Home Remedies I Remember
When I was growing up we didn’t go to the doctor much. We didn’t have health insurance, nor much money, so my parents and grandparents usually tried to treat minor illnesses and injuries with home remedies first. Sometimes they worked. Sometimes they didn’t. My family was into healthy food and holistic treatments way before it was trendy. We ate lots…
An Ozark Farm
In the very early years of my life, before I can remember, my Granddaddy traded 10 head of cattle and $500 for 12 acres of land. (That left him with 3 head of cattle, 2 horses, and probably $0.) This wonderful real estate bargain was on a dirt road 6 miles from the nearest highway. It was on a mountainside…
Vintage Christmas Radio Shows
My family is headed out on a cross-country road trip for Christmas... As we drive we love to listen to old-time radio shows. Here are some of my Christmas favorites available for free download:
Preserving Camping Memories
Our first camping trip of the season this year was on Mother’s Day weekend. We decided, kinda on the spur of the moment, to go to Yakima (about 3.5 hours away) and connect with our niece and her family who live over there. Yakima is in the high desert part of Washington State, known for its orchards and wineries, but…
The Shepherd of the Hills
Last summer I scored a stack of somewhat battered vintage books at a thrift store. Do you remember the lovely copy of Tennyson? Here’s another treasure I found that same day. This 1907 copy of The Shepherd of the Hills still has the original dust jacket. It’s tattered and fragile, but it’s amazing to me that it has been loosely wrapped around…
Tennyson Tidbits
You know how easy it is to go down bunny trails on the internet, following one link to another to another until you are way off track from where you originally started? Turns out, old books can have the same effect. I found several lovely vintage hardback books at a local thrift store last week. Granted, none of them were…
The Evolution of Media
This past weekend we took a little excursion to Bozeman, Montana where we visited the American Computer Museum. Lyle was geeking out over advances in computer technology which is, of course, the whole point of the museum. I was more interested in the displays of pre-computer technology, starting with handwriting… Lyle held his finger up to the original page from…
Back-to-School Nostalgia
Even though I’m no longer a student, nor are my children, I can’t stay out of the school supplies aisles at Wal-Mart this time of year. There’s just something about fresh notebooks and pencils and crayons that evoke a lot of fond memories for me. This month’s “this or that” questions have to do with back-to-school memories. Here are the…
Camping with Kids
In this week's camping series I've been featuring pages from a fun vintage Little Golden Book, Smokey Bear and the Campers, that I found at a thrift store last summer. The story is about Ernest Swift and his sister, Mary. Yes, those are the children's names. The book was first published in 1961.
How to Plan Your First Camping Trip
It’s official. Our vintage camper has been retired. We ended getting a newer one a couple of weeks ago. We are excited. It will definitely make camping a little more comfortable as well as give us the option for traveling with it if we want. As we are getting it set up and loaded with our equipment I pulled out…
