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Time is the ultimate luxury. I remember two separate reddit AMAs with centenarian women, who had lived from candle-lit houses and horse-drawn carriages to moon

Time is the ultimate luxury. I remember two separate reddit AMAs with centenarian women, who had lived from candle-lit houses and horse-drawn carriages to moon landings and the internet. When asked what was their favorite invention in their lives, both answered the washing machine. They suddenly had much more time for themselves!

heymijo 7y ago
And electricity powers washing machines. Robert Caro masterfully paints the picture of what life was like in rural Texas for women making homes before their area was electrified. It wasn't just time saved. It was hard, physical labor that caused their bodies to break down that they were saved from. Really quite hard to fathom for any of us accustomed to growing up without that burden.
- mjbellantoni 7y ago
  I remember this chapter vividly -- just one of many reasons to recommend Caro's epic biography of LBJ.
  - heymijo 7y ago
    Vivid is the right word for it! I had no understanding of what that sort of life must have been like before reading the chapter, but after it stuck with me so strongly. I felt wholly inadequate trying to summarize it above.
  - misiti3780 7y ago
    which book was that in ?
    - coachtrotz 7y ago
      Believe it was the first - title: The Path to Power.
      - heymijo 7y ago
        Goodreads link https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86524.The_Path_to_Power https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86524.The_Path_to_Power
  - dredmorbius 7y ago
    If you're ever in the Austin area, the ... jaunt ... out to Johnson Ranch (Stonewall, TX) is an interesting one. It's about 60 miles from Round Rock or downtown. I prefer the northern route. The ranch is ... out in the middle of nowhere. And if you keep on heading West, even that seems densely populated. Imagining that without power, gas, or phones, gives pause. https://www.nps.gov/lyjo/planyourvisit/visitlbjranch.htm https://www.nps.gov/lyjo/planyourvisit/visitlbjranch.htm
- newnewpdro 7y ago
  Back then I imagine the real problem wasn't the "hardness" and physical demands of the labor, but the risk of physical injury due to poor safety controls/practices that "caused their bodies to break down." For women especially, hard physical labor, assuming it's done safely, will do more good than harm. It's one of the few effective means to combat osteoporosis, and something folks have to go out of their way to try reintroduce in the form of exercise and gym memberships these days. I have a construction worker father and stay-at home sedentary mother whose only labor in life was childbirth and light house cleaning. There's no way in hell I'd sign up for her outcomes over his, even including his acute injuries from easily prevented poor worker safety like the nail in the eye or skin cancer from decades of shirtless hard labor.
  - heymijo 7y ago
    It seems like it was both. I have framed houses and I have shingled roofs. The former is physically demanding. The latter is back breaking. Some excerpts from Caro: > the farm filth had to be scrubbed out in hours of kneeling over rough rub-boards, hours in which the lye in homemade soap burned the skin off women’s hands > the heavy flatirons had to be continually carried back and forth to the stove for reheating, and the stove had to be continually fed with new supplies of wood—decades later, even strong, sturdy farm wives would remember how their backs had ached on washday.
  - jscholes 7y ago
    > light house cleaning. I'm blind, and my screen reading software's speech synthesizer amusingly pronounced this as "lighthouse cleaning". Which is a very different thing and made you sound fairly unreasonable...
irrational 7y ago
My grandmother grew up on a ranch. It now is mostly family cabins, but the original cabin is still there with the original hand cranked washer. One summer we spent a month there and had to do our laundry by hand and then dry it on the line. It gave me a great appreciation for modern washers and dryers.

heymijo 7y ago

And electricity powers washing machines. Robert Caro masterfully paints the picture of what life was like in rural Texas for women making homes before their area was electrified. It wasn't just time saved. It was hard, physical labor that caused their bodies to break down that they were saved from. Really quite hard to fathom for any of us accustomed to growing up without that burden.

mjbellantoni 7y ago
I remember this chapter vividly -- just one of many reasons to recommend Caro's epic biography of LBJ.
- heymijo 7y ago
  Vivid is the right word for it! I had no understanding of what that sort of life must have been like before reading the chapter, but after it stuck with me so strongly. I felt wholly inadequate trying to summarize it above.
- misiti3780 7y ago
  which book was that in ?
  - coachtrotz 7y ago
    Believe it was the first - title: The Path to Power.
    - heymijo 7y ago
      Goodreads link https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86524.The_Path_to_Power https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86524.The_Path_to_Power
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  If you're ever in the Austin area, the ... jaunt ... out to Johnson Ranch (Stonewall, TX) is an interesting one. It's about 60 miles from Round Rock or downtown. I prefer the northern route. The ranch is ... out in the middle of nowhere. And if you keep on heading West, even that seems densely populated. Imagining that without power, gas, or phones, gives pause. https://www.nps.gov/lyjo/planyourvisit/visitlbjranch.htm https://www.nps.gov/lyjo/planyourvisit/visitlbjranch.htm
newnewpdro 7y ago
Back then I imagine the real problem wasn't the "hardness" and physical demands of the labor, but the risk of physical injury due to poor safety controls/practices that "caused their bodies to break down." For women especially, hard physical labor, assuming it's done safely, will do more good than harm. It's one of the few effective means to combat osteoporosis, and something folks have to go out of their way to try reintroduce in the form of exercise and gym memberships these days. I have a construction worker father and stay-at home sedentary mother whose only labor in life was childbirth and light house cleaning. There's no way in hell I'd sign up for her outcomes over his, even including his acute injuries from easily prevented poor worker safety like the nail in the eye or skin cancer from decades of shirtless hard labor.
- heymijo 7y ago
  It seems like it was both. I have framed houses and I have shingled roofs. The former is physically demanding. The latter is back breaking. Some excerpts from Caro: > the farm filth had to be scrubbed out in hours of kneeling over rough rub-boards, hours in which the lye in homemade soap burned the skin off women’s hands > the heavy flatirons had to be continually carried back and forth to the stove for reheating, and the stove had to be continually fed with new supplies of wood—decades later, even strong, sturdy farm wives would remember how their backs had ached on washday.
- jscholes 7y ago
  > light house cleaning. I'm blind, and my screen reading software's speech synthesizer amusingly pronounced this as "lighthouse cleaning". Which is a very different thing and made you sound fairly unreasonable...

irrational 7y ago

My grandmother grew up on a ranch. It now is mostly family cabins, but the original cabin is still there with the original hand cranked washer. One summer we spent a month there and had to do our laundry by hand and then dry it on the line. It gave me a great appreciation for modern washers and dryers.