I assume that's a dolly on the little girl's lap...there are two distinct feet hanging out to the right. This was Sepia Saturday's prompt this week. Some weeks I manage to find something of a similar theme.
Another little girl is seated with her own dolly. Mum is carting a lot of dried dung, which is the source of heat and cooking when there are no trees around.
That was what stood out to me while travelling across the small part of the huge southwest of the US a few weeks ago. How did early families (indigenous or immigrants) manage to cook? Heat would have also been of help, but daily there would have been the need for food that was edible. We humans can't exist on grass...or sage, or cactus stuffs.
Family with their covered wagon. Kansas, 1908 USA History site - since mum is holding a child (who looks quite big) is that another one, or a dolly, with the girl on the crate? My vote is a child, since big lifesize dollies probably didn't exist at that time and place.
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Nebraska Prairie Settlement era of 1886 to early 1900s Solomon D. Butcher. Here the house is made of some kind of bricks, with a bit of wood showing for doors...as well as a couple of chairs, maybe the windmill, and perhaps the sheds in the background. The bricks don't seem to be in too great a shape where there's a board across the top of the wall...perhaps they never were fired and were disintegrating. Again it comes down to fuel sources.
I think that's a sod house, and the "bricks" are actually trimmed sod. I think back in the day t there were more animals and birds for food sources, but I'm only surmising.
ReplyDeleteYes, that makes sense, about the bricks. But what did the animals and birds eat, I must wonder.
DeleteYes, I think that's a sod house in photo #5. Sod houses were quite common on homesteads as a "first" shelter.
ReplyDeleteSadly enough, they didn't last very long!
DeleteHappy Birthday. You’ve made a big change and are adapting well in your mid-eighties.
ReplyDeleteSome things never change...and others do. The environment is different, but this routine of reading comments, reading blogs, making comments or replies...I'm still happy doing that daily!
Delete...Happy Birthday, Barbara. Have a wonderful weekend.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow I'll celebrate. Today I'll do chores.
DeleteHave a great birthday in your lovely new home.
ReplyDeleteMaking it more lovely as I open the tubs of belongings. Today there are several things happening, but I doubt that I'll venture out. (Yesterday was very busy getting tasks done in the community!)
DeleteI have my own share of dolls! I don't "collect" them. It's more like I take them in when they need a home.
ReplyDeleteJust think of those women in your photos giving birth to child after child. I wonder if there was even a nearby midwife or for lack of that, a neighbor lady or sister to help with the births? My god, but they were strong women. I guess they had no option but to be strong.
And you are a strong woman too! Happy birthday, dear Barbara! I hope it's a good one.
Yes to your rescuing dolls! Oh my goodness, what strong women are in our ancestries! And somehow that led to them outliving so many of the men. What a fun species!
DeleteI think that's a doll in the picture with the covered wagon. The face is too indistinct.
ReplyDeleteI disagree, thinking the kid just moved her head when the camera clicked (or whatever it did.) But I did think the same based on the size compared to the one in mom's lap.
DeleteWhen I was a little girl, my parents bought me two dolls, one brown and one white. And they always told me that all people in this world are equal and that I must always respect and love all people.
ReplyDeleteWhat smart parents you had!
DeleteHappy Birthday tomorrow! Here's to a wonderful year of discovery! Re cooking back then--where wood was scarce, folks collected dried buffalo chips (manure) to burn.
ReplyDeleteYes, thus that wheelbarrow full of cow chips. If there hadn't been them, I wonder if there was anything else...
DeleteHello Barb, Happy Birthday to you! I hope your day is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI only remember having Barbie dolls. Take care, enjoy your day and happy weekend.
So funny, since I was the generation just before Barbie dolls...my granddaughters loved them though.
DeleteHappy birthday! You're a decade ahead of me so I look to you as a good role model! Those old photos are wonderful. We cannot imagine the deprivations people endured in those days.
ReplyDeleteI have good friends 10 years to 15 years younger, and laugh that I could have baby-sat for them. Not sure I can model anything, except by mistakes!
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