The good old days

I received this in my e-mail, and thought I would post some of it for fun. It's a look at life in 1906. I'll prescribe the necessary grain of salt, and assume the facts I haven't verified are correct.

• The average life expectancy was 48.7 years.
  

Some stats here and here.

• 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.

• 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

• There were 8,000 cars and 144 miles of paved roads.

• 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.

It's interesting to note the difference in pay for an "average" worker versus the four mentioned above. Think of what was required of an accountant in the days before Mircosof Office, or a computer of any kind. I can see the value of a good vet, as animals back then were a necessary part of the agrarian enterprise.

• More than 95 percent of all births took place at home.

That puts a whole new meaning on 'do it yourself'.

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

You can see the light bulb turning on above the heads of the Proctor & Gamble guys.

• The five leading causes of death were:

Pneumonia and influenza

Tuberculosis

Diarrhea

Heart disease

Stroke

I paid a visit to the Center for Disease Control and found that Coronary Heart Disease is still the numero uno killer, with Stroke at number three, and Influenza and Pneumonia dropping down to number eight.

• The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30.

Then the mob came along and Badda Bing! another light bulb turns on.

• Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write.

They hadn't got no time for that anyhow.

• 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."

It's funny how I still hear the same thing from the Heroin and Methadone crowd.

• Eighteen percent of households had at leastone full-time servant or domestic help.

Who's going to help shovel the coal, wash the clothes by hand, put the ice in the ice box, etc?

• There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.A.

Let's emphasize that word reported, shall we? Of course, lynchings and such went under the heading of "They had it coming."

I can say with assurance that I have no desire to walk through The Time Tunnel and live in those days. The statement about Heroin and Morphine reminds me of a funny story, but you'll have to visit the other site to read about that one.