OUR GRANDFATHER'S WORLD
OTHER STUFFThe year is 1907.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some of the U.S. Statistics for the Year 1907:
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The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years old.
Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
A three-minute call from Denver to New York cost eleven dollars.
There were only 8,000 cars in the US and only 144 miles of paved roads.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour.
The average U.S. Worker earned between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year; a dentist made $2,500 per year; a veterinarian made $1,500 per year; and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at HOME.
About 90 percent of all U.S. Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION. Instead, they attend 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 in the US were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke
The American Flag had only 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet. The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was only 30!
Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet.
Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from High School.
There was no "Mother's Day" or "Father's Day"!
Two out of every 10 US adults couldn't read or write.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then the 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.
There were about 230 report Murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.!
When considering the future, consider this one simple observation, and it’s ramifications for society.
This fact has changed the way we view the world, and the universe….
MOORE’S LAW:
(môrz lâ) (n.) The observation made in 1965 by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel.The number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since the integrated circuit was invented. Moore predicted that this trend would continue for the foreseeable future.In subsequent years, the pace slowed down a bit, but data density has doubled approximately every 18 months, and this is the current definition of Moore's Law, which Moore himself has blessed.
Most experts, including Moore himself, expect Moore's Law to hold for at least another two decades.
I used to love to visit my ex's grandparents when my parents also visited them. My ex's grandfather was born in 1904 or 1906 (can't remember which) in Oklahoma territory. (By the way, this year is Oklahoma's Centennial.) He and my dad grew up in early Wichita on what is referred to as the West Side. I'd listen as they would sit and talk about Wichita back then. It was fascinating.
When my dad was 10, his father died. He had a younger brother (not sure how much younger), so it became part of his responsibility to provide for the family. He did this by selling magazine subscriptions, door to door, then later was a soda jerk and an usher at the Orpheum, back when they had live shows. (I'm still hunting for the autograph book he had.) His mother's brother also helped the family financially and knew most of the bootleggers in the area.
My dad learned the work ethic early, because of his father's early death. Later, my dad worked at Fox-Vliet drug company for 20 years, before moving to Boeing, where he worked for just 4 months short of 25 years, thanks to the then mandatory retirement age of 65.
Definitely interesting times, and I encourage anyone who can to talk to those who were around at that time.
We had a very weird weather event here last night in that the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin came up over us last night and parked, gained strength and dumped over a foot of water and we had 5 hours of sustained 80 mph winds!
The storm has the weather dudes scratching their heads for an explanation but has us all digging out again. We woke up to breaking glass at 1 a.m. Got up, put a trash bag and some cardboard over it and had to prop furniture against it to keep the wind from blowing it back in again. Went back to bed with the roar of the storm gaining strength, finally decided to go to the basement and it was flooded again.
Huddled in bed hoping it didn't get any worse. We lost power about 2 a.m. and Jim got up to call it in to the power company. When he hit the hallway he slipped and fell on water that was blowing in under the front door.
So not only did we get flooded in the basement the wind was so strong it blew enough water under the door to saturate the carpeting and inundate my kitchen and dining area (the place we moved the computer shop to after the basement flooded)
We got back up and moved boxes and papers off the floor where we had them stored from the last flood and got everything out of harms way except my dining furniture and we just had no place to go with it at 4 am.
Woke up to a brutal view at daylight. There is now a roaring river in front of the house and the roads in and out all directions are closed or cut off by flooding. We lost at least 10 of the big old maple & cottonwood trees that were twisted and snapped off, some were uprooted. Our power lines are down so I'm on for limited time.
Just wanted you all to know we are fine, only property damage and no power. We have enough fuel to last us several days if we use it carefully so I probably won't be on much until they can get to us. The aerial shots we are seeing of the OKC news stations flying over our house show that the river is out of its banks and its 4 miles wide in some spots. It appears we are just on an island. Jim took pictures of the fence out front by the road and it has debris hanging in the top wire on a five wire fence so you can picture how deep it got when it was crossing the road out front. It is still running so bad you can hear the roar of it when you open the front door.
Bad news is that Hurricane Dean that is coming through the gulf now is supposed to be shoved up our direction by the jet stream so this could just be the beginning. Who'd have ever though we'd see a hurricane hold together this far inland! YIKES, I'm ready to move.
I guess Geary and Watonga were the worse hit. Christy and Jerry are OK but they lost the big pecan tree in back and roof damage enough they got water in their kitchen dining area.
The Geary Nursing Home was completely wiped out by what they are cautiously calling a tornado. We figure by the twisted up look of some of these trees that we also had a small tornado.
I saw Jim Thompson's and Johnie Reddick's place from the helicopter video while ago and it looks like Jim is up out of the water but it looks awful close to Johnie's. All the roads in and out of Watonga are closed and there are trees down all over town.
Get on Channel 9 or 4 and you can see the videos of town. You won't believe all the water and damage. All the downtown business lost their plate glass windows. Chris said Jim's IGA and NAPA were both flooded pretty bad and I guess Jim Pierce is in the OKC hospital not expected to make it. He was taken in yesterday with breathing problems before all this heartache with the store damage started.
Haven't talked to Billy Paul yet to see how he came through all of it.
I have friends who moved to Edmond from Picayune, MS, after Katrina. If anyone followed Katrina news much, Picayne is 50 miles or so from New Orleans and was hit hard. The Picayune Times kept running and continued to keep the world updated online. My friend's house wasn't hit hard, but her husband had retired from the National Weather Service and they have family in OK. After Katrina, they decided it was time to move, along with their daughter, son-in-law, and 2 granddaughters.
I'll be thinking of your cousin and sending prayers for their safety.
It will be interesting to follow the progress of Dean, and in particular the moisture contained in the storm. If there is any northeasterly movement of the moisture, those good folks in Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri will again be hit by flooding.
I don't care what is causing it and am very tired of all the people who have the need to argue that point because the important fact is our weather is changing, we are experiencing global climate change, these unusual weather events are becoming more usual and we better pay attention!
Yes, there is a definite increase in "unusual" weather events over the recent past. There seems little rational debate over the issue of climate change; the naysayers seem to devote their energies to arguing the contribution, or lack thereof, of us humans thereto. There are still a few out there who debate the issue of any change, to be sure, but all in all, the debate now seems centered on human contribution thereto. Speaking of human contribution, the whole methane from cows argument causes me to shake my head. For, if cattle were not domesticated and kept in large herds by man, this would be a minor issue, too. Thus, it is related to human activity, notwithstanding snide remarks to the contrary.
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