I noticed that too.
I wonder what someone in 2137 is going to think when watching videos of all the fat people walking around in the USA today.
Posted on 10/23/2017 6:13:37 AM PDT by NRx
Confederate “General” Julius Howell Recalls the 1860s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHDfC-z9YaE
From the horses mouth.
We are where we are today directly due to Lincoln and the GODDAMNED REPUBLICAN PARTY.
I noticed that too.
I wonder what someone in 2137 is going to think when watching videos of all the fat people walking around in the USA today.
Yeah. Life back then was not all that idyllic. There’s a lot to be said for the modern world. I am 51, alive and still in possession of most of my teeth. I also have the pleasure of being surrounded by people who bath with some degree of regularity. All of which was not likely 120 years ago.
Diet was dreadful back then. People were shorter and often developed rickets quite early in life. Even the well off who could afford to eat well by the standards of the era often ate and drank themselves into an early grave. The food for the upper class was full of grease, butter and rich cream sauces. I remember seeing a doctor on TV looking at the menu from a dinner in the 1890’s and he was horrified when he checked out the recipes for the various courses. He said you could get a level of cholesterol from a single meal that we would normally accumulate in a month.
“We are where we are today directly due to Lincoln and the GODDAMNED REPUBLICAN PARTY.”
No. We are where we are today because of the Whigs, 1688 and the so called Enlightenment. Damn all Whigs and their fellow travelers.
My grandparents were adults in the 1890s——three of them made it into their 80s.
They were fortunate——and they made it to the age of television-——which they considered a miracle.
.
Thanks for posting.
Good find!
Unless I’m horribly mistaken in my understanding of statistics, those life expectancy charts are deeply skewed by infant mortality rates, death in childhood, and death via childbirth. I believe, that if you were a man who lived into your late teens, your life expectancy was essentially the same as a man who lived into their late teens today.
That’s not to say it’s inaccurate of course.
And the fact that the expectation is that the birth of a child will result in the child and mother going home happy and health is a remarkable change.
My grandfather was born in 1912. He had two siblings that did not make it to age 5. And that was perfectly normal and acceptable then. All his living siblings made it to 80. But it’s fun to play the math. The six who lived a full life and average life expectancy of 81. When you through in the two children who died, the average life expectancy is 61.
I recently got all our family films from the 70s put on DVD. Watching them now the one thing that jumps out is that everyone is smoking all the time and they don’t give a damn where they are doing it.
That may be the single biggest cultural change of my lifetime (born in 1973). People in 2060 are going to look at film from the 70s and wonder how everyone didn’t die of lung cancer at 45.
Did you notice a difference in weight? I’ve been sorting old pictures and am amazed at how thin people were - especially around the time of WWII. Probably before then too. Maybe it’s because of rationing? Sugar was rationed. Also, when people worked there was no way they could be sipping on a giant soda.
Everyone in my family worked in steel mills then. The men definitely were on the “barrel chested” side, but ultimately, you could only be so fat working 40 hours a week on your feet in an environment like that. I’ve never had a job that didn’t involve a chair.
My grandfather was an odd man though. He was the most health-conscious smoker/degenerate gambler in history. He never went above a pack a day (which in those days was the height of self control), he only ate three relatively light home-cooked meals a day, he did not drink, and he swam five days a week at a local indoor pool. At the same time, he would lose his entire paycheck in three day card games so life is full of tradeoffs.
I actually think the most unhealthy generation in history was the pre-baby boomers born in the mid to late 30s. Maybe it’s just my family and family circle, but no man in that age group made it to 70. They all had massive heart attacks or liver problems.
My explanation is that they all had their father’s bad habits - smoking, drinking, weekend gambling - with a lot more disposable income and less physically active jobs. A fair number of those guys had office jobs or if they worked in a mill or plant, it was a far more automated experience.
A lot of my dad’s friends (true baby boomers) smoked when they were younger, but I think the vast majority of them quit before they turned 40. (The 80s were the golden age of quitting smoking). My dad’s older cousins (born in the 30s) were the types who would smoke while inside oxygen tents and thought low-fat diets were for pansies.
The best explanation for obesity I’ve ever really heard is the continuation of “the southern diet” into the modern age.
When you spent 12 hours in a cotton field, you needed massive amounts of fried okra and potatoes and grits and pancakes and pig’s feet and all the cheap carb-heavy stuff coooked in pork fat that Southerners ate for generations.
When you’re working as an insurance agent, that diet will kill you inside ten years.
My family is Italian, but my grandmother had to cook on a strict budget. So, there would basically be one plate of spaghetti with a very basic sauce and maybe a meatball for everyone if my grandfather didn’t gamble away the rent money. That’s a filling meal.
To get to that next generation where everyone in my family died. If you went to their house for Sunday dinner, it was endless amounts of sausage and peppers and meatballs and cheeses and desserts. It’s relatively cheap food so if you suddenly have disposable income, you can have all of it you ever wanted. And that will kill you - especially if you are smoking while eating it and washing it down with Crown Royal.
I’ve read that the Irish laborers would take a half-baked potato for their lunch. It was felt because it wasn’t fully cooked it would last longer in their stomachs.
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