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Drop out for the techno-impaired

October 10th, 2008 Lisa - Central

My cell phone battery just died, and it made better financial sense to buy a new phone than to replace the battery.  Of course, my new phone came with a whole slew of new techno bells and whistles, and being a techno-tard, it was just a matter of minutes before I wanted to hurl my phone out the window. I can’t figure these things out.

You can imagine then, that a good ‘drop out’ book would be the perfect thing for me to read this year. And I found it in Logan Ward’s See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America. 

Ward, his wife Heather, and their 2-year-old son, Luther live a harried life in Brooklyn, with 2 full-time jobs and full-time daycare limiting their family time. It was Ward’s computer crashing, and the hideous panic he experienced that made him realize that the 21st century was getting the better of him. He was inspired to travel back to 1900 to see if he could live the simple life. And Heather goes along with it.

They find a farm in Swoope, Virginia, and go about preparing to live in the olden days: installing a manual water pump, cutting off the electricity, shipping in lots of wood, and finding century-appropriate tools. The rules they set for themselves are strict: if it didn’t exist in 1900 they couldn’t use it (though if the label said ‘Since 1897,’ they could drink that beer). So that meant cancelling their health insurance, not using the phone, etc. They picked a starting date, and when they woke up that morning, they went at it.

They did great. They grew their own food, cooked on the wood stove, raised their own animals. But it was a steep learning curve. What’s good about this book is that there’s no preaching. You see the good, the bad, and the really pathetic. The bickering between them as they struggle to figure everything out. The carpal tunnel from milking the goats. Learning to ride and not be afraid of the 2,000 lb. horse. 

This was a really fun, sweet and adventurous story. What’s really great about it is how their neighbors, intrigued by their project, act like a 1900 community and share their skills, and in many ways, the mission with the couple. Great reading for those days when technology gets you down.

Entry Filed under: Nonfiction