Sometimes we lose sight of just how much has changed, and how rapidly. This blog might put some of those changes in perspective.

Note: This blog deals with changes in our lives here in the United States. Technological and social trends vary greatly around the world, and drastic changes in lifestyle vary as well.

Homes and Farms

Central heating was first coal, then oil. Coal deliveries often came directly into a cellar bin near the furnace, convenient for chilly people to shovel straight into the furnace hopper. It was messy and time-consuming!

Air conditioning started in public places. Although it was not unusual to find air conditioning in movie theaters, supermarkets, hospitals, or office buildings in 1955, fewer than 2% of U.S. residences had air conditioning of any kind then. Air conditioning units that fit on a window ledge hit the market in 1932, but their high cost meant few people purchased them. As late as 1955, less than half a percent of family residences had a central air conditioning system.

Architects incorporated elements into homes to allow residents to regulate temperature. Porches offered some break from the indoor heat. High ceilings, large windows, and opposing entrances for cross-breezes helped to cool the insides of homes.

Indoor plumbing came in stages. In the early 1900s, running water became more accessible to the average home. By the 1930s both running water and indoor plumbing were widely available. Still, most could not afford indoor plumbing early on, instead relying on outhouses and wells, and pumps.

Outhouses were still common after World War II, especially in rural areas. Chamber pots, very handy for the sick and for nighttime needs, required daily dumping and washing.

Changes in the understanding of public health and the ability to manufacture interchangeable pipes on a large scale both helped to drive the large-scale adoption of indoor plumbing. Only in the mid-20th century was there consensus among public health officials that indoor plumbing was essential. At this point, authorities developed plumbing codes for residential homes.

Food

Fresh food was seasonal and local, even in markets (which were small, nothing like today’s supermarket chains). A produce clerk who worked in an early supermarket in New York explained what he saw in the 1950s and early 1960s.

All winter, we’d sell potatoes and onions. Maybe some cabbages. In early March, we’d start to see spinach and maybe some broccoli coming up from Florida. After that, I could track spring by looking at the boxes: from Georgia, then South Carolina, then North Carolina, on and on. And then a few strawberries from Maryland or Delaware, but the trucks weren’t refrigerated so they didn’t make it very far before going bad. We’d sell peaches and watermelons and cantaloupes all summer, trucked down from Connecticut or Vermont. Then everything would be apples and squash for a while. And then back to just potatoes and onions.

Bill Corcoran, A&P Produce Clerk in Brooklyn, NY from 1951-1965

People preserved food by canning and drying, usually at home.

Milk, delivered to the house in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers, was unpasteurized, allowing cream to rise to the top. Daily milk delivery people could leave the milk by the door in an insulated box. This was still common in the 1970s.

Farm families milked their own cows (by hand). Churning the milk in wood or glass churns produced butter and buttermilk.

Farm families typically had smoke houses. When meat—red, white, or fish, but typically pork (bacon, ham)—was cured and cold smoked, it was also preserved.

There have been cases where smoked meats were still safe for consumption despite staying in storage for years, but food safety experts do not recommend eating meat stored for more than six months.

Hunting for the table was common. Deer, of course, but also pheasant, quail, rabbit, and squirrel. Fishing for the table was common as well, early on using a bamboo pole.

A drip jar/can on the stove collected bacon grease or other meat fat for seasoning.

Household Conveniences (i.e., Appliances)

Ice boxes predated refrigerators, and an ice man delivered big blocks of ice to the house. The insulated cabinet could keep food cold for about 5-7 days. Some ice boxes remained in use even after World War II, although 85% of American households owned a refrigerator by 1944.

Early refrigerators’ cooling units also served as the freezing compartment, big enough for only one or two ice cube trays. People who needed to freeze food rented a meat locker. No one “wasted” the rented space on freezing vegetables.

There were no dishwashers or garbage disposals in private houses, though Josephine Cochrane had invented a hand-powered dishwashing machine in 1886 to keep fancy china safe during cleaning. Some large restaurants had machines to disinfect dishes in keeping with changes to public understanding of contamination after the influenza pandemic of 1918.

The process of using a wringer washing machine was laborious, to say the least. A person doing laundry had to fill the machine by hand, lift the clothes out of the tub, and feed the wet clothes through rollers to press the water out—being careful not to get a hand or arm caught in the rollers. The water fell back into the washer. Water wasn’t changed after every load, so the weekly laundry started with the least dirty clothes.

Even earlier, people washed clothes by hand and squeezed them through a laundry press.

In either case, people hung clothes on a line to dry outdoors, or in the basement when weather dictated. Clothes dryers began coming into their own around 1960. As changes in ecological consciousness have encouraged smaller carbon footprints, line drying clothes is growing in popularity again.

