See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America

by Logan Ward

Book Overview

Years of working long hours surrounded by technology, stress and danger had taken their toll on Logan Ward and his wife Heather. They sold their belongings, packed up their 2-year-old son and moved to a farmhouse in the country. This book tells the story of this family's year in a farmhouse in Swoope, Virginia, living as if it were 1900.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933771151
• ISBN13: 9781933771151
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Benbella Books
• Length: 245 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.6" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Very thoughtful reading.

As someone who has watched the PBS shows where people actually live in a different era for a period of time I found this just as intriging. Most people have a glorified, romantic vision of living in the past. Although there are moments of delight, it's mostly hard work and sacrifices. But then again, hard work can be very fulfulling and invigorating.

Engrossing, Entertaining Chronicle of 1900 Rural Living Experiment

'See You In A Hundred Years' Engrossing, Entertaining Chronicle of 1900 Rural Living Experiment By David M. Kinchen Could you give up your car, electricity and all the conveniences of modern living in order to get back to the basics circa 1900? Logan and Heather Ward decided in 2000 to do just that, leaving their comfortable home in New York City, where they had lived for about 10 years, buying a farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and deciding to try to live as much as possible like a typical farm family in 1900. Logan Ward writes about their experiences in "See You In A Hundred Years" (Delta Trade Paperback, 272 pages, $13.00). Very few people are going to follow the example of the Ward family -- which included their toddler son Luther -- seeking a simpler life that would remove the urban rat race aspect from their life, but just about everybody will enjoy this book -- and learn many valuable lessons about conservation and consumption in our consumer-driven society. Reading this book, I was reminded of a 1945 book and 1947 movie, "The Egg and I," starring Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert as an urban couple buying a chicken farm in rural Washington state. The movie introduced Ma and Pa Kettle, played by Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride, to an eager movie-going audience. About the same time as the Betty MacDonald book and subsequent movie came out, I was growing up on a similar farm in southwest Michigan, probably longing for a more civilized existence that would eliminate the use of an outhouse in snowbelt winters when our septic tank froze up. When they bought their farm near Swoope, VA, the Wards decided to remove all the modern conveniences that had been added through the generations. No more electric pump at the well, no more Volvo to go to go shopping, no more electricity, a phone unplugged (although they kept the phone service current in case of a medical emergency). And yes, no more indoor toilet! Logan had to shave with a cut-throat straight razor -- ouch! -- because King Gillette's safety razor didn't come along until 1903. No more shaving of Heather's legs and underarms, either. She wasn't about to use a straight razor. As the months piled up from their year-long experiment, marital and family stresses emerged and were illuminated, Ward writes. They had experienced a different kind of stress in their life in Brooklyn, with Logan Ward constantly on the go around the world and writing free-lance travel and home oriented stories (he has written for many publications, including The New York Times, Men's Journal, National Geographic Adventure and Popular Mechanics) and Heather with an absorbing -- and time consuming -- job. Both Logan and Heather had Southern roots -- Logan from South Carolina, Heather from Alabama -- so the choice of a farm in rural Virginia seemed to make sense. It reminds me of a similar back-to-the-land movement in the 1960s and 1970s that brought urbanites from the Northeast and elsewhere

must read

What an amazing story. Logan and Heather Ward had the courage not only to live like 1900 in the 21st century (with their little boy) but were astute enough to take notes and share their heartwarming story. The excellent descriptions of their adventures as well as the author's personal doubts and fears make this book hard to put down. Be prepared to become so involved in the Wards's story that you will not be able to stop reading! If you have the chance, go to one of his book signings and meet the author.... an incredible young man... a great author.

See You in a Hundred Years

Great read and true page turner for real life experience. Logan Ward transports you into his family's journey of dealing with life in 1900 and the challenges and joys of the same. You feal like you are there, but safely behind the looking glass. Highly recommended.

More Thoreau than 'Survivor'

This is a wonderful book. Let's start with the idea of buying a rundown farmhouse and voluntarily subjecting yourself and your family to a year without electricity, telephones, automobiles, television, or any other convenience of the 20th, let alone 21st, century. The reader wants to know, first off: is this a gimmick or is the author after something deeper and more meaningful? A page or two will settle that question for any thoughtful reader. Yes, this is an exciting story of survival in a world of plough horses and wood fires, where something as incidental to modern city dwellers as a change in the weather could determine how well you eat for the next few months. Ward delivers the historical details with accuracy, humor and poignancy. But calling "See You in a Hundred Years" a survival story would be like calling "Walden" a nature book. In the end, what makes this work such a treasure is the author's honesty in confronting his own successes and failures as a husband, father, provider, and man. Joys, pains, minor humiliations, major setbacks, and redemptive victories unfold like the Virginia seasons and combine to form a moving and graceful meditation on what it means, in this century or any other, to be alive.