What a difference a century makes!

[sid2001]

THE YEAR IS 1909

1909 Ford Model R Fuel for this car was sold in drug stores only One hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes! Here are some statistics for the Year 1909: The average life expectancy was 47 years. Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub. Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone. There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph. The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower! The average wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour. The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year. A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year. More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME. Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard.' Sugar cost four cents a pound.Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.Coffee was 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 that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason. Five leading causes of death were pneumonia and influenza, tuberculosis, diarrhea, heart disease and stroke. The American flag had 45 stars. The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30! Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea Hadn't been invented yet. There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day. Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write and only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school. Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, 'Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind,regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health' Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help. There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.! Plus one more sad thought: 95 percent of the taxes we have now did not exist in 1909.

[camarocrazy2]

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Wow and I don't even have hair and I wash it once a day.

[redlinesrule]

those are some awesome history facts & sometimes we think we have it so bad today? Well, most of these makes one wonder

[escazu]

That entire list is very interesting, 100 years into the future from now will definitely bring things that we cannot comprehend or even understand if we knewwhat was coming.

[99octane]

People made predictions, they always do.
Some are close to right, some way off.
George Orwell's 1984 with "Big Brother" watching (released in 1948)
had several predictions that were (and still are) approaching fruition.
Other predictions less than 100 years old include visions like
"Star Trek"; some of which has already come to pass
(flip open personal communicators - our cell phones -
and computerized medical readouts over hospital beds or
robots assisting surgeons during an operation),
and some things that were pretty silly.
On that note, 'The Jetsons" animated show had some far fetched ideas.

But if you go back farther, the works of H.G. Wells and before him, Jules Verne come to my mind.
Verne in particular, whose unique style of science fiction (some say he invented the genre)
predicted the world of today - again with some hits and some misses.
He died in 1905, (yes I just Googled that, LOL) just before the 1909 date Sid started us with.

Predictions can be entirely guesswork or based on some insight,
usually by knowing where we were and where we are.
(Not everyone knows where we are, by that way. )

About the money angle, how people earned and how much it cost to buy things in 1909;
everything's relative of course - if you only earn $400 a year, but a house can be had for $2500,
and groceries were measuried in cents instead of dollars, $400 a year is comparable to $30,000 a year today.
Or something like that. You get the point.
But at least the money was actually MONEY, backed by silver or gold.
Starting with the first Federal Reserve Notes of 1914, after the new Federal Reserve banking charter,
things began heading in a new direction, a direction that has us where we are today financially.

Very cool post Sid, I really enjoyed it!
Greg

[Spoilersnut]

My grandparents were around during this era and said to me those were wonderful times in America! We were viewed then as the world leader in just about everyarea of commerce and world economy. Even our coins and currency of these times showed off our strengths and determinations to the entire world. Beautiful worksof art they were! My grandma especially spoke to me of her young adulthood as being the most joyful fun filled time of her life. She was not rich, she wasjust LIVING OUT LOUD! After hearing these great stories directly from their hearts, two who lived in the era, I thought to myself (long after reachingadulthood) if I could have lived in another time slot here in America it would have been in theirs!

Twenty Dollar Gold Double Eagle, these were carried in the pockets of the rich and infamous!

Series of 1999 $1 Silver Certificate "The Eagle Note" found in just about every wallet in the era!

I enjoyed this read above, thanks for posting it!

Lance