What a Difference a Century Makes

Excerpt from Daily Cures, Wisdom for Healthy Aging by Connie Mason Michaelis

One hundred years ago, the average life expectancy was 47 years.  Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.  Eight percent of the households had a telephone. There were only 8,000 cars and 144 miles of paved roads.  The average U.S. wage was 22 cents per hour.  The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year.  A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year, a dentist $2,500 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 considered substandard.  Sugar cost four cents a pound. Coffee was15 cents a pound. The five leading causes of death were: influenza, tuberculosis, diarrhea, heart disease, and stroke. Two out of every ten adults couldn’t read or write, and only six percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.  There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.A.!

Many of you reading this column lived a good portion of the last century (me too). It is difficult to grasp the magnitude of change.  What do you think this predicts for the future?  A century ago, do you think people had concerns about the future?  Do you think they used the phrase, “It was better in the good old days?”  Think of all the wars, depressions, droughts, earthquakes, tax increases, and political stalemates that have occurred in the last 100 years, and here we are still able to smile. Senior Citizens are proof positive that life is good! 

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” Eleanor Roosevelt