"Think cutting, stacking, and splitting wood for heat; carefully preparing for dark, isolated winters with dangerous temperatures; regular, lengthy power outages during the winter (my parents refused to get a generator); and being alone in the winter dark with a small number of people for long periods. Our community was far from the closest hospital, so if the weather was bad, you just didn't go."
"Now that I'm an adult, I moved out of state and to a city where daily life is easy. I miss the incredible beauty of my childhood, but I love my soft life. I don't talk about it because people from different backgrounds act like I grew up in 1910, or like it was some idyllic daydream to live that way."
My boyfriend and I grew up in different circumstances: his family in a small suburb with reliable services, mine in a remote, isolated area. Childhood life required hard physical labor to maintain the household, including cutting and splitting wood, preparing for dark winters, and enduring lengthy power outages because my parents refused a generator. Medical access was limited and odd healed injuries resulted from lack of care. As an adult I moved to a city and enjoy an easier "soft life," but I resent romanticizing off-grid living. Life without electricity was cold, damp, mentally taxing, and dangerous, with risks such as carbon dioxide poisoning from creosote buildup.
Read at Slate Magazine
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