I shoulda lived in the late 1800's!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sprefix

Sprefix

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Anyone else here get tired of all the rat race going on? What if we lived in the late 1800's? Reality would be harsh, but to think of living by my own wits and fortitude is very alluring. All that was needed to survive was drive, knowledge, and some skill with a firearm on the frontier. Way more than that, really. Jeremiah Johnson comes to mind. Grizzly Adams(early hippie:)) and Mad Jack The Trappper with old number 7. Lonesome Dove and Broken Trail. A person could be a little industrious and do OK with-out making everyone else rich off of his/her sweat. I guess I'd like the American Dream with-out a lifetime of hurdles in front of you. Not that it should be easy, but it shouldn't be darn near impossible!!!
 
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Sprefix said:
Anyone else here get tired of all the rat race going on? What if we lived in the late 1800's? Reality would be harsh, but to think of living by my own wits and fortitude is very alluring. All that was needed to survive was drive, knowledge, and some skill with a firearm on the frontier. Way more than that, really. Jeremiah Johnson comes to mind. Grizzly Adams(early hippie:)) and Mad Jack The Trappper with old number 7. Lonesome Dove and Broken Trail. A person could be a little industrious and do OK with-out making everyone else rich off of his/her sweat. I guess I'd like the American Dream with-out a lifetime of hurdles in front of you. Not that it should be easy, but it shouldn't be darn near impossible!!!
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I don't disagree with some of your points, but I think I like living in a time where there is no smallpox, polio, cholera, or any number of other deadly diseases that are essentially non-existent in a developed country. I'm kind of partial to showers and flush toilets, too... but I was raised in the city. Me and horses have an agreement. I don't try to ride them, they don't try to kill me. If I was in the 1800's I'd be a shopkeeper. Or the piano player in the saloon.

You can live like that now, you know. From the looks of the pictures he posts, you just have to live near Iggy. :D
 
I reenact, do Living History-Revolution, Civil War, War of 1898, next year War of 1812, then there are the people who do Rendezvous, etc. the CAS shooters. e.g. I think you'll find that all of us agree that the Past is a nice place to visit, but we wouldn't want to live there. I read a book by a criminologist, he started off by listing a number of horrid murders committed in New York City, he then said, you think it's such a terrible place? These all occurred in 1898.
In my science fiction club we prety much agree that we are living in a Future Imperfect, and that 2011 does not look at all like what we imagined it would be like in 1961.
If you were a shooter living in 1894 you'd be wondering when you'd finally see some of that new fangled smokeless powder.
 
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It sounds romantic to me too. However I bet only a couple mountain men out of a hundred lived much past 45 years old! Think how carefull you would have to be out in the wilderness by yourself. Probley just breaking a ankle could be a death sentence. Still I get a charge at looking at many mountain men and civil war reenactors that more often than not are 300 lbs like me. The oldest pictures I have seen usualy show small wirery tough men.
When they went west many times it was forever as it might take 4 months to get to the mountains. Unless you were going to become a squaw man, you were out of luck with female companionship. I used to buy every book I could get on the mountain men and have a respectable library. I got the feeling 30 to 35 years was old!
Now if I could have had a good ATV, with gas and parts available every 100 miles I just might live through a season!
I started out with the national park service in yosemite in 1960. I spent 6 months in a tent or sleeping in the open about a month of that. Some of that time was hikeing about 8 miles back in, worked spraying bug infested trees and we came out 2 weeks later. Also was on several huge fires for about two weeks each. Rest of the time was as a blister rust checker where generaly we spent the day working by ourselves several miles off any road or trail. 1961 it was grand tetons.
Sounds unbeliveable, but when not working it could get a little boreing if you didnt have anything but leg power and were in deep woods.
Hell, a winter is a long time now even haveing vehicles. I kind of dread the next six months as I cant afford to get away and motel it much and there wont be much ATVing.
I would love stepping back in time, but I would also love to step back and forth to the present as I desire, not be locked into that past era.
 
This is what I would like to do if somehow God granted it. I know nothing about cameras etc but would learn. I would like to step back in time with good cameras, recording equipment and interview the old mountain men, indians with a interpiter etc. Even the founding fathers and all other types. Get it on film, and see and hear how it really was.
 
As the other posters have stated, while there are some attractive things about the late 1800's, I do not think I would want to go back to those times.

Like others several times I have spent a month to a little over 2 months in the wilderness , sometimes in 3rd World countries.

With some modern stuff, and modern preperation.

Untill you have spent a lot of time with out electricity, air conditioning, central heat, referigeration for food [ice for the Scotch...] etc...

Also, I now live in the country, and durring the winter 85% to 90% of my heat, for my house comes from my wood stove.

