My sister and her daughter in 1974, living in a log cabin in woods near Livingston TN. No running water or electricity. The great push for Floridian hippies to go "back to the land."
By Anton Cherkio 2022
I'm sure Rev. Fred Rogers was a cousin, in spirit if not in blood.
Everyone is dealing with something...be kind!
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Sharing with Sepia Saturday (a day late and who knows what that kid is doing sitting next to a life saving ring, anyway!) Thanks for hosting, Alan!
Dear Barbara, the picture of your sister and her little daughter from 1974 reminds me that I also had such dreams of dropping out of society in the early 1980s (when the hippie era was actually already over). But reality without running water and electricity was probably not as uplifting as the dream... (And without a partner, I wouldn't have dared anyway...)
ReplyDeleteAll the best from Austria 🤗.
Traude
https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2026/06/reisebericht-2025-wilder-pazifik-und.html
There are always places that seem like a good idea to live, but the reality makes them more difficult than our dreams. Glad to hear from you!
DeleteIn the 70s the family cottage had no running water but there was electricity and there was a stream where we could fill buckets for washing. There was a source of potable water in the village for drinking. It was a good place for a summer retreat.
ReplyDeleteAnd then you went back to work M-F after the vacation was over. My sister and family lived through at least one winter on "Nobody's Mountain." I could only visit on summer vacations, being a M-F worker still. But I did purchase a camper van (not a VW but a Chevy conversion.)
DeleteThat picture of your sister is hippie perfection up to and including the VW van.
ReplyDeleteI always say that I was a back-to-the-land hippie and I was. In some ways, I still very much am.
I kind of thought as much...old hippies never die, they just wear what they like, raise veggies, and hug each other! You can quote me on that!
DeleteI can remember when I dreamed of a cabin in the woods with no electricity or running water. I was very young and idolistic, lol. Great photo, though.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mind camping, but sometimes missed hot showers. My times being on the road and living in my camper were much easier than my sister and her family trying to raise food and care for animals in TN. I was always in awe of them.
DeleteI was a child on the Yorkshire moors in a cottage with no running water, gas or electricity. I remember my mother constantly carrying water and wood, and trimming lamps, cooking on a wood stove. Wartime necessity, not choice. Backbreaking life.
ReplyDeleteIt probably sounded lovely from outside.
War-time certainly doesn't make for fun "roughing it" duties. Survival becomes the highest priority. And now there are so many wars happening. It really makes me sad.
DeleteGreat quotes and images. I can only imagine, what the world would be like if everyone was kind to each other. Take care, enjoy your day and the new week ahead.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a good thought, and worth considering. When I copied my friend Robertson Work's words below, it is in hope that each of us might want to do something for a compassionate regenerative world civilization...if we really want it.
DeleteThe quotes are great - especially the one about trauma! Watching the effort my daughter put in recovering from her traumatic brain injury 22 years ago gives that quote absolute truth. She is strong because she has always been strong & her strength is what brought her through her recovery. It didn't come because of her injury!
ReplyDeleteThanks for giving that story here, which shows the truth of our strengths. To survive after going through all of the difficulties of any trauma is simply awe-inspiring. Those are certainly people who have endured so much, and are among us almost invisible.
DeleteThanks for another thoughtful post. Barb. The closest I ever came to living off the grid was in my mid-20s when I seriously considered buying a houseboat, pre-owned of course. But a good friend advised me to think about the cost of maintenance, anchorage, fuel, etc. and instead I invested it in a summer holiday to Britain and France. It was a different road/voyage which eventually brought me here to WNC so I have no regrets, but I sometimes wonder what a life afloat would have been like.
ReplyDeleteAnd to answer your question on my blog, I did not play that Andrew Bird concert so the musician you saw was either another grey-beard substitute or an old photo from an earlier concert.
So glad you ended up in Asheville. Though I actually met you here through SS! You're one of only 2 bloggers I've met in person. Laughing about mistaking the musician on FB. You have a club of look alikes perhaps!
Delete...thanks goodness that Fred Rogers was so WOKE!
ReplyDeleteAnd taught so many children (and maybe influenced so many parents) to having more open minds and tolerance.
DeleteWe were Florida semi-hippies when we bought our farm in '73.
ReplyDeleteIt was a good movement. There are still a few people who now live on farms that could have stayed in Florida, and just think how much different your lives would have been!
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