“It was fun back then. And there were lots of people. Now people have become savage, anti-social.” That can be said of village life in the part of England I come from. The fishing industry was closed down by the EU. The local economy died. Rich people from London moved in and killed the place completely, the houses are too expensive now. My aunt still lives there, and one cousin who looks after her. She says all of the shops that sold useful things have gone. The rich go elsewhere for their shopping. The fisherman's pubs are closed. One was converted into flats. The other is a shitty restaurant. I went there. The waiter complained about the terrible local people. I said I was born there, that my father had been a fisherman. We were saved by the manager after that.
Brexit was a farce. The fishing industry were screwed both ways. The EU is failing. Its currency isn't even backed by a State. When the EU collapses, things might improve but they will probably need to get worse before that can happen. But for that to happen under any system, we need sound money. Price discovery is impossible with money that isn't money (it is currency and massively inflated at that) . . . We are in the biggest debt/credit bubble in history. I don't regret voting against the EU, even if Brexit was pretended. The bubbles are well on their way to bursting. But where I grew up there was one working fishing boat left last time I was there. Poor buggers.
More please. Thank you for what you’ve shared. I have a million questions, which I will presume to put down here, begging your pardon, not expecting that anyone has the time to read further: For starters, More about the child she lost, only if she wants to tell about it. More about all labors and deliveries and how you took care of your newborn babies and young children. What did you expect for them in life? How did they learn to wear coats when it is cold? Were young children ever picky eaters or was it unheard of? How many other young children were in the village? Did you have energy left to worry after working all day? Did all parents raise children alike or did families differ? also what did everyone eat throughout the day and throughout the year? How many cups did a household need or have? How many spoons? What constituted your bed? How often did you wash your bedclothes, and how long did it take? What kind of soap and tooth cleaning things did you use and where did you get them or how make? What were the bathrooms? How much did people drink (alcohol)? What kind? What were the social conventions? How did you know how to raise your children ? Did you do it the same as your parents and grandparents? How were children disciplined, what would have been behavior considered in need of correction in a child under seven years? Were children punished and if so, how? Was there refined sugar in any form? Did you play or have many musical instruments ? Was there a radio? Was it harder to relax and have fun or even just connect when sober , for a lot of people (I had many more good times when was I was drinking, and came by most of my good friends through drinking, and they remain good friends, which is good because I don’t care much for making new friends or having fun, now that I don’t really drink). What were the conventions around this? What were the age demographics? Was mold a thing indoors? How cold did it get and how did you stay warm?
Good 'what was life like' questions. As for the bathrooms, there is a glimpse of one in the video where Edward explores the old club. The toilet is an indoor outhouse, as in a hole in a board. Sounds like a very tough life there.
I loved this interview. It reminds me of my own childhood when my parents were working day and night in their small farm and my granny was taking care of us. When piglets were born we liked to sit with them below the red light lamp.
I would like to visit "real" rural regions in Russia and not only cities and the villages nearby, but my Russian is too bad for that.
A wonderful and familiar story of days gone by. Reminds me of my own grandmother who lived in stone house in a village in Yugoslavia. No power, wood heat and no running water (bucket on a chain down the deep well out front of the house). My grandfather worked for the railroad and was often away for extended periods. My grandmother tended to her 5 children, the house animals and all the myriad other chores (baking bread, laundry, etc). She gave birth to two of her children alone on the floor of the kitchen. These were breeds of people who for the most part no longer exist. We’d do well to regain at least some small part of that.
People have become boring everywhere--status-conscious, frightened, guarded, mean, incurious, envious. Maybe it's because the work they do is unproductive and uninteresting, and they spend so much time on it that they've got no spare time to do anything productive or interesting.
Thank you for this enlightening interview. I'd love more interviews. What a tough life - and only 56 days to enjoy your baby. It's good that you, Edward, are doing your bit to bring your village back to life.
Very enjoyable and informative interview. More please! As a child I greatly enjoyed staying with my cousins on their farm where there was neither running water nor electricity. Those were happy days: milking cows, making butter and building haystacks.
If only Russia would rethink this march into greedy capitalism and encourage and support small farms, villages and towns, youngsters would be more likely to stay. Demographics would definitely improve - city dwellers cannot afford to have families.
I think the wine would probably be more healthy for her than those pills! This was a unique read and I hope y’all will be inspired to write more of them. There’s a book I never read but I always liked the title: “Memories Of My Father Watching TV”.
