Learning from the Past

I came to a realization this week. Had I been born a hundred years ago, I would not be able to do the job that I do today. No, I'm not a doctor...or a lawyer. I'm not a computer technichian or a police woman. I have a job that provides me no salary and no days off. I am a stay-at-home mom. I stay at home and watch my two children, do all the cooking, all of the laundry, and all of the cleaning...not to mention all of the shopping and most of the outdoor lawn work. And, to top things off, I am at this present moment - according to our Homeland Security Director - a "fetal container." And my husband lives and works two hours away for at least 5 days of every week.

Maybe I am just telling you all of the duties of my job so that I can at least provide the reason why I fall short of ever being considered a modern day June Cleaver. I am constantly cleaning, constantly buying easy foods like Minute Rice and quick grits, and I never wear pearls. I rarely serve dessert to my family, and I never use tableclothes. I wonder how I would have been viewed fifty years ago as my neighbors watched me frantically making hotdogs while wearing exercise clothes in a house that had toys strewn all over the floor...yelling at the kids the whole time to "be nice" while frozen french fries burned in the oven.

I think that I have given in to the idea that you can never live up to your idols. But then one has to wonder...did June Cleaver and Donna Reed (assuming that they had been real people) ever live up to their idols...hmmmm...Or did they fall short and justified it by considering themselves the "modern day housewife"? Who were their idols?

I have always been inquisitive, and highly competitive. If the arrow falls a little short, maybe I should just aim a little higher. Maybe there is something to be learned by women who raised families much larger than the average family today without electricity or indoor plumbing. Hmmm...that means no tv to entertain the kids while the housework gets done...How did they do it?

Luckily, I have been able to find a number of primary sources that are geared to "young housewives." Interesting. Not only do they provide recipes that seem to have much more variety than I ever dared dream that they would have, but they also have tips for housecleaning, how to set a table, how to entertain, and how to rear children. It's interesting what will come from a few generations where women wore their job of taking care of a home and family as they would wear a badge of honor.

Okay...so all of that just to get to all of this...For the next several weeks - consider it training - I am going to research all I can about the duties of a housewife of the 18th, 19th, and early twentieth centuries. AND...drum roll, please...I am going to attempt to transport my family back by at least a hundred years as I use modern means to make an antiquated supper. I realize that at first, especially, the historical accuracy of what I am doing will be - nearly in every way - compromised. However, I think that there is something to be learned from remembering and celebrating those women of a forgotten time who helped to raise America.

Who knows? Maybe by the end of this, I really will be vacuuming in highheels while the kids set the table with the best silver for dinner. Anythings possible, right?...