Everything was ironed (or worn wrinkled). Permanent press wasn’t invented till the 1950s, not widely available till the 1960s.

Treadle sewing machines were common, even though electrically powered sewing machines were in wide use as early as 1905. The tailor pumped the treadle machine by foot, and the quality and evenness of the stitches depended on the steadiness of both hand and foot.

Machines

Plowing small gardens required one-human-hand-pushed plows. For big gardens and farms, plows were powered by a mule or two, sometimes horses. The turning point – when the amount of tractor power overtook the amount of animal power on American farms – was 1945.

Lawnmowers were human-powered reel mowers, with whirling blades that make a “scissory” sound. Gas-powered lawn mowers—still pushed by a person—didn’t become popular till after World War II in the U.S.

“Old-fashioned” human-powered gardening machines have been making a comeback recently, reflecting changes in the way people think about air pollution, noise pollution, and the ecological impact of lawns.

Automobiles were all stick-shift, with crank-down windows. Early Ford cars had a rumble seat, an open seat for two in the back.

Although available earlier, seatbelts didn’t gain popularity till the mid-50s, and then they were optional. Legal changes required that all car seats had seatbelts by 1968, and all passengers had to wear them after 1984.

Interestingly, high-end cars could get air conditioning as early as 1933, and Chevy was offering radios in the 1920s—i.e., earlier than houses had air conditioning, and before transistor radios swept the country!

Gas stations were not self-serve. Gas did not cost more than $1 per gallon till 1980.

Families were lucky to have one car.

Changes in Typing Machines

Typewriters were manual. The darkness of the print depended on the pressure on the keys, and hitting two keys at a time resulted in a jam that the typist had to untangle by hand.

At the end of a line of type, the typist had to return the carriage manually, resulting in the sound of a bell. One could choose single, double, or triple spacing.

One explanation for the keyboard being less than optimal for convenience is so that the typist wouldn’t work too quickly and jam the keys repeatedly. The QWERTY keyboard layout, developed for typewriters in the 1870s, remains the de facto standard for English-language computer keyboard.

Using a manual typewriter requires a lot of paraphernalia, such as inked ribbon and a typewriter eraser for mistakes. If one needed copies, the lack of copy machines meant that one needed to use carbon paper, which made correcting all copies a major pain.

Apparently, manual typewriters are still available, but used primarily by poets.

Manufacturers of electric typewriters, introduced by 1973, switched to interchangeable ribbon cartridges, including fabric, film, erasing, and two-color versions. At about the same time, the advent of photocopying made carbon copies, correction fluid, and erasers less and less necessary.

Still a far cry from personal computers and in-home printers!

Entertainment

Quiet pleasures were the norm for children: reading, playing cards or board games (e.g., Monopoly), “dressing up,” putting on puppet shows, jacks or pick-up-sticks.

Outdoor games burned off energy: tag, hide and seek, statues, mother-may-I, Simon Says, races, jump-rope, pick-up games of basketball, baseball, or football. Pediatricians speculate that changes from outdoor to indoor diversions in early childhood may be responsible for the increase in children with near-sightedness.

Playing outdoors—biking, hopscotch, catching fireflies, whatever—was typically without adult supervision or worry.

Television sets were produced and released commercially in America in 1938 but didn’t become popular until after World War II. The sets had three “channels” and changing channels required physically turning a knob. No mute. No recording. And all programming was black and white.

Movies were mostly black-and-white, too, until 1967! That was the first year in which film studios produced more color films than black-and-white (just two more, but this was the tipping point).

Music on demand records played on a victrola. Listening to a record required cranking (winding up) the victrola and placing the needle arm on the record by hand. Early vinyl records came in 33 1/3 singles or 78 albums.

Radio was a big source of entertainment prior to tv, providing comedy, music, thrillers, dramas, something for everyone. Radios were actually furniture at first. Portable radios, hand-held, carry anywhere, transistor radios really got going in the mid-1950s.

Communication

News came from newspapers and news broadcasts on radio, later television. It was not available 24/7.

Mail meant letters, physical paper pages delivered via USPS. In 1955, it cost 3 cents per ounce, 6 cents per ounce for Air Mail. Early in the century, in some cities, mailmen (always men) delivered the post twice a day! In small towns, with no home delivery, people had mail boxes at the post office, with combination locks.

Phone Call Changes

Telephones appeared in upscale households starting in the late 19th century. But by the 1950s about one-third of American households still didn’t have a phone.

At that time, people did not own their telephone; they rented it from the telephone company. Telephones had rotary dials and were either freestanding or wall mounted, but all were landlines. Most households had only one, in a central location.

