Write It On Your Heart

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote:

"Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays."

New Home

 Have you ever given thought to how people actually lived in the not too distant past?  Most of us are unaware of the vast differences in the lives of people who lived just one hundred years ago.  Many of those folk found it necessary to work long hours to earn just enough to provide food and shelter for their families.  Until relatively current times, few people had enough time or money to take any sort of holiday.  Starvation and homelessness was a reality for many who were unable to work.  Many homes in the United States still had dirt floors, no indoor plumbing [running water and bathrooms], no electricity and no central heating as we know it today.  

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Campaign Poster

Perhaps the three most common changes were state involvement in everyday life, the role of women in society which occurred due to military issues and an increase in free time and income which fueled the leisure industry.    

Rising prices along with poor pay resulted in revolts which led to strikes during the 1920’s.  As a result of these dark days, there were shortages of almost everything including food and shelter.  A young “Welfare State” emerged… By the 1940’s, it was the government’s aim to provide the people with a service from the cradle to the grave. The Government taxed the rich heavily and allowed the wages of the poor to rise more quickly.    The 20^th Century saw a marked narrowing of the divide between the very rich and the very poor.  The motor car, mass production and domestic machinery made life earlier for most people.  As the new century began, gas lighting replaced candles.  

 As the 20^th century progressed, more types of leisure activity was available to ordinary people.    Each generation added more to the list as inventions evolved to become necessities. 

WWI Trenches

WWI Gas Masks on Soldiers

 

WWI Gas Mask For Dogs serving on Front Lines

1900-1925

WWI

Airplanes used by military

Automobiles

Road improvements needed for motorized vehicles

Women acquire the right to “Vote”– 18 August 1920

Working men’s unions and clubs

Tea dances

Dance – The Charleston

Music – Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey, etc

Pubs – people met to play dominoes and darts or to singing around a piano

Cinema –Silent films

Movie Stars: Greta Garbo, Max Linder, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Lillian Gish, William S.  Hart, Buster Keaton, Louise Brooks

Dust Bowl

 1925 – 1950

WWII

Airplanes become larger

University education made possible by G.I. Bill for veterans

Banks offering home mortgages which make home ownership possible for most people.

Dust Bowl in mid-western states

Radio - almost every family owned one

Cinemas – Talking films and newsreels

Community swimming pools

Seaside holidays

Movie Stars – John Wayne, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Judy Garland, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart, Jane Russell, Frank Sinatra 

Patsy Cline

 

 

 

Patsy Cline's Plaque

1950 – 1975

Clubs for political and social meetings

Gramophones became small enough to owned by individuals playing 33 1/3, 45 and 78 rpm records

Birth control

Television in almost all homes

American Bandstand – Rock and Roll – Bill Haley and the Comets – “Rock Around the Clock”

Elkton's own, Miss Patsy Cline, inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame

Cars owned by most families

Sports centers offered activities for almost everyone

Movie Stars – Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Ben Johnson, Fabian, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Jeanne Craine, Glenn Ford, Ronald Regan, Richard Gere, David Niven, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Ricky Nelson 

1975 – 2000

Longer holiday seasons result in more travel within the United States, some beginning to take cruises or to travel abroad 

Theme Parks

Dining out

Clubbing

Computers for business and also for the home