Journal of a Living Lady #238

 

Nancy White Kelly

 

            Can it be 2005? Seems like only yesterday we were hoarding food, buying generators, and listening to hawkers of doom regarding the turn of the new millennium.  My college economics professor would have been proud of my application of the principle of supply and demand. While everybody else was stashing canned food, we stacked the basement full of soda pop, chocolate bars and potato chips. Common sense said eventually anybody would trade lots of dried beans and rice for those treats. Happily, nothing catastrophic happened when the New Year ball dropped. By the end of year 2000, Buddy, the boys and I had consumed the junk food ourselves. We now have nothing edible stored in the basement. Probably everybody else still has dried beans and rice. Maybe my professor wouldn’t be so proud.

 

The outstanding thing about January 1, 2000, was that nothing spectacular occurred. The day pretty much came and went uneventfully. Same-o. Same-o. But for a century, it was nothing but change. Some say good. Others think bad.

 

 In 1904, the average life expectancy in the United States was a mere 47 years. Today it is 77.7 years. Then only 14 percent of the homes in the US had a bathtub. Today, I don’t know anybody who doesn’t have at least one indoor bathroom. In fact, 2 ½ baths are not uncommon.

 

A century ago only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone. Today Buddy and I have phones throughout the house including both bathrooms. Just last month Buddy and I signed up for 450 free minutes of talk time on our wireless cell phones. In 1904, it cost $11 for a 3 minute phone call from Denver to New York City.

 

Buddy was born in Mississippi. I was born in Tennessee.  Since we are both southerners, we are drawn to the statistics and history of this geographical era.  Would you believe that in 1904 Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California?

 

The average wage in 1904 in the US was 22 cents an hour. Most US workers made between $200 and $400 per year.

 

Ninety percent of all US physicians had no college education.

 

Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

 

The five leading causes of death in the US then were:

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

 

The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.

 

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated high school.

 

We all are aware of the present drug crisis. But 100 years ago marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. COKE still included it's namesake, "cocaine".

 

And who ever heard of a computer or the internet? In less than a few minutes, I obtained all these statistics and more that would have taken me weeks to research in a library which used to be my second home.

 

nancyk@alltel.net