Back To The Future

Yesterday we took Anna to Living History Farms. I hadn't been there since I was about Anna's age, so I really didn't remember much about it, except for the horse drawn wagon ride that went through a tunnel under the interstate. They still have it, but it's now tractor drawn (I guess even the past makes progress LOL). The "town" reminded me of what we used to see when watching Little House On The Prarie and Ashley even said "Look, there's a hill we can run down, just like Laura Ingalls used to do on the show".

One thing that was pretty cool is that when you go there they ask what your zip code is to keep track of where people visit from. I said "Well, we have one person with us from Spain, so I have no clue what her code is. She said "Oh really? Just a moment" and she walked over to a map and got all excited when she announced "She is our very first visitor from Spain. Come here young lady, you get to add the Spain sticker to our world map that shows where our visitors are from." Anna is shy, so she was really embarrassed, but a good sport. We told her she is now forever a part of Iowa history and she grinned and put her nose in the air and said "Yes, I am important." LOL

If you've not been there, I do encourage you to go. It really makes you appreciate things like blow dryers, microwave ovens, computers, and indoor bathrooms. I gotta tell you, I am in total admiration how hard people had to work back then. We toured indian farms from the 1700s, early settler farms from the mid-1800s and the most "modern" farm from the early 1900's. For starters, I can't imagine being a woman back then wearing a petticoat and whatever else, underneath the long dresses. Wearing that in the middle of August, in the peak of the Iowa heat and humidity? No thanks!

And there were no electric appliances we have gotten used to. The house was a bazillion degrees inside (at one point Ashley actually asked why they didn't just turn on the a/c LOL). They were in the middle of canning so the fire in the belly of the stove was going, which is why the women were sitting out on the front porch pitting cherries they were going to be canning. It honestly had to be a good 30 degrees cooler outside.

We also saw an original mansion built in the late 1800s. It cost $20,000 at that time to build and had heat throughout. Very high tech for that time. One question I did have was what was with everyone having ugly wallpaper back then? I mean seriously....giant flowers and huge ornate patterns. We even saw one room with quails all over it. Overall though, the house was beautiful. Chelsea said she could totally see herself living there, that she LOVED the house. Then Jay reminded her that there was no electricity in the house, to which she replied "Well, I didn't say I wouldn't do any updates." LOL

We toured a one-room school house and the "Teacher" explained that the kids used slates and not paper and that there was no homework back then. Austin said "cool, more time to golf" and the Teacher said "Oh no, there was no homework, because the kids had to do chores and other work to help their families". Austin replied "Well that stinks".

By the time we left we all agreed that we were ready to go back to current times with electricity, running water and central air. Then we had fun thinking of when the kids would be old and they would be explaining to their children about things they find "normal" at this time in their lives, but will seem antique to their grandchildren. They can't imagine things being more technologically advanced than they are now, but I said "We couldn't imagine a telephone without a cord either...especially one you could use in your car!"