by Cyn Bagley

Created on: July 22, 2010

A simple life. The words imply that it would be a life with no rushing around, driving to work, cell phones, and electronic devices. It gives the impression that we would have more time to sit on the porch swing, watch the lightning bugs, and talk to our friends and family. It makes us long for that perfect life when family members used to sit around the radio and listen to programs that brought us closer together.

Unfortunately, this simple life is an ideal that can never be realized. Why? A simple life without machines, electricity, and other accessories of modern life is a lot of hard work. There is nothing simple about it.

I knew my great-grandmother, who died in the early 1980s. She lived the simple pioneer life, where a man or woman could homestead a piece of land if they had the will and strength to do it. Her day started with feeding the animals, chopping wood, and then making breakfast. She had four children with no husband in sight. He abandoned her after the last boy was born. Fortunately for her, my great-grandmother's parents and brothers lived close by, so when it was time to plow and harvest, they helped after they finished their fields.

Every Wednesday, she would pull out the cauldrons, throw in some lye, heat the water in the cauldron's so that she could throw in the clothes they had used for the week. It took all day to clean the clothes after handscrubbing each item. One of her sons fell in the cauldron. She pulled him out. He had third degree burns on various parts of his body. He never seemed to recover and died at eighteen years old.

My great-grandmother chopped her right index finger while chopping wood for kindling. She grabbed her finger and ran to her parent's homestead a few miles away. They got her to the doctor. He advised her to leave it but she insisted on having her finger back. Remember this was before they had the ability to reattach the tendon. So she had a finger that would never bend. She used it for knitting and always praised the doctor for letting her keep that finger.

When my great-grandmother was in her 80s still living on her homestead, the government took her property by "Eminent Domain." In the late 1970s they didn't have the "fair use" laws that the States are adopting today. It was only after my grandfather took them to court that they paid a minimal amount for the land. There is a silver lining. My grandfather gave her a home for the rest of her life. And, because of this action, I got to know my great-grandmother.

The point to this history is the simple life is a lot of hard work. Today, we take for granted washing machines to keep our clothes clean. In my great-grandmother's day you might have a couple of dresses that were sewn by hand, and underwear. My grandfather used to talk about having one pair of overalls. He worked in a sawmill from the time he was five years old to bring home a few cents for the family.

We take for granted the refrigerators that keep our food cool. We don't have to can our food, or salt our food so that it is preserved. And we don't have to make our own clothes, and save every cent to buy a pair of boots. We are truly lucky.

There is something to be said for taking a walk without a cell phone and to reconnect with the nature around us. To simply be grateful that we have doctors who know how to reattach a finger or limb, or can treat diseases like cancer, or even that we can live longer without the back-breaking labor that signifies the "simple life."

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