Dear Readers,

If you had to get rid of almost all of your items, could you do it? When I moved to Colorado over three years ago, that was my challenge. I had lived in a two-acre, ten-room home with a garage and I now live in a home that is 240 square feet. Instead of rooms, I have one large studio-type living space that houses my kitchen, laundry, bedroom, office, art studio, storage and vanity area. Books, furniture, clothing, utensils – you name it – had to go. Give away, throw away or sell was the question of the day during those downsizing days. People are often shocked when I tell them about my current home that I affectionately call “Nana’s Corner Cottage”.  However, tiny house living has been around for centuries, according to Elizabeth Nosek who is a regular lecturer at the Longmont Senior Center. Have you ever had to downsize? Was it a good choice for you, reader? What could you live without?

My first introduction to Elizabeth was when I listened to her lecture called Downsizing: Tiny House Living throughout American History. Now in America, the average home is about 2662 square feet; a small house is between 400 and 1000 square feet; and a tiny house is less than 400 square feet. Tiny is not new and uncommon. They have been a part of our American history since its first settlers arrived and even before that.

Indians from the east coast lived in wickiups.  These dome-shaped homes – typically 15 to 20 square feet –  were saplings covered with overlapping mats of woven rushes or of bark that were tied to the twigs.  Indians on the plains – west of the Mississippi up to the Rocky Mountains – lived in teepees. These cone-shaped homes that were made from animal skins and sticks were small and could easily be packed and moved when needed; they are an example of simplistic tiny house living. 

Elizabeth also included pictures of the settlers’ early homes throughout the east coast including Jamestown and Plymouth Plantation. We learned that in the 18th century 67% of Delaware lived in homes that were less than 450 square feet. By the 19th century homes were getting a little larger – now closer to 450 to 800 square feet for a city dwelling. Rural homes for the average worker were multifunctional; the main area housed the kitchen,  living room, and a “turn up” bed which is like the precursor before the Murphy bed – a bed that fold up against a wall. What are your childhood memories of your home?

Elizabeth also gave examples of famous folk who lived in tiny homes. One that caught my attention was author and historian Henry David Thoreau (1817 –1862). Thoreau, in 1845, built the most famous tiny house. He lived in his 150 square foot home for several years. Located in Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts and according to Elizabeth, cost $28.13 to build.  In 1854, Thoreau published Life in the Woods which is a reflection of simple living that recounts the two years, two months, and two days he had spent at Walden Pond. It is an essay on human development.  One of his famous quotes about that time of his life is “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

In the west, Elizabeth helped us paint a picture of the early western settlers. Log cabins were a common home for folks. The Homestead Act of 1862, signed by President Abe Lincoln, allowed folks to acquire land, but a requirement was that they had to live on the land. So, small cabins were quickly built called the proving-up home. That allowed the land owner to stake his claim and take his time as he built a larger home to meet the needs of his family.  One of the audience members at the lecture, Rebecca Lamb, lived in just such a home. 

Now, 78-years-old, Rebecca’s family originated from Kentucky and moved to “about seven acres in the Kent, Ohio region,” she said. “We were out in the middle of nowhere. We moved into that tiny house when my mother came home from the hospital with me.”  While the family lived in that small proving up home, the whole family worked to build a bigger home on the land.

Rebecca’s memories of the tiny home start when she was around five years old. By then, Rebecca was one of eight children. The proving up house, where everyone lived, was a little less than 400 square feet. The kitchen was in the back of the house and was about one-third of the living space. The other two-thirds of the home were divided into the living room and the only bedroom. Rebecca remembers the kitchen had a big table, wood cook stove and round stainless steel tub used as the sink. Water for the tub was carried by buckets from the outdoor hand pump. A box that housed ice – brought by an ice truck – was used to keep things cold.

The living room worked as a common living space as well as a bedroom at night. A murphy bed [folded up against the wall with two doors to hide it] hung on the wall. The room also had a sofa, an arm chair, a piano and a rocking chair. “Five people slept in that room. Mother and Daddy slept in the Murphy bed.  I slept on the sofa.” Rebecca explained that each night the arm charm was pushed up against the sofa in an L-shape, and her little brother slept on that chair with his feet extended onto the sofa. Her baby sister slept in a wooden bed/crib that was on wheels. In the bedroom, the five older children slept – three girls in a full-size bed and the two older boys slept on a set of twin bunk beds.

There was no electricity in the house; the family used kerosene lamps. The bathroom was an outhouse that was down a path from the back door leading from the kitchen. At night, if someone had to go the bathroom they used the “slop bucket” – a bucket that was kept indoors for those purposes. The family lived in that house for about nine years, Rebecca said. “Daddy built it,” and she remembers it was made of wood. 

