a few hours before Daniel was born! :)

Rich people in America spent the summers up North and the winters down South, and chose leisurely where they went. (Now? Well, I can't tell you the last time we went on a family vacation that was anywhere close to even "out of state". Actually, I think it was CA 8 years ago.... but then...we aren't rich so that evens out.)

Very few people were homeschooled- public school was the mania. (Now? It is sort of the same but thankfully I now dare to say: "Move over yellow school-bus! The fifteen-passenger is barging through!" ;)

There were two very, very distinct "classes" as many of you already know. (Now? Well, let's just say that I don't think any young man shall inquire how much my annuity is worth, and whether I come from "gentry" before he'll ask to court me, or whether my father made his "fortune" in trade, or did he "come by it honestly", which after all, simply means that he inherited it? ;)

Women prized long, flowing hair and wore fake hair to achieve the idea. (Now? Um....how many of you have seen women with spikes and buzz-cuts?)

The idea of a "beauty" in the eighteen hundreds was a young lady with a round face, creamy skin, little hands and feet, and a bit plump, so that they perfectly achieved the classic "hourglass" shape with only the help of a whale-bone and steel-reinforced corset. (Now? Grrr.... super tall, super skinny, super blond, super tanned.....very coarse and unfeminine. I despise the modern look I see all over the place!!! It angers me to see women so mistaking the natural beauty the Lord has blessed them with! I totally missed my era as far as this topic goes! :)

The new "moter-car" was reputed to fly along at the dizzying rate of 8 miles an hour! (Now? Hee-hee. Anyone ever heard of Daytona 500? Wait. That is racing right? I've never been into that, but it seemed a good analogy! :)

See what I mean? I love the 1800's!!!! But I also love my life today, at least in the family I have been blessed with! :) Yay for history! -Rachel

Wisdom From Avonlea

We finished watching Anne of Avonlea last night! The first two Green Gables movies still delight me, and I have quite a notion that when I am an old woman and watch them, I shall still wish I could sweep my hair up in a pompadour and wear trailing dresses. But that's just a guess! I think what I love about the movies, is that they show all kinds of people in such a sometimes exxagerating way that you have to laugh, because the characteristics are so recognizable. Take Mrs. Rachel Lynde ;) for instance. We've all met people who take it upon themselves to decide what everyone else should and shouldn't do. And ones who tell people exactly what they think of them. Therefore, all of us older children had to laugh (for the thousandth time) when Mrs. Lynde says of Anne going to Boston, "I don't approve of way young woman go traveling all over the world today! It reminds me of the devil in the book of Job, going to and fro and up and down!" And old, critical, fussy Mrs. Harris when Anne tells her she can go on a carriage ride and "crrritisize everybody who passes by" and she retorts, "Crritisize? Miss Shirley that's not Chrrrristian!"
I just love the simplicity of the storyline, and yet it makes a very entertaining movie! Maybe it's charm lies in the fact that it is about things that are close to home and familiar. In Little Women and Anne of Green Gables, both young women writers are given the piece of wisdom to write about things that are part of their life and important, not, in Gilbert's words: "High faluting mumbo-jumbo". I don't think I'd hit Matthew with a basket if he told me that, or crack a slate over Daniel's head if he called me "mud-head", (my hair is brown, I wish it was red!)
I've taken that piece of wisdom into my writing, even though I never was one to go writing stories set in Camelot. I prefer the pioneer, Victorian,or Civil War times to midievil times anyway! But the point is, you should write about as Gilbert also says, "the people and places you care about! Right here in ____ (insert you family)"
So that is why one story I have written is a book about our family, set in a different time, but correct otherwise. That is why most of my stories center around families and family relationships. This is what I know and care about, where God has placed me, and this is where my greatest writing will be found. Anyway, just thought that would be an interesting post for any fellow scribblers! Hope you enjoyed reading! And please leave a comment if you can! (Because we otherwise shall ban you from our blog! ;) just kidding!) -Rachel