November 8, 2009

Anticipation of My Trip


In less than three days, I will be on a plane headed for Ireland-- something I have always dreamed about, but never thought would come true. It still feels like a dream, it has not fully set in that I am really going. We have been planning the trip for months and it doesn't feel real now.  I am still really excited, although my excitement has been overrun by an unfortunate family quarrel.

Regardless, in honor of my trip, an excerpt from The American Frugal Housewife (1838) by Lydia Marie Child:
    "People of moderate fortune have just as good a right to travel as the wealthy; but is it not unwise? Do they not injure themselves and their families? You say travelling is cheap. So is staying at home. Besides, do you count all the costs?

    The money you pay for stages and steamboats is the smallest of the items. There are clothes bought which would not otherwise be bought; those clothes are worn out and defaced twenty times as quick as they would have been at home; children are perhaps left with domestics, or strangers; their health and morals, to say the least, under very uncertain influence ; your substance is wasted in your absence by those who have no self-interest to prompt them to carefulness; you form an acquaintance with a multitude of people, who will be sure to take your house in their way, when they travel next year; and finally, you become so accustomed to excitement, that home appears insipid, and it requires no small effort to return to the quiet routine of your duties. And what do you get in return for all this? Some pleasant scenes, which will soon seem to you like a dream; some pleasant faces, which you will never see again; and much of crowd, and toil, and dust, and bustle," (100.)

      In the interest of frugality, should I really be traveling? No, this money could be put elsewhere (college mostly.) It will be a much welcomed and appreciated vacation. It has also been a lot of hard work and we hope to have a lot of fun and a truly life changing experience. 

*Note: The engravings are from Moore's Irish Melodies (1866.)




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