I was talking with my parents about the show and they don't know what the big deal is. My father grew up on a farm and it was not until he was a teenager that they got electricity and even then they were not part of the grid but rather used wind power and batteries to power their house and barns. His school was a one room school house. They would bring a potato to school in the morning, place it in the hot coals of the stove and have a baked potato for lunch. Now our local high school does not have a cafeteria but rather a "Food Court" and the kids still complain about the food!. And my mother had plenty of stories about late night visits to the out house when she was a girl. <br><br>The funniest part is my parents are not from Montana or Alaska. They grew up in Nebraska not 100 miles from Kansas City. Shows how much and how fast things have changed. <br><br>DK<br>

I'm "making" my kids watch the show. For the most art, their comments are limited to "wow" and "Oh. no!" Of course, they do not have enough years on them to provide an accurate frame of reference on how recently this life style was the norm.<br><br>Heck! I can't even impress upon them on how much has changed from my generation, and we had it easy.<br><br>One family black and white TV<br>One family telephone (not cordless)<br>No video games<br>No VCR tapes<br>No ATMs<br>No microwave ovens<br>No Internet!!!!<br>and so on ...<br><br>And I had it easy growing up in a middle-class family. There were many that did not have as much as I did. I alwayd had food, clothing, education, etc.<br><br>What I have a hard time fathoming is trying to think ahead to my childrens childrens' generation (grandcildren to be) and what will the world be like then. If my grandmother witnessed the advent of telephones and electricity in the home, cars and jet plane travel, etc. What wonders exist on the horizon for my children and grandchildren?

You are forcing your kids to watch TV!!! How can you live with yourself?. I should turn you into the Child Welfare Office. <br><br>Try as you might, I am sure they won't get it until they have children of their own and start telling them how hard they had it back in 2010. How they had to push buttons with their fingers to change media tunnels on the HolographicTV and how they had to ride their hover scooters to school every day up a .01% grade both ways in 70° weather under skies that were sometimes partly cloudy and how they had to use their teeth to chew the soilent-green dogs that came ten to a package while the soy buns came in eights. (some things never change)<br><br>DK

How do you explain bursting out loud laughing at soilent-green dogs 10 to a pack and soy buns 8 to a pack when you are supposed to be working?

I take it back. He's a weasel.<br><br>The trading for food with 21st century folks was a stretch, but they were hungrey and the traded for period food types, albeit out of season. But the secreted bedspring and the feable attempt to justify it, and the inability to accept the experts' opinion that they would not have made it, pushed me over the edge on my judgement against him.

Yes , he's a weasel!<br><br>yet, you might be wrong in thinking that he wouldn't have made it. Here's one likely scenario that might have him and his whole familey getting through the winter. He hunts instead of farms during the summer, Probably "hunts" some of the free-range cattle while he's at it, Lays in bunches of jerky and bread, and moonshine and ammo. Doesn't think about firewood adequately or food for his livestock. Early in the winter he can't feed his livestock adequately so he eats them or converts them to jerky. Mid winter he runs out of firewood and starts to burn his out-buildings which he no longer needs since his livestock is gone. Late winter outbuildings are gone and jerky is running thin so he takes his ammo and appropriates the resources of his neighbors. He and his family make it but his neighbors might not. <br><br>His shelfish, law-breaking, no-honor approach to life speaks loudly about what is worst in man. Unfortunately this characteristic is neither new nor waning. Societies have always had to recognize, accept and guard against this type of element. It is better to form a village than to attempt to make it alone. It is niave to believe that the thief and murderer is not present. The thief and murderer is within us all, some of us manage to civilize ourselves and see the longer term value of cooperation over competition.

I was nauseated when I saw the edifice in Malibu. We have these "trophy mansions" scarifying the skylines everywhere, like castles on the hill. The children are what bothered me. Notice not one dog was brought back? The butchering of the pig and chickens was a senseless lesson to a little boy. Now he is numbed in his electronic games.All of those children came back with better values. All of those children are being failed by their "parents."

>>Societies have always had to recognize, accept and guard against this type of element. <<<br><br>You saw his house. That's how our society "guards against" this type. Says a lot about us, doesn't it? :-)

not all wealthy people are bad and not all bad people get wealthy.<br><br>Someone who knows how to "work the system" whichever system they are in, will thrive<br><br>Trading off between cooperation and competition in a see-sawing manor is viewed as backstabing by the victim and healthy competition and ambition by the victor.<br><br>Honor is rarely rewarded in this lifetime - hence tombstones and heaven. Weather you believe in either or not there is the internal reward of being able to look in the mirror and being trusted by those who know you.

This sounds like a cool show. It also sounds very similar to one we had up here in Canada a year or two back. It was called "A Year in the Life of a Pioneer" or something like that. There were only two couples, a middle aged couple and a newlywed couple in their twenties. I didn't get to watch the whole series but did enjoy what I did see. <br><br>Your PBS show sounds a whole lot more involved, like there is a whole town there. <br><br>I think "A year in the life of..." was broadcast on the Life Channel and now they are broadcasting another show along the same lines only its a group of men paddling a freight canoe from somewhere in Ontario up to James Bay (Hudson Bay). They are supposed to be recreating the travels of what we in Canada call the "Voyageurs", a group of French Fur traders from the 17 and 18 hundreds. <br><br>