old-fashioned Archives - Page 2 of 2

These old-timey things brought me some joy this week:

Wearing Sweaters
It’s cold in the Midwest. For me, that means sweaters.I have, perhaps, a slight sweater problem. They are the coziest of garments, lend themselves to layering, pair equally well with jeans and skirts, and, in short, I probably have too many of them. My sweater wardrobe is overwhelmingly thrifted, since that’s how I can afford cashmere. (This is the part where I brag about never paying more than $6 for a cashmere sweater. I take my sense of accomplishment where I can get it.)But speaking of sweaters…

I knit this one! I finished it! It only took me two years! It fits on my body and everything!It’s the most basic of basic cardigan patterns. The buttons are vintage from my grandma’s button box, and no, they are not all identical. Sweater-knitting is super addictive, and I am hopeful that my next one won’t take two years.

Looking at Lights
One of my favorite holiday things to do is the Lincoln Park Zoo’s light display. Zoolights is a truly impressive installation of Christmas lights. It’s free, it’s festive, and sometimes you get to see animals.SIDE NOTE: This year, I discovered that looking into zoo exhibits at night is scary. Some deep, evolutionary warning pings deep in your stomach when you’re looking for polar bears and can’t quite see everything. I pointed this out to my companions, and I was not alone in my freaked-outedness. When a snow leopard’s eyes glint at you in the dark, your brain is not too convinced that fences make that much of a difference.But we were not eaten by leopards. We just saw a lot of pretty lights.

Eating Marmalade on Toast
I think of marmalade as a winter food. I suppose that’s because that’s when citrus is season. Of course, marmalade is preserved, so it could be eaten year-round, but I only crave it in the winter. My preparation never varies. Toast, thin layer of butter, thick layer of marmalade. It makes me feel like a British lady detective.

Bonne Maman is good, but I like the Trader Joe’s house brand even better.

Drinking Hot Chocolate in the Evening
My grandma was a hot chocolate (with a dose of instant coffee in it) for breakfast person. I am a hot chocolate (with the occasional dose of brandy in it) in the evening person. On the advice of one of my favorite cookbooks, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, I switched up my recipe this year, and started using brown sugar instead of white. This is a game changer. It is really delicious, and perfect for sipping while watching Netflix and knitting.

This is not my hot chocolate, but you get the idea. Photo by Rab Fyfe on Unsplash

Going to the Movies
My neighborhood movie theatre has been in operation (almost constantly) since 1912. These days, it’s a four-screen, affordable treasure. Their ticket prices are already inexpensive, but on Tuesdays they run an all-day $5 special. So lately, on Tuesday nights, we’ve been going to see a picture. This is a good incentive to see things on the big screen that I would otherwise wait to stream. For $5, I’ll take the risk that I won’t like something.There is something special about movies in the theatre. Being part of an audience is different than watching something at home, and feels a little more connected.

How about you? What old-fashioned pleasures have you enjoyed this week?

There’s a lot to be angry about. A lot to worry over, and shout over, and be deeply, deeply unsettled by. In these times, I think it’s even more important to seek out and recognize the little things that make life better. And thus, old-fashioned pleasures.

What makes something old-fashioned? My entirely arbitrary definition is that the thing or activity should have existed for more than fifty years (in some form or another), and it probably shouldn’t cost a whole lot. Old-fashioned pleasures are most likely low-tech, and usually not terribly fancy.

Here’s this week’s list:

Rambling walks
I ended up at the lake front, which was ten different shades of grey and blue.

A walkable neighborhood is a glorious thing. I’ve been trying to take walks without any particular destination in mind. The weather has been particularly (and slightly freakily) mild, so it’s been easy to convince myself to hit the pavement.

I’ve lived in the same apartment for six years, and it’s easy to only go on my established routes. “This is the way I go to the train, this is the way I go to the store, here is where I catch the bus…” Mixing things up allows me to discover the new things I’ve been missing, which are often only a couple of blocks away.

Monday’s walk took me around and about Rogers Park, a neighborhood I almost live in, and all the way to Lake Michigan. I felt a lot more like a person at the end of it.
Nature
Nature can be hard to come by in the city, but Chicago’s lake front helps a lot. I know I can always get a healthy dose of air, water, and sky. This week, I found some sea glass, which feels like treasure.
Sourdough starter
This one is really old-fashioned, pretty much ancient. I’ve started experimenting with sourdough bread. Sourdough uses the natural yeasts from the air to leaven bread. It’s what people used before commercial yeast was available (Fleischmann’s Yeast was founded in 1868).

Sourdough is magical.

Bubble, bubble…

This is my starter, and it’s kind of like a pet. It requires regular feedings of flour and water, and can’t be left on its own very long. It’s worth it, though. It yields tangy loaves with a crispy crust, and it makes me feel like a harvest goddess. I may or may not dance around shouting, “I have brought forth bread from the very air!” while baking.
Live music
Okay, it’s silly that I have to be reminded how great live music is. My fiance is a musician. I am a musician. I grew up surrounded by musicians, making music, and going to concerts, taking music lessons, and yet…every time I go to a concert, I am struck by how much I like it, and how much more often I should do it.

In one of my periodic fits of remembering that I like listening to live music, I looked for free concerts. That brought my attention to the Fourth Presbyterian Church’s concert series. They were hosting a free evening of Bach (Brandenburg Concertos), performed by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and I decided to check it out.

It was lovely. (And Yo-Yo Ma was there). The young artists of the orchestra were impressively skilled, and there is something so life-affirming about Bach. I’m grateful for modern recording technology, since it means we can listen to just about anything anytime, but that makes watching and listening to music as it happens, sharing the space with the people making it, is extra special.

Fourth Presbyterian also has a beautiful (circa 1871) sanctuary, so that was an added delight.
Agatha Christie
I went to see Murder on the Orient Express and enjoyed it heartily. This has sent me off on an Agatha Christie kick. I’m reading Death on the Nile, and am, perhaps, low-key obsessed with Poirot.

I do not have a 1937 first edition.

I’m half-heartedly trying to read books instead of screens before bed. The other novel I’m reading, Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, is way, way, too disturbing for pre-bed reading. It is almost too disturbing to read at all, to be honest. But an Agatha Christie novel? Perfection.