The Year 1909

BangkokDean

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THE YEAR 1909

This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!
The year is 1909.
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.
Fuel for this car was sold in drug stores only

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:

1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. 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

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.

IT STAGGERS THE MIND :banghead:
 
It boggles the mind

When cleaning out the folks house for sale, I rescued some stuff from Cleveland Ohio they were born in 1905 & 1903, so married in 1924 something.....

they opened a passbook savings account, Cleveland Trust, I have the book in this desk drawer....in went ten cents, two bits....had it up to several dollars...check the dates all through the 20's....then came '29, and the slow withdrawals and NO deposits till the last buck taken out in '31 something, the pass book torn in 1/2 at that time.....

Knowing my parents, I can see Dad's total and abject disgust and tossing that passbook in the garbage.....and mom letting him walk off, and then going over and pulling it out for her shoebox collection.....

sis was born in '31.....me '44.....


:crutches::crutches::goodnight:
 
My great grandmother was born in 1903. It used to be kind of a tradition to keep something from the year of your birth as a memento. Her parents kept a 1903 Sears & Roebuck catalog, which she then kept on the nightstand next to her bed. When I was growing up, I remember sitting there looking through that catalog for hours. It was my favorite pastime there. When she died back in the 80's, I wanted that to remember her by. I never got it but think about it often.
 
Not PC today

My current house was built in 1905. A few years ago we took down the crumbling plaster and lath walls in the 3rd floor attic so we could remodel. Behind a wall was an old bucket with some newspaper remnants, a classified ad read "Help Wanted - White Woman". My teenage daughter got all upset and cried "Dad - That's institutionalized racism"! I had to explain to her that there were times when things were different.....:amazed:
 
My current house was built in 1905. A few years ago we took down the crumbling plaster and lath walls in the 3rd floor attic so we could remodel. Behind a wall was an old bucket with some newspaper remnants, a classified ad read "Help Wanted - White Woman". My teenage daughter got all upset and cried "Dad - That's institutionalized racism"! I had to explain to her that there were times when things were different.....:amazed:

Jeez, early on in my remodeling business, I tore into a house in Bethesda Maryland, right across Cedar Lane from the NIH campus....that house was built in '42 for a Roosevelt WH worker....cabinet?? I forget....anyway I was tearing apart the upstairs bath....in those walls and the ceiling was buried some WW2 comics, and other articles from the uber liberal Wash Post paper...

Today, even here I would be vilified for thinking of what was written....

YEAOU.....:bonkers::pprrtt: my kids see that today, they'd shit....

:flash:

edit....the reason for the crumbled up newspaper was remember the year of construction, by the dates on the paper....middle of '42.....Pearl was just attacked and our guys were hurting BAD....AND it took a high level guy to get the material to get a house built ANYWHERE in this country, and it was not that large a house either...war material demands....hence the newspaper insulation....
 
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