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Woman Lives 1930s Lifestyle

"Skeet" McD

Practically Family
Messages
755
Location
Essex Co., Mass'tts
Redhead said:
Here is a video from youtube of a woman from Amsterdam who lives a 1930s lifestyle 24/7/365. Enjoy!

Chandra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLZJ1ESWiwY
This is a wonderful video, and our fellow-member (as it seems) knows exactly what she is doing; why she is doing it; and is doing it very well indeed, thank you very much! Goed gedaan, Meffrou!

I have some idea of what she is up to--and how difficult it can be in some details--because I lived in a one-room apartment on Beacon Hill in Boston for 5 years as an Irish immigrant in the second half of the 1860s. It was something I'd always wanted to do--since boyhood--and will remember until I go to my grave. There are so many things you can learn only by doing them. As our heroine says, however: first you must immerse yourself in the material culture and mindset of the era....best, by reading what they read. EVERYTHING they read, and from first-hand sources: no edited versions. And, as she says....it's impossible to do that without being changed yourself.

We will always be strangers in the past; we will always be 21st century people under it all--if you lose track of that fact, you're straying into pathology--but by immersing ourselves and then trying to live it (the experiment, as our heroine says)...you will come as close as is possible. And learn things you could never know otherwise. The greatest thrill is to face a problem, decide what they would have done....do it, and then come across documentation that shows they DID do it that way.

I wonder if there are other members who have also lived a consciously immersive life in the past at some point?
 

Fletch

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,865
Location
Iowa - The Land That Stuff Forgot
Joeri is a treasure. Not just for her beautiful look and home, but for all she does in historical recreation. She has organized a serious band of like-minded enthusiasts. That is not easy to do - especially outside of the military reenactment crowd, and that is only part of what she does.
 

jazzncocktails

A-List Customer
Messages
484
Location
Long Beach, California
Very nice!

Makes me want to move to Amsterdam--not just for the 30s style that she espouses, but for the seemingly lower-paced, less-stressful environment. The scene of the people walking their bicycles over the bridge, and again walking and biking at the market...that, and the autumn colors, makes me want to pack up and move today. And of course the great 30s finds in her home. Thanks for posting this!:eusa_clap
 

kampkatz

Practically Family
Messages
715
Location
Central Pennsylvania
In this rural part of Pennsylvania we are surrounded by Amish who live in the mid 1800s for the most part. Horse and buggy transportation, houses with no utilities and very plain lifestyles. I look out the rear window of my church and can watch four or five draft horses pulling a plow with the farmer standing on a platform instead of having a seat. The harvest is still gathered in sheaves. Granted, some do fudge a bit by borrowing services from the English(anyone who is modern and speaks English as a first language)or tucking a cell phone in a secret pocket. Their interpretation of the biblical command to "be not of this world" is why they shun most modern conveniences and ways. Many of them do have less stressful lives than the rest of us, because they are not obsessed with all the clutter of modern life. They seem happier in their "plain" world.
 

Lou

One of the Regulars
Messages
182
Location
Philly burbs
What an inspiration! I doubt I could go that far, but I'd like to bring more of that era's ambiance into my home.
 

Fletch

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,865
Location
Iowa - The Land That Stuff Forgot
kampkatz said:
In this rural part of Pennsylvania we are surrounded by Amish who live in the mid 1800s for the most part. Horse and buggy transportation, houses with no utilities and very plain lifestyles. I look out the rear window of my church and can watch four or five draft horses pulling a plow with the farmer standing on a platform instead of having a seat. The harvest is still gathered in sheaves. Granted, some do fudge a bit by borrowing services from the English(anyone who is modern and speaks English as a first language)or tucking a cell phone in a secret pocket. Their interpretation of the biblical command to "be not of this world" is why they shun most modern conveniences and ways. Many of them do have less stressful lives than the rest of us, because they are not obsessed with all the clutter of modern life. They seem happier in their "plain" world.
Then again, to TOTALLY renounce modernity and industrial-age anything might be a lot less stressful. Mostly, you either make things yourself or don't want them, let alone need them.

That is actually a far more stable lifestyle than holding onto past moments of an industrial-age culture that's long since retooled. You can't make or mend nearly so many things. You have to scavenge, and you might have to scavenge forever to find that beehive refrigerator and keep it working. And it's probably 10 times easier for a woman to dress vintage full-time than for a man; our clothes are scarcer, more expensive, and harder to make.
 

V-Sweetheart

New in Town
Messages
42
Location
Washington, DC
This is Why We Are Here

Cheers to Miss Joeri. We all need to create the life that we want. We are not pretending to be Queen Elizabeth. We are drawn to the sensibilities of a different era/culture. If questioned, I tell people it is a life style choice. I fully embrace living a vintage life whenever possible. It changes you (for the better I think.) I can't go back to living modern. I don't understand it and it holds no appeal. Thank goodness FL provides a vintage community for those of us living in isolation from other like minded souls.
 

missjo

Practically Family
Messages
509
Location
amsterdam
Oh yes!
That is me.
Only just discovered this thread... oops now I've brought a old topic back from the dead.
Zombie topic!

Sorry!

(runs for the hills)
 

Young fogey

One of the Regulars
Messages
276
Location
Eastern US
Living with the past but not entirely in it

Hooray for Miss Joeri. I read an article on similar British women living in different decades of the golden era, something like one '50s, a few '40s and one '30s.

All I need is a classic car (found a local dealer) and I'll look immersive/like a re-enactor. But won't be. And that's OK.

Because like the misunderstood Amish I live with a foot planted in the past but don't pretend to live entirely in it (as an old post said, you can't, and after all, there's the Lounge online!). I live with the past, as a living reality. (I think I look a little like somebody from the movie Dark City, where it's almost the '40s but the details aren't quite right.) The Amish selectively take things from either the past or the present. Their church leaders decide which modern things are OK based on if they think they won't break up the local church, so for example riding in cars but not owning them, or a shared phone on a block but not private phones, are OK. As are rollerblades, disposable diapers and, something the Amish as farmers are very interested in, genetically modified crops.
 

martinsantos

Practically Family
Messages
595
Location
São Paulo, Brazil
Great videos and interviews; congratulations, Miss Jo!

Living in the time and the way you want to live is something about liberty. Anybody can decide what and how want to live. Great!
 

Young fogey

One of the Regulars
Messages
276
Location
Eastern US
Martin: true but critics will say part of the reality of that chosen time is that most of the people really in it didn't get to choose how they lived.
 

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