living w/o modern conveniences? ( Archived) (38)

i dunno why this crossed my mind
maybe it would be better as a poll...

has anyone ever lived w/o certain 'modern conveniences'?

running water, electricity, maybe far from others?
telephone, television?

how long and do you remember it fondly or
as somewhere you would NEVER return to?

Yep my water is heated by solar, and we always get power cuts for up 10 hrs at a time, thats when i miss the UK.

10 hrs?



thanks for responding

so the bottom line is
you are not fond of it?

It's ironic that you posted this, because I was just contemplating starting a thread on the Amish way of life.

I grew up without a lot of modern conveniences. I didn't have running water until I left home. We had a television, but very rarely could we get any channels on it. We didn't have many electronics either, a radio is the most I remember. No computers. No video games. Most of the time, no car. We had a phone, but no long-distance service.

I can't say as going without those things really bothered me at all. If I felt discontent as a child, it was due to what my family was lacking emotionally, not physically.

I would have no qualms about going back to that way of life, as long as I had a supportive environment. If my spouse, friends, family, and neighbors all lived without technology, I would feel perfectly comfortable. However, if I felt alone and without a supportive community, I might began to view it as a lonely struggle for survival.

I like livivng here, but it's not until you don't have something that you realize how much you miss it and take it for granted. e g boiling a kettle on a rainy day to wash your hair, not much fun.

I was grown up in a little town in a very old house, we had a outhouse, coal-fired furnaces and only cold water. If we would take a bath we had to heat the water on the coal-fired furnace.

And a few years ago, I had big problems in my life, they had turned my energy off because I couldn't pay it.
Through this I haven't had TV, or something else.

Both situations wasn't such as bad as it sounds like. I think, I can myself arrange with all. You loose comfort trough this, but you can find also very good things.
As I had no energy, I sat at the evening with a book in my apartment by the lights of candles or I had meet friends. And you become very inventive in doing daily things like cooking coffee.

I don't wanna go back to this, I like comfort and after the times I have missed comfort I appreciate them more.

But I still like apartments with coal-fired furnace.

hmmmm

my best friend is married to a guy raised amish

he is funny
she is a new yorker and he is quiet
but after coming to know him for a few years
he says little but if you are still in your listening
he says alot
and has such humor
thats effective because of his minimal verbal interaction

they have moved to indiana to be near his family for their child
she lives in both worlds and seems at ease

its awesome to see communities interact w/ them
with such ease and awareness of the 'boundaries'
and each culture is so accepting of the other

i wonder why that is-and i cant stand my neighbor?

ive lived w/ a very small group very primitively for up to
a year at a time-maybe 3-5 people. and im from NYC
ive lived w/ only myself and children in the woods.

its amazing to realize
wherever i go there i am

you are right about that
ive found i can get used to anything
and eventually not be bothered

but that comes and goes too

'coming back' is also a great opportunity to appreciate and go aaaah
in a big tub of steaming water

but almost immediately i feel annoyed or inconvenienced
by something in civilisation

im a pain-


________________________________
kidatheart
still trading like when we were kids
yup-its effective!

exactly

no clock

its awesome

its all reality
and it IS peaceful

im sure your hiney has recovered by now
as its been 4 yrs now



i also remember that stuff fondly

ill do it again at some time
likely in 4-5 yrs when i am not momming a teen
but she has inded experienced different 'cultures'
and that will continue

im driving the dang bus!
dangit!
(thats what i tell myself anyway... )