One Hundred Years And Counting.

1910 ~ 2010

Lately I’ve had the odd feeling that time is going by too fast and things are happening too slowly.

It’s already 2010, the future is now and we still don’t have sentient robot housekeepers, world peace and hover cars hovering over every garage. Are we behind schedule?

Maybe not.

Let’s pick up a magic kaleidoscope and look back one hundred years and think about what America was like in February 1910.

Only two of ten adults could read or write and only six percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

The average life expectancy was forty-seven years.

(No AARP junk mail.)

95% of all births took place at home.

(It makes sense most conceptions started at home. I’m assuming the other 5% of births were in haylofts, under the apple trees, on porch swings etc…)

The average wage was twenty-two cents an hour.

(Don’t spend it all in one place whipper-snapper.)

Only fourteen percent of American homes had a bathtub.

(The other 86% held their nose or braved a pan of cold water)

Only eight percent had a phone.

(How could you call and order a phone if you didn’t have a phone to make the call?)

Most women washed their hair once each month and used products such as Borax or egg yolks to shampoo their hair.

(It would take me at least a month to work up the nerve to attempt such a miserable task again)

Ninety percent of all doctors did not graduate from college. They attended dubious “Medical Schools” many of which were later condemned as substandard.

(Yes your child can grow up to be a doctor…)

Ninety-five percent of the taxes we pay today did not exist in 1910.

(Can Taxes be taxed? It could be a money maker?)

Heroin was promoted as a “complexion clearer” and praised as giving “buoyancy to the mind”.

(It worked for Keith Richards. I still see him being interviewed on the British book lovers shows. He speaks slowly but he’s still quite witty.)

Las Vegas Nevada had a population of thirty.

(And it was a long-shot gamble to live there back then. What happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas unless “it” got on a horse and rode out of town.)

America had 8,000 automobiles and only 144 miles of paved road to drive them on.

(A tank of gas literally took you to the edge of nowhere)

230 murders were reported nation wide.

(And thousands were getting away with murder-those were the days…lol)

XXOO Kat