There was no answering machine/voice mail option.

Private lines were a luxury. Party lines (from 2 to more than a dozen (!) households) had a specific number of short and long rings to signal which phone was being called. Anyone on the line could pick up—meaning any other party on the line could listen in.

With no portable phones, those needing to call had to find a pay phone, mostly located in phone booths, and have a pocketful of change. Phone companies charged for calls by the minute. On average, pay phone calls cost $0.05 into the 1950s and $0.10 until the mid-1980s. The pay phone peaked in 1995 when millions were scattered all over the country.

Long distance calls cost more than local calls, the cost going up after 3 minutes. One could call collect, i.e., request that the person being called accept the charges. Sometimes families who wanted to know that someone had arrived safely would work the system by having the traveler call collect but the recipient would refuse the collect call, message received.

Shopping

“Wish Books” were the nation’s Amazon from the late 1800s through the first half of the 20th century. Sears, Roebuck, & Company and Montgomery Ward sent thick catalogues packed full of everything from clothing to toys to household appliances. By 1894, the Sears catalogue was 322 pages.

As one man told me, “In the fall we’d sit down with the Wish Book and I could mark what I’d like to have for Christmas—up to $5.”

Both companies offered a mind-boggling array of products, including medical and veterinary supplies, musical instruments, firearms, bicycles, sewing machines, baby buggies, and houses!

Sears house kits came in 447 different designs. At the economy end, $659 covered all the lumber, lath, flooring, roof, pipes, cedar shingles, paint, and other materials needed to build a five-room bungalow, featuring two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a front porch. At the other end of the spectrum, the grand “Magnolia” cost $5,140 to $5,972.

Sears advertised all kits with the promise that “We will furnish all the material to build this [house design].” All the parts arrived (usually by train) precut and ready to assemble. From 1908 to 1940, Sears sold between 70,000 and 75,000 homes.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Ward’s catalogue had more than 3 million subscribers to its mailing list.

In 1913 the USPS added Parcel Post Service. The maximum package weight the Post Office would deliver was 11 pounds, but grew to 70 pounds by 1931. Within the first six months of Parcel Post, Sears handled five times as many orders as it did the year before, and within five years doubled its revenue.

Catalogues aside, most shopping was local, in locally owned stores.

Within the Family

Male-female relationships generally followed a set pattern. Women lived at home until they married (when not on a college campus). Most couples had children after marriage.

Women pregnant out-of-wedlock faced social disgrace. Under the guise of visiting relatives, such women often went to homes for unwed mothers. Such establishments provided medical care, and some offered a semblance of schooling. Staff (and society) convinced the new mothers to relinquish their newborns for adoption, and then the young women returned to their prior lives.

There were few divorces, few single parents, and few grandparents rearing children. Changes in the legal landscape around families came about very recently. California was the first state to legalize no-fault divorce, in 1969, making it much easier for people to escape abusive relationships. Spousal rape was legal in the US until the 1970s, and laws designating a husband “head and master” of a family, with unilateral control of property owned jointly with his wife, remained in place until 1981.

Gay couples were all pretty much in the closet, certainly not married or parenting children. Staying in the closet was often the only way to stay out of prison until the 1970s.

Nostalgia of a Baby Boomer

Parents taught their children to respect authority without question. Police and teachers are there to protect you. They are always right, do as they say.

Respect for elders was expected from children. This was generally any adult. It included Mr., Mrs., or Miss when addressing them.

“Children were to be seen and not heard.” Enough said, except to emphasize sass or back-talk earned a scolding if not other punishment.

Fathers were the head of the household, provided for the family, and made most of the major decisions.

The evening meal was family time. It was usually at the same time every day, and children remained at the table till the meal was over. Parents forbade toys, books, and other distractions.

Personal Appearance and Finances

Church was a dress-up occasion, especially for women and girls, who wore dresses, hats, and gloves. New outfits for Easter were common.

Business men generally wore suits and ties.

Employed women—e.g., secretaries, teachers, bank tellers, any public facing job—often had to wear skirts, suits, or dresses, and stockings. As recently as 1965, college women were required to “dress” for dinner. Being able to wear jeans to class was a big deal.

Fiscal responsibility was important to many following the Great Depression; good paying jobs and saving for the future were major concerns. “A penny saved is a penny earned.” “Watch the nickels and the dollars will take care of themselves.” People aspired to pay-as-you-go.

Those in need turned to friends, family, or banks for loans. Credit cards started a craze that began to take shape in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Note: Until 1972, women could not get loans or credit cards without a male co-signer.

Bottom Line: Things change, and the rate of change is accelerating. Changes between 1925 and 1950 were substantial, but each subsequent twenty-five year has seen more change than the one before.