I went with some friends to Old World Wisconsin. Why? More research! What’s really fascinating about this time period, is that you see the effects of the age of industrialism just starting to impact businesses. It’s really a “worlds collide” sort of a place, much like what we’re seeing now with digitization versus material goods. The biggest impact besides price? Time. Folks back then were a “bit” busier than we were. Yes, we’re busy because we’re on Facebook and Twitter and whatnot. But are we really? In terms of what we make now compared to what they had to do back then… We’re experts at consumption, but not manufacturing goods for ourselves.

Here’s some pics. (I have a ton. If you’re interested, I may post more.)

I have a fascination with old writing desks. If I could, I’d collect them.

For the coffee enthusiast in you… Beans. Beans had to be roasted, then ground, then made into coffee.

This is a picture of a pig. She was friendly, and she singled me out. Ergo…

A very old rose. My hobbitess friend explained to me that older roses curl and that this particular rosebush was very old, indeed.

The site makes its own towels and fabric. This loom allows them to do so. Takes a couple of months or so to make enough for a handtowel.

The Irish washerwoman this house belonged to, worked six days a week and was also active in her church community, plus maintained a garden. Talk about never sleeping in!

In the village, there’s a cobbler/shoe merchant. So, these are handmade shoes in various states of shoeness. The cobbler could make a single pair of custom-fit shoes once every two to three days. These could be repaired and last forever. They were hand-stitched and made with wood pegs. Not like these shoes…

These are factory-made and were also sold by the cobbler. So customers had their choice of what to buy and could also get their shoes repaired, too.