Back in 1978, when I was 18, I wrote a book on living frugally and happily. At the time, there was a raging recession, imploding job markets, and rampant concerns about foreign competition and natural resources. Meanwhile, my dad and I were living a simple life on a half-acre outside of Philadelphia, gardening, raising rabbits and chickens, and enjoying ourselves all while being self supporting, lazy, and completely unconcerned about the national economy.
"This is not NASA technology"
Given current economic conditions, when a reprint was suggested by Tin House Books, it sounded like a good idea. People who wanted to stop having their whole life jerked around by a fickle job market could learn how we became financially independent without having a fortune or running off to live in the woods. People who wanted to keep their jobs could take comfort in knowing that we lived a good life on very, very little money and so could they, if needed.
In the past 30+ years, I found that knowing how to live happily without much money gave me the confidence to try all sorts of ventures including becoming a NASA engineer, an award-winning environmental educator, a college professor, and a business owner. With the addition of an afterword to the new edition of Possum Living, I got to add the lessons I’ve learned from these experiences to the voice of my younger self.
But there was a price to pay for the reprinting. The publisher wanted me to start a blog. I would have to join the 21st century.
Mind you, I had a telephone and even Internet access, which I thought was quite progressive. My dial-up service may have been terribly slow but it was cheap and reliable. In the morning, I’d sit down in my recliner, prop my feet up, open my laptop, dial up the Internet, drink my coffee, watch the birds at the feeder, nibble on my breakfast, and read a couple of chapters of a book while very slowly cruising the Internet.
The fact that we still used dial-up drove many people crazy. Our neighbor was so frustrated, he told us to use his wireless service. In order to pull it in, my husband, Pete, had to set up his own antenna. He took a wire fruit basket, covered it in tinfoil, put it on a music stand, attached the wireless receiver with jumper cable clamps, and pointed the whole thing at the neighbor’s house. With a lot of fiddling, repositioning, and tweaking, he was able to get a dribble of wireless Internet. When I told him we had to get DSL, he was very happy. We switched services, got a new wireless thing-a-majig, and breathlessly awaited the rush of progress.
Now when I sit down in the morning, I connect instantly with the Internet. I start to read an article and the connection dies. I curse. I try again. It pops back up. It dies. I curse some more. I get up and reboot the thing-a-majig. I sit down and try again. The connection dies in the middle of an email exchange. I curse. I get up and jiggle some wires. I sit back down. It still doesn’t work. I use the telephone to call the person I was trying to email. Then I watch the birds at the feeder to calm down.
I suspect that there are several problems going on. I’ll bet you that the wiring is messed up, the receiver is screwy, and the provider unreliable. This may take a bit of time to fix. Meanwhile, I’ll do my best and try to get some good discussions started. But here’s the deal; no name calling, no blaming the Republicans, the Democrats, or this or that president, no cursing, and no put downs.
Let’s hear what you have to say…
I have to thank Tin House for bringing you and your book to my attention. My husband and I live on very little, yet own our own home, have no debt, and lead rich, fulfilling lives. This is because we have no want or need for “stuff” or “status,” a condition which many people we know and most of American culture deems unnatural. (We often joke about how “un-American” we are.) It seems we are arguing it all the time! It was so refreshing to find someone so lovely and gracious stating so simply many of the things we’ve always believed, things apparently so obvious that most people overlook them. You are totally my new hero!
You are indeed an inspiration. I lost my job in early Dec 09 (about 6 weeks ago). I’ll admit, I made a really good living. My severance pay just ended. We’ve always lived below our means but have cut back our spending to an impressive (to us) level. I’m now realizing how much money we wasted, even when we were frugal compared to most.
There’s a lot to be learned when you have to be mindful of everything you consume – both buying and eating.
I hope the new edition of your book is a runaway best seller and we all get a much needed dose of reality. I hope the government will get a double dose.
Welcome back to the public eye, Dolly. I hope you enjoy your blogging experience, I’m looking forward to reading your stuff.
As for your online problems remember that if all else fails…read the instructions.
Hi Dolly,
So glad you’re back! I’ve been reading the first book, actually. Love your insistence on no name calling or blaming politicians…
Thanks for doing this – can’t wait to hear what you have to say.
What’s wrong with dial-up? I’m using it now!
