Quail_Antwerp
Cold is on the Right, Hot is on The Left
ME TOO! I hate it when people tell me how to do something for my kids. "Uh, thanks, but I don't remember you having any part of the making or delivering of my kid!"PamsPride said:
What do ya'll think of communal living?
- Thread starter okiegirl1
- Start date
keljonma
Epicurean Goddess
Communal living is what my great grandparents did. They purchased an entire street and the surrounding acreage in the late 1800s. Their community was all family. They didn't share housing, although grown children could come back home when they hit hard times (WWI, the Great Depression, and WWII).
As my grandmother and her siblings married, each was deeded with acreage for a house and land. Most of them worked outside the farm and also grew food.
My grandfather worked at Westinghouse during WWI, but they also had huge gardens, fruiting trees and bushes, and raised some animals.
My dad (as well as his siblings and his cousins) helped all the aunts and uncles with their spring planting and harvesting - by going up and down the street. No one worried if dad didn't come home at night because they knew he was up the road harvesting the onion or potato crops. I heard lots of stories of shared harvests and bartering.
When I was growing up, most of the relatives had sold off portions of their land to developers. So most of my great aunts and uncles had neighbors. But my grandparents kept their land, so through my dad's memories, was able to picture how the street looked back then, and how life had been for him as a child.
As my grandmother and her siblings married, each was deeded with acreage for a house and land. Most of them worked outside the farm and also grew food.
My grandfather worked at Westinghouse during WWI, but they also had huge gardens, fruiting trees and bushes, and raised some animals.
My dad (as well as his siblings and his cousins) helped all the aunts and uncles with their spring planting and harvesting - by going up and down the street. No one worried if dad didn't come home at night because they knew he was up the road harvesting the onion or potato crops. I heard lots of stories of shared harvests and bartering.
When I was growing up, most of the relatives had sold off portions of their land to developers. So most of my great aunts and uncles had neighbors. But my grandparents kept their land, so through my dad's memories, was able to picture how the street looked back then, and how life had been for him as a child.
My ex-fiance and I lived for four days on a commune in the Florida Keys a really long time ago. That was when I realized that I was more of a capitalist in some respects. I'm not a good sharer.
There were a few leaders that directed the activities. On certain days we made items to sell, like candles, bead crafts. Other days were spent selling these goods to tourists on Key West. We were required to hitch hike there and back.
We were entitled to one communal meal that we helped prepare, usually spaghetti marinara.
The living conditions were disgusting with 50 people digging 50 pits each day for a bathroom facility in the sand. No one lived under the house roof except the leaders, so tents were everyone's living quarters. Try putting up a tent where there hadn't been a "pit".
Theft was a tremendous problem.
Are all communes run that poorly? Don't know-one was enough for me.
It was about on the top of my bad experiences list. Still, having survived the deal- I feel fortunate to have had a chance at communal living, to see first hand what all the hubbub was about.
There were a few leaders that directed the activities. On certain days we made items to sell, like candles, bead crafts. Other days were spent selling these goods to tourists on Key West. We were required to hitch hike there and back.
We were entitled to one communal meal that we helped prepare, usually spaghetti marinara.
The living conditions were disgusting with 50 people digging 50 pits each day for a bathroom facility in the sand. No one lived under the house roof except the leaders, so tents were everyone's living quarters. Try putting up a tent where there hadn't been a "pit".
Theft was a tremendous problem.
Are all communes run that poorly? Don't know-one was enough for me.
It was about on the top of my bad experiences list. Still, having survived the deal- I feel fortunate to have had a chance at communal living, to see first hand what all the hubbub was about.
Home Maker
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I hope I never have to live like that. I like privacy too much.
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
I think it seems like a really romantic notion that falls apart eventually.....too many chiefs and not enough indians. Everyone wants to have things their way all the time and people get greedy or bossy or possessive.....well, you get the picture.
It's like living in a neighborhood, there are always wonderful helpful people with good intentions and then someone starts a crack house 2 doors down and it all goes to h-e-double hockey sticks.
It's like living in a neighborhood, there are always wonderful helpful people with good intentions and then someone starts a crack house 2 doors down and it all goes to h-e-double hockey sticks.
noobiechickenlady
Almost Self-Reliant
I'm sorta on the fence with this. It really depends on who the others were. I couldn't live in Dancing Rabbit, as cool as some of the projects going on there are. Too much touchy feely, group-think, "it takes a village" stuff for me. I am not going to willingly become one of the Borg.
Apparently though, my mother is trying to start a family commune. She gave me 2.? acres and helped me find a mobile home. Now she's bought one for my grandmother. My aunt & cousin live with granny, so guess who is also moving in? She has also told other cousins that they could use some acreage if they kept it up & got their own house. Let it not go unsaid that I love my family, I just don't like a lot of them. And I'm sure not keen on living within a few hundred feet of them.
If I ever move again or lose my job, I'm going to Hot Springs, AR & live with my MIL on her land. She's already told us to pick out a future house site, just in case. She's the most awesome lady & we see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues and can communicate gracefully about those things we don't agree on. I'd rather send my kids to her for a summer than to my mom for a weekend. Sad, isn't it?
Apparently though, my mother is trying to start a family commune. She gave me 2.? acres and helped me find a mobile home. Now she's bought one for my grandmother. My aunt & cousin live with granny, so guess who is also moving in? She has also told other cousins that they could use some acreage if they kept it up & got their own house. Let it not go unsaid that I love my family, I just don't like a lot of them. And I'm sure not keen on living within a few hundred feet of them.
If I ever move again or lose my job, I'm going to Hot Springs, AR & live with my MIL on her land. She's already told us to pick out a future house site, just in case. She's the most awesome lady & we see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues and can communicate gracefully about those things we don't agree on. I'd rather send my kids to her for a summer than to my mom for a weekend. Sad, isn't it?
AMEN!!
I am so glad we moved away from DH's family!! His one cousin...that bought the house we used to live in....is nothing but DRAMA now! It has torn the family apart!
1st house: BIL
2nd house: His grandma's...cousin bought it then lost it to forclosure! (DRAMA!)
3rd house:His Aunt Dee....now his cousin and her SO and three kids are living with her!
4th house:MIL
My mom always talks about "If she hits the lottery" that she wants to buy a huge piece of land in Montana or something and then make a club house in the middle and give each of us kids (Me, my brother, my sister, my step-sister, and step-brother) and my aunt a house on the property!! Giving us each a corner! HELLO!! We can not even all get together for Christmas dinner now! I tell her she can just give me a portion of the money and I will use it to come back and forth to visit her!
But, there is a part of me that is hoping that all of my kids will live next door to me when they are older!
Blackbird
Goat Whisperer
Yeah, I think it would get too cult-ish. And obviously all would need to be one religion, people get too cranky over other religions that aren't their own.
If it was like a group of neighbors with all similar views on life that lived how they wanted but traded and bartered between each other, without a leader, it might work. But that would be a bit rare.
Might as well live in a renaissance fair if that's the case. Or a large polyamourous relationship.
If it was like a group of neighbors with all similar views on life that lived how they wanted but traded and bartered between each other, without a leader, it might work. But that would be a bit rare.
Might as well live in a renaissance fair if that's the case. Or a large polyamourous relationship.
big brown horse
Hoof In Mouth
Ah, yeah, no thanks!