Plus in the late 1800's there were No 1911's or No S&W Mod 29's...

WHO would want to live without THEM????
 
new idea.......

Well....,durn it. Looks like I've snapped back to reality. Hot showers are pretty important come to think of it. Guess we should put an ad in the WTB section for a reliable time machine.
 
Sprefix said:
Anyone else here get tired of all the rat race going on? What if we lived in the late 1800's? Reality would be harsh, but to think of living by my own wits and fortitude is very alluring. All that was needed to survive was drive, knowledge, and some skill with a firearm on the frontier. Way more than that, really. Jeremiah Johnson comes to mind. Grizzly Adams(early hippie:)) and Mad Jack The Trappper with old number 7. Lonesome Dove and Broken Trail. A person could be a little industrious and do OK with-out making everyone else rich off of his/her sweat. I guess I'd like the American Dream with-out a lifetime of hurdles in front of you. Not that it should be easy, but it shouldn't be darn near impossible!!!
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Sir, whenever I get feeling romantic about stepping back in time, I think of one word:

Dentistry. :eek:

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.
 
I do play the cowboy several times a year and I love it.

My biggest moment was horceriding in the Califorinanmountains for 3 hour in compagnion with Phil Spangenberger a couple years ago.

I like the old west and have some books on the subject. But it was also a very hard time to survive. I do know one thing. I wouldend survive it. I survived cancer in this time I don't do that for sure in the old days. I do have diabetic. Hmmm what are my cances in the good old day's?

I am with Feralmerril. When possible grab a camera flash back and record it all. But I come back to this modern time to live.

In this time I dont get grabbed by al those hasty people. I dont have an Iphone where I am addicted at. I just do my job right so nobody can get a fingernail behind me. I just trye to live right so I don't bodder anyone.

It works fine for me. In the mean time I can play the cowboy with some friends and have a good time.
 
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A guy could move to Alaska or rural Canada - or even parts of the South - and live as a trapper today if he wanted to. There are also people all over the place that have opted out and live by their wits and wiles. We generally call them homeless people, bums, hobos, etc. If you want to live the homeless life, I'm told that San Diego is nice. Though I suppose you could also move to Iowa and start raising organic carrots or some such. Lots of options really.

Next time you are at Barnes and Noble look for a copy of Backwoodsman magazine. It'll help teach you how to get your hobo knife ready, etc.
 
Yea....sometimes I think I'd be better off having been born back in the 1800's.........but I enjoy modern indoor plumbing. ;)
 
NE450No2 said:
Plus in the late 1800's there were No 1911's or No S&W Mod 29's...

WHO would want to live without THEM????
Click to expand...

Actually, I was thinking Model 29s and Combat Magnums, but you've got a point on the 1911! :)

Jeff Cooper once said he and a bunch of his buddies had quite the campfire evening sitting around imagining what it would have been like to go back to medieval times with a .45 Commander. Think about that one. :D

I hate to say it but I think I will just stay where I am. I'm sure I would have been long since dead at my present age if I had been born as little as 50-years earlier (antibiotics). :o Also better throw in an honorable mention for optometry/ophthalmology.
 
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I got away from the rat race by moving to small town Kansas. I have my horses and my shooting range in the back yard, so I can play cowboy any time I want. But, I can also go into town and get most anything I need.
 
I remember rural areas that didn't have power until after WW2. They used kerosene lamps for light and drawed water with a bucket out of the well or had a spring. They cut wood with an axe and a crosscut saw and you only heated one room because you couldn't keep enough wood cut to heat the whole house. People had to work hard from sunup to sundown to just survive. I am sure it was harder in the 1800s than what I remember from the 40s and 50s so it may be fun to fantasize about life in the old days but in reality it was a rough life. I now live in a rural area where I can shoot and play cowboys and indians or cut a tree and play lumberjack but it is nice to live in a house with central air and heat and have a car and a 4 lane road when I want to go to someplace.Larry
 
Personally, for me I feel the 50's to the 60's were the best years and I was fortunate to have lived in those years. We did not have some of the diseases we have now. Starting a business was easy with less government red tape, income tax was not a real concern, guns were bought at drug and hardware stores without filling out forms or getting approval from a government agency. Crime was less, drugs and gangs were not a problem and people lived a fairly long life as it was common for one to have relatives living at 85 yrs of age. Doctors made house calls and we had cars that looked like cars and was made of real metal. Gasoline was less than forty cents a gallon. People held jobs for companies with retirement plans and insurance benefits.

I do not mind other people being rich. Most of them worked hard to get that way. The rich employs others. I do not mind banks charging high fees since I can change banks.
 
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