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100 Years Ago
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Salty Dog
Sailing Master
Posts: 10060



191991 Gold -

PostPosted: Sun Sep 13, 2015 12:09 am    Post subject: 100 Years Ago Reply with quote

100 Years Ago
A lot of this is applicable to our grandparents, and even some of our parents.

It May Be Hard to Believe That A Scant 100 Years Ago...


The average life expectancy in the United States was forty-seven.
Only 14 percent of the homes in the United States had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone. A three minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.
There were only 8,000 cars in the US and only 144 miles of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was ten mph.
Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the twenty-first most populous state in the Union.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
The average wage in the U.S. was twenty-two cents an hour. The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2500 per year, a veterinarian between $1500 and $4000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births in the United States took place at home.


Ninety percent of all U.S. physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."
Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee cost fifteen cents a pound.
Most women only washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason, either as travelers or immigrants.
The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were: 1. Pneumonia and influenza 2. Tuberculosis 3. Diarrhea 4. Heart disease 5. Stroke
The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.
Drive-by-shootings, in which teenage boys galloped down the street on horses and started randomly shooting at houses, carriages, or anything else that caught their fancy, were an ongoing problem in Denver and other cities in the West.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was thirty. The remote desert community was inhabited by only a handful of ranchers and their families.


Plutonium, insulin, and antibiotics hadn't been discovered yet. Scotch tape, crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.
There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
One in ten U.S. adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Some medical authorities warned that professional seamstresses were apt to become sexually aroused by the steady rhythm, hour after hour, of the sewing machine's foot pedals. They recommended slipping bromide, which was thought to diminish sexual desire,into the woman's drinking water.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and the bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.
Coca-Cola contained cocaine instead of caffeine.
Punch card data processing had recently been developed, and early predecessors of the modern computer were used for the first time by the government to help compile the 1900 census.
Eighteen percent of households in the United States had at least one full-time servant or domestic.
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Rusty Edge
Rigger
Posts: 1977



2992 Gold -

PostPosted: Sun Sep 13, 2015 3:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, narcotics would be handy to have at the corner pharmacy when diarrhea is the third leading cause of death, and there are no anti-biotics.

I've read this before, and I'm always shocked at the 47 year life expectancy, until I remember that my grandfather lost half of his siblings in childhood to diseases like scarlet fever and whooping cough.

The lack of cars, the 6% high school graduation rate, and Alabama being more populous than California, well, that's pretty difficult to even imagine.
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Captain Teague
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Posts: 1185



12207 Gold -

PostPosted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 1:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Actually, 100 years ago the US flag had 48 stars. Oklahoma became a state on November 16, 1907. New Mexico became a state on January 6, 1912 and Arizona followed on February 14, 1912. (Happy Valentine's Day, USA!)

Other than that, nice post. Some of it is hard to imagine.
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Salty Dog
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191991 Gold -

PostPosted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 3:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The message was created in 2000 and has not been updated since then. You are certainly right.
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Captain Teague
Rigger
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12207 Gold -

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2015 2:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Salty Dog wrote:
The message was created in 2000 and has not been updated since then. You are certainly right.

I figured as much. Still felt like speaking up. Wink
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corsair91
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Posts: 8047



206141 Gold -

PostPosted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 2:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Disease has always been a bigger killer in history than conflicts.

The Spanish flu in 1919 actually started in the 1916 field hospitals on the WW1 western front and was an avian bird flu that jumped species.

The US Presidential oath - protect against all enemies foreign and domestic, does include against diseases and a Health care provision, as all does actually means all.

Hawaii and Puerto Rico became Terrorities in 1898.
Hawaii became a state in 1960 and Puerto Rico is still waiting,
so no 51st flag star as yet.

California with the advent of the movies became a migration destination.

The sad thing is with Climate Change - the next generation
will suffer a reduced standard of living compared to the previous generation.
The upware curve of progress will no longer trend upwards and it all could have been avoided, until time now is virtually up to do anything to lessen
the impact.
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corsair91
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206141 Gold -

PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 12:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Things that were normal 100 years ago that are strange now

https://www.grunge.com/119815/things-normal-100-years-ago-strange-now/
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