When you are forced to live vintage style...

[Joli7211]

I live in the great white north... You know... Canada. Right now we have about 3 feet of snow on the ground and snowbanks about 5 feet high... so you can imagine it's pretty cold. My windows don't seal well so the house is generally cold too.

I'm a single mom with 4 young kids, so we've been using many blankets on our beds to help keep warm and on the coldest nights you can often find us sleeping together in the same room to help conserve heat. Ya know, you do what ya gotta do in some circumstances... At least we have lights and stove and other modern conveniences that make life a little bit easier.

So what do you do when there is a massive power outage in the middle of a moderate snow storm where you live? Not only in your community, but in all of the communities around you for about 100 km's around? You grab your blankets, your pillows, your candles, and the kids then you head over to gramma's where she is also in the dark and you all camp in the same room, read and crochet by candle light while the snow falls peacefully in the dark outside.

 

[BAZ]

Last time there was a blackout in NYC we sat in a friends bar drinking the slowly warming beer, and eating as much freh seafood as possible to avoid it going to waste!

 

[MAGNAVERDE]

Here's my concept of roughing it, courtesy of the great Haddon Sundblom...

 

[nobodyspecial]

I live in the great white north... You know... Canada. Right now we have about 3 feet of snow on the ground and snowbanks about 5 feet high... so you can imagine it's pretty cold. My windows don't seal well so the house is generally cold too.

I'm a single mom with 4 young kids, so we've been using many blankets on our beds to help keep warm and on the coldest nights you can often find us sleeping together in the same room to help conserve heat. Ya know, you do what ya gotta do in some circumstances... At least we have lights and stove and other modern conveniences that make life a little bit easier.

So what do you do when there is a massive power outage in the middle of a moderate snow storm where you live? Not only in your community, but in all of the communities around you for about 100 km's around? You grab your blankets, your pillows, your candles, and the kids then you head over to gramma's where she is also in the dark and you all camp in the same room, read and crochet by candle light while the snow falls peacefully in the dark outside.

It sounds like fun (as long as your house water pipes don't freeze and burst), sort of like camping indoors. One of the great moments of time like this is that it forces you to slow down and step away from your normal routines. You get to spend time together as a family in a way that you normally do not.

 

[Deleted member 3716]

we had a blackout about 6 weeks back.
i live in a big victorian house with 5 others and it was one of the nicest nights i've had in the house since i moved in.
i live with 2 friends and 3 very quiet shy guys who usually disappear up to their room once they come home from work.
because of the blackout,they were forced to sit in the sitting room with us (we had monopoly on the candles ).
i had also just served up dinner as we had 3 friends over so the 9 of us just sat around chatting and telling ghost stories and getting to know each other a little bit better.

er, not in a saucy way though!

 

[Joli7211]

So the 9 of us just sat around chatting and telling ghost stories and getting to know each other a little bit better.

er, not in a saucy way though!

And that is one of the reasons why people had large families back then! lol

 

[sixsexsix]

I remember when I was a child I would go to my mother's house on a lake in rural Quebec, and all sleep around the wood burning oven (it was a cottage turned into a house). It was very cozy in the evenings but very very cold in the mornings!