In my Jan. 10 post I happened to mention my grandparents without electricity or water. Some people made comments to indicate that they had no experience with out services.
My paternal grandparents and great grand parents came from Russia in the early 1900's. They had lived in Russia for about 100 years. They were peasants. They made use of available materials for housing and food. So in Russia, they had clay houses. The roof was probably thatched. Here they could afford to get lumber for the roof of a clay house.
My Dad was born in 1912 in a clay house with a dirt floor. People liked their clay houses. They said they were cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
So many of the German people who came here to homestead had a clay house. Other people built sod houses which were equally functional.
Of course, there were other things that had to be developed to live with such a lack of conveniences.
To keep warm in the winter they had layers of clothing long before outdoor enthusiasts came up with the idea. We had felt boots. These were boots that were made of felt. I can tell you that they were warm. There was an overshoe that kept your boot dry. We had combination fleece lined under wear. We had two layers of pants. They were warm.
Sometimes the houses were banked up with snow or straw. The floors in the wood houses were cold. They was no heat in the cellar. Since the heat source was coal and wood the pipes wood sometimes catch on fire. Most people let the fires go out before they went to bed for safety reasons. .
So houses without electricity worked just fine.
People became accustomed to those conditions and thrived.
I am old enough to have lived with out electricity and no central heating. Our first house was a dilapidated board structure . I know that there is a photo of this old house but I'm not sure who has it. I remember Dad getting up in the morning and lighting the fire. We would bring our clothes into the main room and get dressed in front of the heater.
I do not look back at these days as a hardship. We were prepared and were comfortable and enjoyed life with no electricity. .
