HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I’m reading a book called Yesteryear (by Caro Claire Burke), and Reds and Readers, it is phenomenal. Riveting. I absolutely love it.
And the gist of it, no spoilers, is that a tradwife influencer, all butter churning, adorable children, dutiful wife who lives on a ranch, is an organic farmer, homeschooler, all those things, and who spends her entire life presenting herself on Instagram as a salt of the earth back to what’s important good spiritual loving person is, in reality, pretty much a fraud. She's cynical dismissive ambitious–and absolutely irresistible to read about.
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So that’s not even the point of the story. Again, no spoilers because it’s on the back of the book, one morning she wakes up and she is in 1805. Where churning butter and collecting eggs and making your own bread is not an option, it’s the only way people can live. And she realizes it’s hideous. It’s awful. It’s difficult it’s cold it’s hard and there’s no electricity and she’s totally miserable. She remembers her other life, see, so she’s even more bitter.
How the heck did that happen? I will never tell but suffice it to say it’s a terrific book, and an amazing tour de force in voice, as well as an examination of our contemporary fantasies. And inside all that is a dark and terrifying social commentary about pressure and criticism and manipulation and power and expectations and envy.
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Oh, another element is that her contemporary husband is super rich and super handsome and super dumb. And not that… romantic, shall we say. And she wishes, constantly, for someone who is strong and tough and manly and in charge. In 1805, her husband is all of those things, and she hates him. He’s horrible!
There’s a whole lot more, the above does not even begin to describe it, and you have to read it for yourself. Do not miss it.
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So that’s not even the point of the story. Again, no spoilers because it’s on the back of the book, one morning she wakes up and she is in 1805. Where churning butter and collecting eggs and making your own bread is not an option, it’s the only way people can live. And she realizes it’s hideous. It’s awful. It’s difficult it’s cold it’s hard and there’s no electricity and she’s totally miserable. She remembers her other life, see, so she’s even more bitter.
How the heck did that happen? I will never tell but suffice it to say it’s a terrific book, and an amazing tour de force in voice, as well as an examination of our contemporary fantasies. And inside all that is a dark and terrifying social commentary about pressure and criticism and manipulation and power and expectations and envy.
.png)
Oh, another element is that her contemporary husband is super rich and super handsome and super dumb. And not that… romantic, shall we say. And she wishes, constantly, for someone who is strong and tough and manly and in charge. In 1805, her husband is all of those things, and she hates him. He’s horrible!
There’s a whole lot more, the above does not even begin to describe it, and you have to read it for yourself. Do not miss it.
Anyway it got me thinking about things we do the “old-fashioned way.”
I am trying to think of things I do without modern conveniences, and I have to say that there are kind of… None. Gardening maybe? Does that count? Flower arranging? That seems kind of pitiful. I would make a cake from scratch, but 2026 scratch is nothing like 1805 scratch, not to mention the oven.
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Does yesteryear – – the reality, not the book – – seem tempting to you at all? (I left out all the medical parts, we won’t even go there.) Do you do anything "the old fashioned way"?
HALLIE EPHRON: Sounds like a “be careful what you wish for” story - and not one to miss.
What I do without modern conveniences: Whip cream (with a whisk or a fork). Drip coffee.
The thing I’m SO GLAD I don’t have to do without conveniences: laundry. Can you even imagine?
JENN McKINLAY: Camping is as close to yesteryear as I want to get and even at that, I have an inflatable mattress. I remember reading My Side of the Mountain as a tween and thinking “No, absolutely not.” That being said, I do enjoy manual labor like painting rooms, refinishing cupboards, and putting in flooring. There is such a huge sense of satisfaction when walking on a floor you put down or putting books on a bookcase that you made yourself.
LUCY BURDETTE: My yesteryear excursions would all be in the realm of cooking, gardening, and canning. In my old days, I canned everything using a pressure cooker, and pickled things with hot water baths etc. But it’s a risky business, avoiding botulism, and now I only do the occasional pickle. I do prefer to bake from scratch, and also cook from scratch. Until I’m tired of it and insist we go out to eat:).
Most of the gardening has been shifted over to John, but he does use my organic methods. We are now bracing for spring and the onslaught of critters who adore his produce! I guess in the old days, we’d shoot them and eat them.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Any romanticized ideas I might have had about Ye Good Olde Days were ruthlessly squashed during the Ice Storm of ‘97, when I lived in an 1820 house with NO electricity or running water for nine days. Oh, and with a five and three year old constantly underfoot!
Ross brought home water in jugs (the lucky son of a gun had heat, power and a hot shower at his office) and we heated the house to a balmy 50° by keeping the wood stove and both fireplaces going round the clock. Which, yes, entailed one of us getting up very three hours during the night to pile on more logs.
It was AWFUL, and I still had the benefit of certain modern conveniences - the kids and I went to a friend’s house to bathe and shower, and I hauled the dirty clothes to a laundromat. It’s no wonder women died in their 40s back then - it was probably from exhaustion.