Rebecca’s family had gardens – there was a potato garden and a vegetable garden on the east side; on the west side was the muck –“that was black dirt where we used to grow the corn and squash and the creek was nearby,” she said.  They picked wild berries and other indigenous food on the land. The family got their milk for cheese, butter and drinking from their cow, Lucy and their goat Sassy (short for Sarsaparilla). Their chickens gave eggs and were sometimes eaten. “The only things that came from the store were the staples: sugar, flour, cornmeal,” Rebecca said. “98% of what we ate came from that land.” 

“Mother made our clothing,” Rebecca remembers. Her mom did hand-sewing and “she had a sewing machine with a pedal on the bottom.  All my clothes were hand-me-downs” and, because she was right after a boy, “Most of my clothes were boy clothes,” she laughed.

 “The whole time we were living on the property, Daddy was building the big house,” she said. “Daddy built the big house with the cement blocks and wood from trees around the area.” Everyone in the family contributed to the building and Rebecca remembers helping when she was six-years old. “My job was to carry the cast iron frames for the cement blocks.” With a hand-cranked cement mixer, wheelbarrow, shovel and buckets to carry water from the outdoor hand-cranked pump, the cement was poured into the cast iron frames.  

By the time Rebecca was a teenager, they started working on the second floor of the big house, and by 1955, the family was able to use the second floor of the big house. The big house included a garage, a root cellar and rooms for everyone to sleep comfortably and with privacy. “Three of the tiny houses could fit in the basement of the big house”, she said. “I lived on that land until I was 19 years old and got married.”

By the 1950s, there was a shift in housing, Elizabeth Nosek told us in the lecture. The thought process became “bigger is better” and homes became larger. She wrapped up the lecture with a look at the return to tiny house living as an “architectural and social” movement. Home owners looking to spend less, live more simply, and be more eco-friendly by using less energy, as well as for the philosophical reasons, have begun to seek out smaller homes. Some choose to not have huge mortgage payments so they can focus on schooling or travel. Turn on your TV or search You-Tube for tiny homes and you will find many shows and “how to“ examples of tiny house living. Some communities, including Denver, Colorado, have looked at tiny house options as a way to address low-income and homeless societal concerns. 

The day that I visited Elizabeth’s class was my first time sitting in one of her lectures. As a writer of this blog, I needed to take pictures of participants throughout the room. However, I was so mesmerized by the lecture, pictures and Elizabeth’s stories that I completely forgot to pull out my camera until everyone was leaving. This first lecture became just that – the first of many of her lectures that I have since attended and will continue to do so. 

 

 

Many readers commented on last month’s blog about Bud DeVere.  I received comments like “he’s a renaissance man”, “he’s quite the man” and “what a gift he gave us with his service to our country”.  Readers, who do you admire?

 A Pennsylvania reader commented on the lifestyle and services she has been reading about Longmont in this blog. She said, “Longmont is a senior heaven!” Reader, what is something you love about your town?

 

 Until next month, may peace be at your side, 

Debbie Noel

We have several ways to interact with Debbie!

• Email her at DroppingInWithDebbie@gmail.com

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Debbie Noel
C/o Longmont Senior Center
910 Longs Peak Avenue
Longmont, Colorado 80501

 

Elizabeth Nosek regularly offers lectures at the Longmont Senior Center. She is the Curator of Education and Exhibits at the Colorado Railroad Museum and has been in the museum field for over 30 years, including but not exclusive to the states of California, Maryland, Delaware, Hawaii and Colorado. Elizabeth’s Master’s degree is the Cooperstown Graduate Program in History Museum Studies at State University College at Oneonta, New York and her Bachelor of Arts at Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota in Cultural Anthropology with an emphasis in Museum Studies. Dates of her lectures are available in the Go book which can be picked up at the Senior Center or accessed online at https://www.longmontcolorado.gov/departments/departments-n-z/senior-services/catalog-and-registration-senior-service 

Teepee picture – Library of Congress; Digital collection; 1 negative: safety; 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches or smaller. | Photo shows Wigwam Village #2, Cave City, KY. (Source: Library staff, 2009); Contributor: Wolcott, Marion Post; Date: 1940

Wigwam picture – Library of Congress; Digital collection; 1 negative: safety; 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches or smaller; Contributor: Lee, Russell; Date: 1940

Site of Thoreau’s hut, Lake Walden, Concord, Mass. – Library of Congress; Digital collection;  1 negative : film ; 8 x 10 in.; Contributor: Detroit Publishing Co.; Date: 1908

Title page of Henry D. Thoreau, Walden; or life in the woods, 1854, showing Thoreau’s hut at Walden Pond, Massachusetts – Library of Congress; Digital collection; 1 print : wood engraving.; Date: 1854