I think Americans got boring a long time ago. About the time multiple TVs entered every household. Families need to work and play together to be strong and resilient, this is the key to healthy families and villages. People have longed complained about the tough work of farm life, and I can imagine how tough it was, especially in cold climates, but everywhere really. It’s the ‘trauma bond’ of such work that makes for tight relationships and we would do well as a culture to dig deep and try to find that spirit still alive in our souls.
Thank you for saving this wee piece of real history for us!
It's always the elderly poor who suffers the most: "Under nightly mortar fire, thousands of elderly and impoverished civilians continue living on and between the front lines in East Ukraine’s ‘gray zone."
That was a wholesome,down to earth interesting chat. And good reminder of simpler life.Be very interesting hearing from the kids as well.Observe the transposing of technology onto their generation. Thankyou ed.From nz,where i was farmer in the back country.A better life.
Thanks for this interview! My husband worked in Russia until mid 2003 on a sovchoz in kolomna. I loved the Russian countryside and friendly people. And indeed, the women were the ones doing the real hard work, while many men were into the vodka. The women were the real workers and caretakers! What Ekaterina describes about the slow ruin and death of the village you live in is exemplary of what we saw happen in de u.s. heartland in the early 80s (we then lived in canada). Little villages without any industry and livelihood, farmers underpaid and bankrupt, people going to the cities in hopes of succeeding. When we returned for a few years to the u.s. in the first decennium, the situation had not improved. Foodstamps and dying towns. It is so sad to see and read that this decimation of the rural economy is going on across the world. Lack of parity pricing for raw materials which ended in 1952 with the steagall act started a ruinous downturn of the economy, and the upstart of national debt, everywhere. Thanks, spaziba, to you and to Ekaterina and notably Anna for allowing us this insight into the old and new rural life in your town. I hope she looks forward to spring and some warmth and to having a visit from her new neighbour! ❤️
I took my German mother back to her village on the Curonian Spit in what became the Kaliningrad Oblast. From a thriving village with businesses, shops, hotel, church, school, only one original house remained. Some newer properties were there, also the abandoned collective fisheries building from the soviet era. The water pumps that controlled spring floods had long since seized and rusted. Only one shop and the residents left were of similar old age. It was a place that time forgot, which I found facinating, but for my mother, it was a complete shock to see this, not just her village, but deserted towns, crumbling buildings and crators in roads. Village life is village life, wherever, or it used to be and that's gone now, not just for Anna, but Riley can hopefully help restore some aspects!
certainly tell Anna Yegorovna that we were so very interested in hearing her stories and how life has changed. I share her feelings about how the villages are now empty. Sadly we see the same thing happening in the Himalayas. Do please continue with interviews. Thank you!
I am the same age as Anna Yegorovna and I agree with her that life was much simpler and harder (everybody was poor) during the1950s and 60s. People treated each other better, respectfully for the most part. Characters and relationships were a lot «richer» than in this present age of superficiality. I started working with my Dad when I was 8 or 9 and had chores to do as early as 5 years old. When I tell some of my family stories to people under 40 they think I am from Mars...
We may have been poor, but we were very rich in the time that parents spent with us and the love they gave us, rather than all the material things! That p’s how I feel.
"Characters" key word. It has been said: people - more often the exceptional or eccentric - used to be called characters; now they are only "cases" i.e. a bundle of diagnoses packaged by the psycho-therapeutic service of the state - and if you don't have a "diagnosis", you only have an "identity".
If you are over 50 - when is the last time you heard someone say "oh! he's a real character!"; now you never hear it. If you are under 50 - I bet you have never heard the phrase. When is the last time you heard someone referred to as "eccentric" even?
Yes I agree about "deeper" - and an association with "adult"; but as to "character" - in the usage I alluded to, to call someone a "character" was a good thing. It meant that he or she had an interesting, individualized, notable, often a strong comic presence, perhaps difficult to describe, perhaps, in short, a "deep" personality. And it was therefore quite different than off the shelf symptom sets or an "identity" - the typical 21C go to word of self-description. And I bet your family stories do not revolve around accounts of how you freed yourself from the stifling influence and demands of your parents.
“It was fun back then. And there were lots of people. Now people have become savage, anti-social.” That can be said of village life in the part of England I come from. The fishing industry was closed down by the EU. The local economy died. Rich people from London moved in and killed the place completely, the houses are too expensive now. My aunt still lives there, and one cousin who looks after her. She says all of the shops that sold useful things have gone. The rich go elsewhere for their shopping. The fisherman's pubs are closed. One was converted into flats. The other is a shitty restaurant. I went there. The waiter complained about the terrible local people. I said I was born there, that my father had been a fisherman. We were saved by the manager after that.
that should read: "We were served by the manager after that."
