!00 Years Ago

There has been much written online, in the papers and on TV about Ronald Reagan lately.  He would have been 100 years old this year.  My dad would have been 100 years old Jan 27th. He died when he was 66 so he missed out on so much.  He met his grandchildren, but they were all very young when he passed away. My brother and I still have remembering fests some days about dad. We argue about who was his favorite, but then he made all of us feel like his favorite. He was a great dad, a really great dad.  Here is a list of facts about the world he and Ronald Reagan were born into.  

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.

Author Unknown

Pretty Amazing, isn't it?  I remember my grandmother telling me when I was a teenager, that there had been so many changes, inventions and discoveries in her lifetime, that there couldn't possibly be another generation experiencing so much again.  She was wrong. I can't imagine the world my grandchildren will live in as adults.

Comments

[Judi]

What fascinating information! Some of it was new to me. Wow. 144 miles of paved roads. I drive that in a day!

[Cheryl]

This was really interesting - thanks!

Cheryl

[Peggy]

Very interesting post ! The story of the seamstresses is just amazing.
Thank you , you made my day !
Peggy from Paris

[Brian Kasstle]

Very interesting! Wowzer!

[Sharon Bennett]

Thanx for sharing this great list. My Dad is still with us at 92 and he tells us things sometimes, that I go, "What?, You're kidding." Maybe he's not!

[Rachel Greig]

Wow - there's some interesting facts there!

[Joan Olson]

Another amazing thing: with year passing year of my OWN life, 100 years sounds like a shorter and shorter period of time!