80 Years Ago

I seem to have a them going, but don't blame me. Blame my Grandpa who keeps sending me these e-mails.

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Check out these ads from the 1930's

Some of these are unbelievable.

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But this one is my favorite:

What do you think we are doing now that people will be scoffing at 50 years from now?

One Hundred Years Ago

Just in case you were wondering, or want to be blown away, here are some statistics from the year 1909:

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The 1909 Packard

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: 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 ice 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.

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'

( Shocking? DUH! )

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. !

And I was able to copy this whole thing without typing it myself. From here, it can be viewed by others all over the WORLD - all in a matter of seconds!

Crazy, huh?

I wonder what things will be like in another 100 years.

Field Trip!

I got to go with Little Chris (the son formerly known as CJ) and his class from school on their field trip to Colonial Jamestown yesterday.

We went there last summer, but the day we went it was about 104 degrees with the humidity. I quickly learned a good lesson about what fabrics of underwear are not good on high humidity days.

Yesterday was about 65-70 degrees and beautiful.

Here are some of the pictures that Chris and I took.

Chris and the other kids got to scrape the hair off of a deer skin with a seashell, the way the Powatan Indians used to.

There are 3 ships (yes, real ships) on a dock that are the actual size of the first 3 that brought settlers over. The scary thing is that these ships are tiny, but this one (or the one that it is a replica of), carried over 100 passengers in the hold of the ship for the 4 month journey to Virginia. That doesn't count the sailors or the livestock.

The passengers were rarely even ever invited above decks.

All 100 of them were in very close quarters the whole time. I can't even imagine the smell.

We got to see how th Powatan Indians made their canoes by burning out logs and then scraping out the ashes with (can you guess?) sea shells.

Chris and the other kids got to try scraping the canoes.

It made all of their hands very black with the ash.

We learned about how the settlers and the indians traded with each other, and how several people got killed over bad trades.And we got to see a demonstration of a match lock musket.

They are very loud, and I would think pretty imprecise compared to the firepower that we have available for warfare today.

But they beat the heck out of bows and arrows, which is why, as the guide said, we all speak English today.

This is the monument that was built for the 350th anniverary of the landing at Jametown.

That could have only been commissioned by a man. Can we say Freudian?

Here is the question that Little Chris has been asking people about that monument.

How many bricks did it take to finish that monument?

Answer: Just one. (Key word: finish). lol.

It has now been 401 years since the English first landed here.

Last year Queen Elizabeth came over to celebrate the 400th anniversary. That was kind of cool. They even shut down the entire southbound strip of I-64 from Richmond to Williamsburg to make way for her motorcade.

We happened to be driving North at the time and got to pass the motorcade going the other way.