I was seeing the past, not what I was typing . . .
There’s an edit provided at the bottom of these comments.
You mentioned “closed by the EU” what do you make of the news of fishing people regretting Brexit?
Brexit was a farce. The fishing industry were screwed both ways. The EU is failing. Its currency isn't even backed by a State. When the EU collapses, things might improve but they will probably need to get worse before that can happen. But for that to happen under any system, we need sound money. Price discovery is impossible with money that isn't money (it is currency and massively inflated at that) . . . We are in the biggest debt/credit bubble in history. I don't regret voting against the EU, even if Brexit was pretended. The bubbles are well on their way to bursting. But where I grew up there was one working fishing boat left last time I was there. Poor buggers.
More please. Thank you for what you’ve shared. I have a million questions, which I will presume to put down here, begging your pardon, not expecting that anyone has the time to read further: For starters, More about the child she lost, only if she wants to tell about it. More about all labors and deliveries and how you took care of your newborn babies and young children. What did you expect for them in life? How did they learn to wear coats when it is cold? Were young children ever picky eaters or was it unheard of? How many other young children were in the village? Did you have energy left to worry after working all day? Did all parents raise children alike or did families differ? also what did everyone eat throughout the day and throughout the year? How many cups did a household need or have? How many spoons? What constituted your bed? How often did you wash your bedclothes, and how long did it take? What kind of soap and tooth cleaning things did you use and where did you get them or how make? What were the bathrooms? How much did people drink (alcohol)? What kind? What were the social conventions? How did you know how to raise your children ? Did you do it the same as your parents and grandparents? How were children disciplined, what would have been behavior considered in need of correction in a child under seven years? Were children punished and if so, how? Was there refined sugar in any form? Did you play or have many musical instruments ? Was there a radio? Was it harder to relax and have fun or even just connect when sober , for a lot of people (I had many more good times when was I was drinking, and came by most of my good friends through drinking, and they remain good friends, which is good because I don’t care much for making new friends or having fun, now that I don’t really drink). What were the conventions around this? What were the age demographics? Was mold a thing indoors? How cold did it get and how did you stay warm?
Good 'what was life like' questions. As for the bathrooms, there is a glimpse of one in the video where Edward explores the old club. The toilet is an indoor outhouse, as in a hole in a board. Sounds like a very tough life there.
I saw that too, and thought the same thing.
Ok, sure, did you miss any Q....
I think it's safe to say Riley wants to keep in good relations with the town folk.
How about you answer first Henwen, but please be brief
((( how to raise your children?))
She a human, a woman born on planet earth....
....Not from Mars
They probably boiled the linen in a big pot on the stove with green soap
I loved this interview. It reminds me of my own childhood when my parents were working day and night in their small farm and my granny was taking care of us. When piglets were born we liked to sit with them below the red light lamp.
I would like to visit "real" rural regions in Russia and not only cities and the villages nearby, but my Russian is too bad for that.
Привет из Германии.
A wonderful and familiar story of days gone by. Reminds me of my own grandmother who lived in stone house in a village in Yugoslavia. No power, wood heat and no running water (bucket on a chain down the deep well out front of the house). My grandfather worked for the railroad and was often away for extended periods. My grandmother tended to her 5 children, the house animals and all the myriad other chores (baking bread, laundry, etc). She gave birth to two of her children alone on the floor of the kitchen. These were breeds of people who for the most part no longer exist. We’d do well to regain at least some small part of that.
Thanks for this interview
People have become boring everywhere--status-conscious, frightened, guarded, mean, incurious, envious. Maybe it's because the work they do is unproductive and uninteresting, and they spend so much time on it that they've got no spare time to do anything productive or interesting.
Spot on!
Thank you for this enlightening interview. I'd love more interviews. What a tough life - and only 56 days to enjoy your baby. It's good that you, Edward, are doing your bit to bring your village back to life.
Very enjoyable and informative interview. More please! As a child I greatly enjoyed staying with my cousins on their farm where there was neither running water nor electricity. Those were happy days: milking cows, making butter and building haystacks.
If only Russia would rethink this march into greedy capitalism and encourage and support small farms, villages and towns, youngsters would be more likely to stay. Demographics would definitely improve - city dwellers cannot afford to have families.
We have very similar problems in Ireland..
Many thanks to Ekaterina for this fascinating chat. Would love to hear more from her.
I think the wine would probably be more healthy for her than those pills! This was a unique read and I hope y’all will be inspired to write more of them. There’s a book I never read but I always liked the title: “Memories Of My Father Watching TV”.