I read “Possum Living” a few years ago when it was on-line, and it inspired me to try to do the same. (Still working on that, since one of the requirements is a mortgage-free property. Won’t be long, though.) I was delighted to learn last year that it was being reprinted. I just ordered the updated edition today and am eagerly waiting for it to arive.
The sample of the book on Tin House’s website mentions your father and his feeling that he didn’t need Social Security because he expected you to take care of him. This provokes me to ask, how are your parents? I imagine your mother is pleased by your path in life. How does your father feel? Is he still living like a possum on the old homestead?
I just love your Internet antenna! I put mine in a pie plate and shove it out my upstairs window. If the conditions are just right, I can catch a “dribble” on Internet from the college down the street, just enough to check my email at least. Otherwise I use the library Internet on my work break each day.
Howdy Dolly,
I read your book years ago and loved it. While the revelation that a person didn’t need to have a 9 to 5 job to be happy and economically secure was comforting, what I liked most about your book was the humor in the face of adversity.
I started a free Google website homepage a couple of years ago and gave you partial credit for the inspiration, there are also a few others out there on the web that feel the same way.
Mine is very amateurish and is at http://sites.google.com/site/robbmoffett/
Dolly, am glad to see you on the web and look forward to reading your blog. I am also happy you are re launching your book, which was “yes we can” in a very hopeful and American way.
regards,
Robb Moffett
Dear Dolly,
I learned about you a few months ago from survival blog, and in fact they had a link to your new site today. I ordered your book from Amazon and really have been enjoying it. What a hoot you were as a teenaged girl, I had a good laugh many a time over your attitudes, loved every one of them. How I WISH I had discovered your book when it first came out!
What a fantastic experience your young life was! What good things it taught you.
As times change I am working to be as self sufficent as possible, it never hurts and certainly there is no better feeling than to eat food you grew or foraged yourself.
The tougher task at hand for me right now is downscaling (too much stuff, too big a house) and finding a new place to suit me.
I’m on dial up too, it makes everyones head explode but mine! I don’t love it, but I’m just not going to mess with it for now. Besides, the entertainment value of everyone throwing a fit over it is oddly satisfying.
Anyway, I’m so glad I finally discovered you. Thank you for your fine book and for being the great soul that you are. I wish you every possible success as well as every happiness its possible to have.
Hi Dolly,
Thank you for your book and the great contribution you have made to the world by showing us what’s possible. I greatly admire you as I seek to have my family live more simply. It is very hard because my wife and children are used to having things like many shoes, Webkins (stuffed toy animals), and trendy clothes. Thank you for showing the way.
I help run a website that is geared toward local barter and exchange. It is mostly used in Utah, but is growing, so you may not see any items on it for your area. We figure this should help foster the possum living lifestyle.
Anyway, I wanted to ask you if you could write an article about how slaughtering animals for food. We had a bad experience once of trying to kill a rabbit to eat and no matter how many times we hit its head with a hammer it just wouldn’t die. The scene made the whole family cry and nearly turned us into vegetarians. We were following the advice of a neighbor who had done it before and he said a simple smack behind the ears with a hammer would kill it without any trouble. We don’t listen to that neighbor anymore.
Thanks again and I look forward to reading your blog.
I very much enjoyed your (reprinted) book.
Do you make ’shine in the kitchen, or will you wait until all your kids are out of the house.
Dear Ian,
This is why we used the “bullet to the head” method. It was dramatic but quick. Our gun had a silencer so we wouldn’t upset the neighbors. I wouldn’t hit anything as big as a rabbit with a hammer. Some people use the “snapped neck” method, but it seems like this could go astray, too. If you have a car, you can hook a long tube to the tail pipe and feed it into an enclosed box in which you have placed the rabbit. Make the tube long enough so that the exhaust is no longer hot when it reaches the box or the rabbit will be terrified.
Dolly
Dear Ian,
By the way, what I used was a dryer exhaust tube duct taped to the tail pipe.
Dolly
I’m so happy to see that you’ve started a blog! I read your book this past year and it was so interesting! My dream is for my family and I to be able to move to a few acres and provide for ourselves as much as possible. Since this dream will have to wait a few more years, I’m making due with the space we have now.
I look forward to reading your posts
Becky
Hi Dolly!
