Computer Guru Son and I have been watching the PBS version of reality TV, the series Frontier House. I checked out a DVD of the entire series at the library, and we’ve watched all but the final episode. In the series, three families from various parts of the U.S. are asked to live on a homestead in Montana using only the tools and survival skills available to a family in 1883. I’m impressed with the amount of work, ingenuity, and just grit that it took to live on the frontier–even in the summer/fall of the year. I can’t imagine surviving a Montana winter. I told my son that I don’t think I’d last any longer than two days, but then even in my rather sheltered life I’ve found that people often can do whatever they have to do. In other words, if there were no choice, if I were “stuck” on a homestead in Montana in 1883, I might find that I could do what had to be done. I thought the historical aspects of the program were very interesting, and the concept is intriguing. However, I did find it amazing that at least two of the three families were willing to air so much “dirty laundry” in public. These families know that they’re going to be on TV, yet they feud and gossip and talk about divorce and about their private lives. I doubt if families of the 1880’s would have been anywhere near so open with their private affairs. But in our day and age we “let it all hang out.” I’m also amazed at what some people write on their blogs for all the world to see. Propriety is a lost concept.