Relay – A Family History Blog

We are remodeling our 100 year old house. Actually, I guess you could say we are restoring/rehabing/rejuvenating our house. When we are done the house will look as close to its roots as we can get but…The kitchen will NOT be a 1907-08 kitchen and we aren’t returning to wood stove heat. Also the floors will not be fir. The cost of good fir is prohibitive not to mention that 2 teenagers and 2 gardeners would be brutally hard on the softer wood of the fir. So we are playing a bit with the kitchen. We are recreating – sort of – a late 1920’s early 30’s kitchen. Open shelving in places, no stainless appliances, true linoleum floors and for fun – I’m buying some depression era kitchen accessories. Vaseline green glass mixing bowls, aluminum gadgets . Its been fun. It’s also been an exercise in social history. How did my many ancestors of the Depression era live? What did they have available to them in the way of labor saving devices? Its ironic in the extreme that the depression glass measuring cup with accompanying mixer attachment probably cost them less than 2 dollars while it will cost me over 50! I’ve always loved “vintage” stuff and thinking about the previous owners of the things I’m buying is sort of thinking about the philosophy of family history. I research my family so that I can understand their lives and also so that I can understand the world they lived in (at least a little bit) Now I’m buying bits and pieces of that world. Hum…..