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

Ron H. said:
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.
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Amen to that, imagine a barber-dentist..even the thought scares the you know what out of me....In a hundred years somebody will be saying that about the 2000's (if anybody is left)...Semper Fi.
 
"THE GOOD OLD DAYS"
Which was more dangerous:
1. a Lawman
2. a Saloon Girl that had a room over the bar. (remember the wild cowboys that celebrated by firing their six-shooters in the ceiling of the bar?)
 
I had a old friend that told me durring world war two he was overseas somewhere without electricity and had a dentist that had a guy pedal a bicycle wheel that was hooked up with belts to power his drill!
 
My grandkids are always asking for stories of when I grew up. They tell me they would love to live like that.

I say its not too late, I'll pay them a dollar a day to buck slabs. Let them take baths in the yard in a #3 wash tub.
 
cass said:
I don't think I'd want to live in those times, especially where I live now. I live in an area that was a hotbed of Comanche raids, murders, and horse thefts. A frontier settler was very likely to be killed and dismembered by the Indians. The children were often stolen and reared as slaves. No, not a good place to be - but it would have been nice to stock up on all these $17.00 Colt Peacemakers!
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I understand that an 1875 $20.00 gold piece would buy a Peacemaker and give enough change to buy a box of shells in those days. Nothing has changed. That same $20.00 gold piece still will today.:p
 
feralmerril said:
Some of us are older to different degrees. I was born in 41. From my view I liked the 40s, 50s and early 60s. It seems to me things really started to go to hell in the mid 60s and it`s been getting worse ever since. If thats so, what started it? Seems to me it was durring viet nam, all the long haired protesters and the catering to them. I didnt get in on it, but the "free sex", pot use, reverse discrimnation laws, disrespect of LEO and military and all other authority, freak show dress, forced tollerance towards gays, womans pro choice, disrespect of all old heros as in the founding fathers, john wayne, old westerns replaced with jerry springer and ellen degenerate, everything our men fought against and died for meaning socialism or downright communism tolerated and accepted, unbrideled spending and welfare, loose morals incouraged old good morals laughed at, immigration laws unenforced, parents stopped by new laws from discipling their kids, green peace getting their way over all reason, I better quit now.
What started all this?
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Wow, feralmerril, that's the longest sentence I've ever seen on this forum!! I also agree completely.
 
I live in the country. I never go to town unless I have to. Usually only one time a week or once every two weeks.
I get my water from a well @600 feet deep. I do have electricity, but in the winter 85% of my heat comes from the wood stove. Once it gets cold I use only the wood stove 24 hours a day.

I have Burros, and Llamas, as well as some ducks. Most every day for the last couple of years I have @23 Canadian geese that land on my pond.

I was born and grew up in the city, after I retiorted we moved to the country.

I had a great time on my Job, but being retired and moving to the country was the best thing I have ever done.
 
One thing we reenactors agree on is back then the average man or woman had far more in the way of skills to cope with both the little and big problems and the family was much more self sufficent and self reliant. As I type this I am ay my town's public library here in Central NJ. Power went out in my apartment complex at 9:40PM last night, when I left my apartment at 10AM this morning it still wasn't back, the local shopping center was without power. Lot of branches down due to their not being able to carry the weight of both leaves and snow, to us it' s a PITB and more work, to our forebear's it's firewood. Likewise the Little Brown Shack Out Back may have been miserable on a cold winter night, but at least it never back up, overflowed, clogged up, etc.
A famous naturalist and conservation officer name Aldo Leopold wrote a book entitled "Sand County Almanac" in which he notes that when you live on a farm you learn that heat does not come from the furnace and breakfast does not come from the grocery.
 
Look up Les Stroud's "Off the Grid". He's better known for Survivorman, but anyway, times have never been better to live "off the grid" than now. Thanks to the greenies and the hippies, self sufficiency can be had to a certain extent even with energy and having an indoor toilet.

Your local bookstore will have a bunch of magazines about being a new pioneer, homesteading, living off the grid, etc.

Far from being a bad time to live off the land (more or less), this may well be the best time ever to approach hobby farming, animal herding, what not.

(Les Stroud was in his 30s before he even went out in the woods, and there is a former Israeli Colonel that now raises water buffalo in Wisconsin after retiring from the IDF...)

Giving more thought to it, my earlier comments about becoming a hobo or homeless person are still valid. In ye olden days many cowboys didn't have homes. They'd sort of ride the range line (see "Will Penny") trying to scare up summer work. But they'd be sleeping out of doors, sometimes in hotels, and many times working odd jobs. Traditional hobos also travel from area to area working odd jobs.

Unlike in the 19th century, even if you are a hobo, you can still get your leg stitched up and get some antibiotics if you get hurt. You can also get chemicals to purify your drinking water.

Other things to do would be to get a shrimping boat, go fishing, raise rabbits... There's lots of folks out here that get by somewhat off the mainstream. Some seem happier.