I think Americans got boring a long time ago. About the time multiple TVs entered every household. Families need to work and play together to be strong and resilient, this is the key to healthy families and villages. People have longed complained about the tough work of farm life, and I can imagine how tough it was, especially in cold climates, but everywhere really. It’s the ‘trauma bond’ of such work that makes for tight relationships and we would do well as a culture to dig deep and try to find that spirit still alive in our souls.
Thank you for saving this wee piece of real history for us!
It's always the elderly poor who suffers the most: "Under nightly mortar fire, thousands of elderly and impoverished civilians continue living on and between the front lines in East Ukraine’s ‘gray zone."
An excerpt from a 2018 article titled: "The forgotten victims of Donbass." https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-the-forgotten-victims-of-donbass/a-42597692
That was a wholesome,down to earth interesting chat. And good reminder of simpler life.Be very interesting hearing from the kids as well.Observe the transposing of technology onto their generation. Thankyou ed.From nz,where i was farmer in the back country.A better life.
I really enjoyed reading this interview, thanks. What a welcome change from the rest of the posts in my inbox. I'd love to read more of these.
Thanks for this interview! My husband worked in Russia until mid 2003 on a sovchoz in kolomna. I loved the Russian countryside and friendly people. And indeed, the women were the ones doing the real hard work, while many men were into the vodka. The women were the real workers and caretakers! What Ekaterina describes about the slow ruin and death of the village you live in is exemplary of what we saw happen in de u.s. heartland in the early 80s (we then lived in canada). Little villages without any industry and livelihood, farmers underpaid and bankrupt, people going to the cities in hopes of succeeding. When we returned for a few years to the u.s. in the first decennium, the situation had not improved. Foodstamps and dying towns. It is so sad to see and read that this decimation of the rural economy is going on across the world. Lack of parity pricing for raw materials which ended in 1952 with the steagall act started a ruinous downturn of the economy, and the upstart of national debt, everywhere. Thanks, spaziba, to you and to Ekaterina and notably Anna for allowing us this insight into the old and new rural life in your town. I hope she looks forward to spring and some warmth and to having a visit from her new neighbour! ❤️
Same downturn started in canada too in the 80s..
I took my German mother back to her village on the Curonian Spit in what became the Kaliningrad Oblast. From a thriving village with businesses, shops, hotel, church, school, only one original house remained. Some newer properties were there, also the abandoned collective fisheries building from the soviet era. The water pumps that controlled spring floods had long since seized and rusted. Only one shop and the residents left were of similar old age. It was a place that time forgot, which I found facinating, but for my mother, it was a complete shock to see this, not just her village, but deserted towns, crumbling buildings and crators in roads. Village life is village life, wherever, or it used to be and that's gone now, not just for Anna, but Riley can hopefully help restore some aspects!
Oh,
certainly tell Anna Yegorovna that we were so very interested in hearing her stories and how life has changed. I share her feelings about how the villages are now empty. Sadly we see the same thing happening in the Himalayas. Do please continue with interviews. Thank you!
I am the same age as Anna Yegorovna and I agree with her that life was much simpler and harder (everybody was poor) during the1950s and 60s. People treated each other better, respectfully for the most part. Characters and relationships were a lot «richer» than in this present age of superficiality. I started working with my Dad when I was 8 or 9 and had chores to do as early as 5 years old. When I tell some of my family stories to people under 40 they think I am from Mars...
We may have been poor, but we were very rich in the time that parents spent with us and the love they gave us, rather than all the material things! That p’s how I feel.
"Characters" key word. It has been said: people - more often the exceptional or eccentric - used to be called characters; now they are only "cases" i.e. a bundle of diagnoses packaged by the psycho-therapeutic service of the state - and if you don't have a "diagnosis", you only have an "identity".
If you are over 50 - when is the last time you heard someone say "oh! he's a real character!"; now you never hear it. If you are under 50 - I bet you have never heard the phrase. When is the last time you heard someone referred to as "eccentric" even?
Hmmm, an eccentric character huh? I look in the mirror and smile at the person on the other side thinking just like that guy. lol.
I also meant to say that people had to become adults and therefore their personalities were deeper. No offense meant here.
Yes I agree about "deeper" - and an association with "adult"; but as to "character" - in the usage I alluded to, to call someone a "character" was a good thing. It meant that he or she had an interesting, individualized, notable, often a strong comic presence, perhaps difficult to describe, perhaps, in short, a "deep" personality. And it was therefore quite different than off the shelf symptom sets or an "identity" - the typical 21C go to word of self-description. And I bet your family stories do not revolve around accounts of how you freed yourself from the stifling influence and demands of your parents.