I just wanted to know I’ve been reading your book this week after reading about it on survivalblog.com. I’m loving it so far.
I have been working on my own slice of frugal independence over the last couple of years and blogging about it as I go. Learning that you have a blog, of course I added a link to here from my site!
I’m delighted to see you have a blog now, Dolly. I read your book several years back and it was deeply inspiring. I have wondered many times what sort of life you led as you moved beyond early adulthood. I expect I’ll be able to glean a few answers here and there now that you’re blogging. I’ll be adding your blog to my subscription list in just a moment. By the way, I’m gradually moving towards many of the things you and your father did (chickens already, plus a garden, bees this year, meat rabbits perhaps next year) but on a luxurious 2/3 acre, compared to your 1/2 acre. And we’re also north of Philadelphia, so we’ll see if we can replicate your example.
Hi Dolly,
Just finished Possum Living and am thrilled to know there is an “extension” of the book (and author!) here on the web.
I had no previous knowledge of the book as when you wrote it, I was busy living my own world happy that my family had indoor plumbing. My great-grandparents lived with their water source outside the kitchen door, an outhouse in the backyard and a woodburning cook stove; I wanted no part of it. I grew up believing they were poor, only to realize they were the richest of us all. Today, I strive for a similar lifestyle. 
A friend of mine winters in southern TX, and has invited me there several years now to go birding. I’ve yet to make it. She says I’d pick up at least 80 new lifers.
Thanks for the book, it’s highly insightful.
Lynnanne ~ Indiana
Though you may have been dragged kicking and screaming, I am thrilled to see the new presence..
I came across your book several years ago, and instantly began turning all of my frugal friends, and many who weren’t, onto it.
Until about 19 months ago, I had a modestly successful business in Austin, doing design and remodeling, when various factors forced me to move. I decided rather than move to another home in the same area, I would more or less “retire” and get on with doing what I love: gardening and being self-sufficient. Though many changes have occurred in the meantime, changing even where I am now building my very efficient and inexpensive ($5000 budget) underground off grid home, I am happily discovering that this was a wise choice.
Now with the discovery of your site and blog, through Mother Earth News email lists, I am once again singing your praises and sending out email with links as fast as I can to many of those same friends, and a few new ones.
I look forward to reading the blog and good luck on the reprinting of the book.. I will definitely be picking one up.
Can I just say how thrilled (!!!) I am that you’re blogging…thank you thank you thank you! There are so many of us out here who will benefit and simply enjoy your daily writings…in the homesteading community there are a lot of kindred spirits all across the internet
Dear Ian, I used the tailpipe method of rabbit demise only a few times. I would worry about pollutants and not eat the lungs or liver. Any carbon monoxide system should work and you can probably buy something on line from a lab supplier, but I have no idea how much they would cost.
Dear Calamity, No, my dad died a few years back and it wasn’t a happy ending. In the new addition, I got to write about it in the afterward. I miss discussing things with him. My mom is well and sassy and I call her regularly. She and my brother are still in Pennsylvania and still making candles!
Dear Lynnanne, If you are a birder, you must come birding in Texas. South Texas is an amazing birding area. Just don’t come in June, July, August, or September.
Take care,
Dolly
sweet sweet life. we should all go and do it!
Hi Dolly!!!
I just literally finished your book! It’s right here beside me. The first thing I did was google you and found that you are a blogger!!! I really enjoyed the book! For years I have been dreaming of a “possum” lifestyle, not really thinking it was achievable. I loved your story and am going to buy your book! I borrowed this book from the library, but I feel I need to share your story with all I know!!! The Law chapter was jaw dropping for me! I had a good laugh when I read the small print at the end. I am glad I found your blog and will be back to read often!
Thank you for sharing your story with me!
Angie
Our library just received the new reprint of your book. I checked it out and read it cover to cover yesterday evening. First good book I’ve read in a long time. I’d seen references to your book over the years but never have had the opportunity to read it until recently. Wish I had read it much earlier in life. Googled your name and found this site and a youtube video documentary about you. Thanks for a great informative book. If you are still having WIFI issues, try one of these high powered radios, cheap and very powerful. I get all the free WIFI I need anywhere(live in an RV full-time).
http://rokland.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=333&osCsid=7c8d58a9b2c11719d01179e5ec6ba743