Morality has little to do with any of this. If you wanted to see squalor and degeneracy, well the slums of London or NYC during Queen Victoria's life time would put any modern American slum to shame. (Read Jack London's "People of the Abyss" for a near contemporary reference.) Even a working class existence in much of America in the 19th century would actually be less comfortable than living in many third world nations today.

So anyway... head north or head south. Strap on a Heritage .22 combo revolver and a bushcraft knife and go do it if that is the life you want.
 
Some pretty neat thoughts in the past pages. I enjoyed the sentiments of some very diverse backgrounds...
goes to show you one mans shack is another mans castle. I guess if we are lucky we would, God willing get a chance of living our dreams what ever they be,,I still dream of fulfilling my own personal "Bucket List"
All I need is the first item in that list...My prayer is that this I have experienced will be available to the forum's youngest member. The love of GOD and Country still live in my mind and heart.....We may not be perfect, but nobody has come up with anything better that I have seen.....But I still want a darn good dentist!!!!!!For those who live around NM try to see "The Hermosa branch of the Ladder Ranch. A step back in time....You must have a real 4 wheel drive to get there..Not one of those sissy all wheel drives!....25 years ago it was owned be the primary stock holder of
Atlantic
Richfield Oil.( I think) It all was part of the
American Land and Cattle
Company
 
It also depends on what lifestyle you want to pursue. I think there's a great deal of romanticism about the Cowboy and the Mountain Man, the last "Mountain Man" was Sylvan Hart in the 1960s-1970s, I suspect the last "real" Cowboys were all gone by 1940 or so.
Some have mentioned medical problems and conditions. The traditional bow legged appearance of the cowboy, was attributed to too much time in the saddle, the actual cause was rickets.
 
Nice thread, and some good recomendations on reading.
So Ill post a recomendation similar to what this thread is about
The Final Frontiersman - Heimo Korth

A trip to Turn of the century America would be intresting where do I book my seat on the time machine (that magical carpet ride)

What bothers me is that I am afraid that most of our society today could not cope without the luxaries, where has common sense and Basic education gone.
 
I have spent many trips into wilderness areas in New Mexico alone. It is easy to see why few men went alone into these areas "back-in-the-day". You'd be easy pickings for the "locals" since you cannot see everything every minute.

I have often been doing chores on my property and thought the same thing. While feeding stock, gathering hay, digging a ditch, etc., you'd be an easy target.

I would like to go back and experience a lot of historic events and times, but I would want to be unmolested and return home to my S&W collection!:D
 
I take a mancation every year that lasts about a week.It consists of nothing more than 15 lures,a fishing vest,a sleeping bag,some matches and the stars.Where we go there is no electricity,toilet,or food except what we catch and is surrounded by water.I find it hard to either sit by the fire or fish all day and thats pretty much what we do.

I have taken more than one friend with me in past years with little to no success.This years trip ended a day early because he got cold from the rain.Next year i'm planning on doing it by myself because it's to hard to cater to others.

Where am i going with all this,it's fun to know you can do these things,but it's more fun to know you can come home.
 
Memory technically jogged

Got off of my sorry butt and did some research on the Hermosa branch of
The Ladder Ranch, part of the Diamond A cattle company. It was owned by Robert Anderson of the ARAMco oil when I was there...Later sold to The Ted Turner.....We did a movie shoot for the Mahan Boot Company at the Hermosa, basically for European Clients. Now looking at the air maps of the ranch I understand why it was so desolate. In 1980 I don't think that information was available......None the less three Buckaroos and their wives lived and worked on the Hermosa Branch....N.Mex, Ghost Towns. Mr Anderson had arraigned for cooks to be on hand and we stayed in the cabins and a restored hotel on the one and only street in Hermosa......A one block dirt street with reconditioned buildings and a piece of old narrow gauge RR tracks. Took baths in old water troughs..Cold,real cold...Larry was filmed riding with the Buckaroo's who were riding the roughest string of cow ponies I had ever seen. However those ponies could darn near climb a tree...I had the time of my life. Great people those Buckaroo's, 500 plus keep a month and one trip per month to Truth or Consequence NM.(and they seemed happy) The top hand on the Hermosa was from Philadelphia and had a teaching certificate, got tired of the rat race and started on the ranch because he ran out of money driving west, he had over the years progressed from driving the feed trucks to top dog in his own little world... any body that reads this old guy memory that might know anything later than my recollection I would love to hear about it. I sure didn't know that Turner had bought the whole Cattle Company...












































Sierra County New Mexico.;
 
I have hunted mule deer in the canyon just north of the entrance into Hermosa. I sneaked into the Ladder from that canyon and hunted it a bit too, just west of Hermosa.

I wanted to go into Hermosa itself but was afraid they might have a "caretaker" hiding around somewhere.

Fantastic country down there.
 
I have been a loot of places it sure left a lasting impression on me! Thanks for the commit....sort of like a new world, as I remember it..
 
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