Back in time

I just returned from a week in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where my wife and I joined three other family members in a (very) backwoods hunting cabin, built in 1949. Nothing major has changed since that time. No electricity, no running water, and few (if any) comforts of home we've grown so accustomed to over the years. There was a "two-hole" outhouse about 50 feet away from the cabin, and if you wanted to go out there at night, you best take a flashlight with you, and shine it first in the surrounding tree line to look for the glaring eyes of a wolf or bear, who inhabit the remote area. If you wanted water, you used a metal hand pump connected to a nearby well. Heat came from a propane stove, which recently replaced a wood-burning, hand-made barrel-style stove. The change was not made by choice, but by the insurance folks, who mandated it, or else bye-bye policy. Lighting came from oil lamps, and block ice allowed us to keep food cold. Eggs, bacon and pancakes taste much better when cooked in such an environment, and when you climbed the steep creaky loft ladder to go to bed at night, the silence outside was unbelievable, as was the sight of millions of stars unblemished by man-made light pollution. We were definitely transported back in time, but were more than ready to return home, and take a long hot shower, simply by turning a couple of knobs.