RHYS BOWEN: I grew up in a big old house with no central heating. Corridors so long that I used to roller skate down them. In our 30 by 20 living room there was a fireplace at one end, around which we all huddled. My bedroom had no heat apart from a two bar electric fire. I used to get dressed under the bedcovers. Sometimes there was ice on the inside of the window. So no thank you. I would not want that again.
Unlike Lucy I have never bottled or canned. My mother was always a professional woman so no housewifely stuff for her. I’m trying to think of anything old fashioned that I do: I used to knit. Does that count? I write proper thank you letters and cards. I send birthday and Christmas cards. That’s about as primitive as I get.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: I’ve canned marmalade, does that count? Although to be fair, the oranges came in imported tins. I’ve fermented things, kimchi and sauerkraut, which only require salt and time, and I’ve baked sourdough bread, but only in a modern oven. Household chores like dusting and sweeping–surely those haven’t changed too much except for the quality of the instruments. And gardening, since people have been digging in the dirt since time immemorial.
Like Julia, we’ve lived through extended power outages during ice storms, having only our living room fireplace for heat, and there is nothing the last least bit romantic about it!
HANK: How about you, Reds and Readers? Is there anything you do that you would have done the same way in 1805? Would you have liked to have lived then? Why and why not?
I am trying to think of things I do without modern conveniences, and I have to say that there are kind of… None. Gardening maybe? Does that count? Flower arranging? That seems kind of pitiful. I would make a cake from scratch, but 2026 scratch is nothing like 1805 scratch, not to mention the oven.
.png)
Does yesteryear – – the reality, not the book – – seem tempting to you at all? (I left out all the medical parts, we won’t even go there.) Do you do anything "the old fashioned way"?
HALLIE EPHRON: Sounds like a “be careful what you wish for” story - and not one to miss.
What I do without modern conveniences: Whip cream (with a whisk or a fork). Drip coffee.
The thing I’m SO GLAD I don’t have to do without conveniences: laundry. Can you even imagine?
JENN McKINLAY: Camping is as close to yesteryear as I want to get and even at that, I have an inflatable mattress. I remember reading My Side of the Mountain as a tween and thinking “No, absolutely not.” That being said, I do enjoy manual labor like painting rooms, refinishing cupboards, and putting in flooring. There is such a huge sense of satisfaction when walking on a floor you put down or putting books on a bookcase that you made yourself.
LUCY BURDETTE: My yesteryear excursions would all be in the realm of cooking, gardening, and canning. In my old days, I canned everything using a pressure cooker, and pickled things with hot water baths etc. But it’s a risky business, avoiding botulism, and now I only do the occasional pickle. I do prefer to bake from scratch, and also cook from scratch. Until I’m tired of it and insist we go out to eat:).
Most of the gardening has been shifted over to John, but he does use my organic methods. We are now bracing for spring and the onslaught of critters who adore his produce! I guess in the old days, we’d shoot them and eat them.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Any romanticized ideas I might have had about Ye Good Olde Days were ruthlessly squashed during the Ice Storm of ‘97, when I lived in an 1820 house with NO electricity or running water for nine days. Oh, and with a five and three year old constantly underfoot!
Ross brought home water in jugs (the lucky son of a gun had heat, power and a hot shower at his office) and we heated the house to a balmy 50° by keeping the wood stove and both fireplaces going round the clock. Which, yes, entailed one of us getting up very three hours during the night to pile on more logs.
It was AWFUL, and I still had the benefit of certain modern conveniences - the kids and I went to a friend’s house to bathe and shower, and I hauled the dirty clothes to a laundromat. It’s no wonder women died in their 40s back then - it was probably from exhaustion.
RHYS BOWEN: I grew up in a big old house with no central heating. Corridors so long that I used to roller skate down them. In our 30 by 20 living room there was a fireplace at one end, around which we all huddled. My bedroom had no heat apart from a two bar electric fire. I used to get dressed under the bedcovers. Sometimes there was ice on the inside of the window. So no thank you. I would not want that again.
Unlike Lucy I have never bottled or canned. My mother was always a professional woman so no housewifely stuff for her. I’m trying to think of anything old fashioned that I do: I used to knit. Does that count? I write proper thank you letters and cards. I send birthday and Christmas cards. That’s about as primitive as I get.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: I’ve canned marmalade, does that count? Although to be fair, the oranges came in imported tins. I’ve fermented things, kimchi and sauerkraut, which only require salt and time, and I’ve baked sourdough bread, but only in a modern oven. Household chores like dusting and sweeping–surely those haven’t changed too much except for the quality of the instruments. And gardening, since people have been digging in the dirt since time immemorial.
Like Julia, we’ve lived through extended power outages during ice storms, having only our living room fireplace for heat, and there is nothing the last least bit romantic about it!
HANK: How about you, Reds and Readers? Is there anything you do that you would have done the same way in 1805? Would you have liked to have lived then? Why and why not?
