A Walk Back Into Home Life

Hello Hivers happy Wednesday. It feels good to be beyond the half way point. For today's blog I'm going to show you what home life was like in the past where I currently live. This is all courtesy of the Durham Museum in Omaha, Nebraska.

When people started to arrive in Omaha and the surrounding areas schools needed to be established. Many schools were one room classroom buildings for all grades. This was the way of school life for quite sometime depending on the size of the community. My father grew up in upstate New York and attended a one room school house during his grade school days (1940's). There was an abandoned one room school house near me close to where a grew up at (South Dakota). It was much smaller than the model depicted above. I wonder what it was like for the 1 teacher to balance curriculum for 20 students in grades 1 through 12.

Above is a replica of a log cabin. This would have been what the earliest settlers lived in when they first arrived here. Once the city grew these would only be found out in the country.It would have warm in the winter with the wood burning stove. During the warm months it would have been warm as well as air conditioning and electricity wouldn't be a thing for quite sometime.

What you see above is the Buffett grocery Store. This store began business in 1869 and went through 3 generations of Buffets before closing it's doors in 1969. Sidney is the founder and was taking over by his son Ernest. Ernest did some good things, he organized with 14 other grocery stories and bought food at discounted prices with some wholesalers. This allowed him to pass discounted prices to his customers. He also moved the store to it's final location in 1915. Ernest's son Fred was the last Buffett to run the business.

Does the Buffett name ring a bell? So Ernest is the grandfather of the famous billionaire businessman and investor Warren Buffett. Warren worked at the store under his grandfathers rain. Interesting thing is Charlie Munger worked at the store as well but at a different time than Warren and they didn't know each other yet. Charlie is basically Warren's right hand man and is the Vice Chairman for Berkshire Hathaway.

So this display in the museum is the store front of the Buffet Grocery Store. It's recreation was built with the Buffett family help. Some of supplied some stuff was donated to the museum from them and even a few pieces were from the store that opened up in 1915. I love old labels and products from the past. I thought this display really told the story. Prices for merchandise were what they were back than. Isn't that refrigerator case cool? No shopping carts a basket of groceries.

Cool looking old store clock right? This is the original one that hung in the store. Some old recognizable labels are show cased. I am absolutely crazy for that old cash register. You notice the old phone pictured in the right hand corner. Oh I want some spam for 7 cents, I could empty out this store if this was today's price value, hehe.

Got to like old machinery like this scale. No digital reading just an arm that points to the weight for whatever is on its platform. Something tells me back than the fruits, vegetables, fish, and meat would have been so much better than in today's super markets. No preservatives and chemicals were not used. Farm fresh at the grocery store!!

What you see above is what is referred to as Parlor house. It's a small one story home that had the basic necessities: kitchen, bed room, and parlor. A parlor is a place for the family to go after meals. These spring up all over South Omaha from 1860 to 1900. The residents were mostly those who did work for the railroads, stockyards, and meat packing plants. Living in this part of town made it easier for them as they were closer to their work. The kitchen served as a multi-purpose room. Not just for eating but also a place to clean up yourself and your clothes.

Above is a dining room look during the Great War, World War I. Residents had their own opinions about the war and the majority supported the Allies. There were many that enlisted or got commissions to fight in the war. Another thing was that many residents had family in war-torn countries on both sides. As far as support, the state of Nebraska led the country in war saving stamps per capital.

The 1930's brought some new machines such as this wash machine. The machinery of this time was not of the best quality. This is due to the depression. Work was hard to find and wages were low causing quality issues. I remember my mother having a wash machine looking very similar to this. I was fascinated with putting wet clothes through the ringer. After that was done clothes were hung up on a clothes line. We eventually got a dryer in the mid 1980's.

The 1940's & 1950's brought the outside world into the the houses of some of its residents. Radio boxes like the one illustrated showed up in houses. Radio brought news and gave entertainment to residents via things like sporting events. Even today you can listen to games over the radio. Television was a big thing but it took a couple of decades before some had them in their homes. Being a kid I remember watching television in black and white for awhile before getting a colored television. No remotes and if you wanted to change the channel you had to get up to turn the dial. Very limited channels I remember having just a total of three. Later they added another dial which led to more channels via UHF. How many remember these days?Television sets were like furniture with the exception some had wheels underneath them.

Well this is it for me today. The walk in Durham Museum has led to many articles for me. Also this is not it for here but I'm positive to let you know there are two left yet. So this is my submittal for #wenesdaywalk initiated by @tattoodjay

Thank you for taking the time to get this far. Take care, be safe and let's get to the weekend:)