Comparing 1918 to 2018 When we see how much we have changed in so many ways in the last one hundred years it is mind boggling. If we are only talking about technology we could even say the last ten years produced more advances than the entire time before it. Let’s start in 1918 by talking about morals. It was a terrible disgrace for a man and woman to live together before marriage and if a woman had a baby out of wedlock she might have been sent somewhere before she began to show so no one would know she was pregnant. Fashion was designed to cover things up not reveal them. Can you imagine what a person from this time period would think if they saw a woman in a bikini or a guy in a speedo? They wouldn’t believe their eyes at some of the explicit movie and television scenes. The concept of modesty has completely changed from those days. There was no letting people decide if they were men or women and allowing them to use the bathroom they preferred. If you were born a woman you were a woman or if born a man you were a man and you better not try and go into a bathroom for a different gender. If you wanted to travel by car somewhere it was an event if it meant going any distance. People used to think traveling from Manhattan to Long Island was a long trip. Cars used to break down and as you traveled you would see them on the side of the road with the drivers trying to make repairs. The cars had narrow tires and stiff suspension and you would have your guts shaken as you traveled especially on those terrible roads. There were a lot of car brands which don’t exist anymore. To name a few there was Maxwell, Able, Aerocar, American Junior, American Simplex, Baker Electric and many others. There were so many American brands which disappeared over the years they number in the many hundreds. Now it seems cars might be on the way out and replaced by SUVs. Ford has recently announced they are doing away with most of their car lines and switching to SUVs. Will other companies follow them? If it shows they are making more money by that move I am sure others will be tempted. Toys were popular with children a century ago and some of the most popular were Lionel trains, erector sets and Lincoln Logs. It is amazing to me these same toys are still popular, but not as popular as Legos, cell phones, tablets and robotic toys. Yes, I have included cell phones and tablets in toys because I believe we have all seen moms and dads giving their cell phones and tablets to tots to keep them quiet and the tots love them and cry when they are taken away. Board games were popular at the time. The first ever board game was created in 5,000 B.C. and preceded written language. One popular board game which came out in 1903 was named the Landlord game. Doesn’t this sound like Monopoly? If you saw the board you would think Monopoly stole the idea. It had properties on all four sides with rent, a go to jail corner along with a jail corner and even a chance spot. In 1935 Parker Brothers bought the Landlord game and the rest is history. I just don’t think a board game like Project Porn Star would have been a big hit then. In 1918 the world’s biggest war was still being fought for part of that year. While we are not technologically at war except with North Korea, we are still fighting on many fronts. World War I was considered a war of technology at the time. Some of the advanced weapons were submarines, planes, airships, battleships and huge cannons. While we still have weapons like these even though they are far more advanced, we have weapons which would have been considered science fiction at the time. Jet planes speed through the sky and satellites watch our every move from space. The military even had plans to build a base on the moon in the middle 1960s so they could rain down missiles against an enemy on the earth. We have ICBMs which are Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles which can reach other countries so fast they are just about indefensible. Nuclear weapons make those huge cannons of yesteryear look like toys. Are we better off now than we were, I’m not so sure. Entertainment in 1918 meant going to plays, dances and singing along in bars. Movies had become popular at the time and there were comedies by Chaplin, Keaton and others. Actress like Mabel Normand and Mary Pickford were famous. There was no sound to the films and often a piano player would accompany the film. Today we still have movies but they come with a lot more extras than just sound. They come with color, the format is much larger and sometimes they are in 3D. Plays are more popular than ever, but video games, the internet, social media, streaming video, and television have taken over a lot of our leisure time. There were probably always matchmakers and they existed in 1918. There are newspaper ads which were found which show requests for a marriage partner. Today one can advertise in specialized papers for that same partner, but a twist has been added. Marriage brokers on the internet use computers to match traits of people wanting to get married and claim this allows for more success in the marriage. I think it is fair to say the process of matchmaking has been refined from what it was a hundred years ago. In the old days one couldn’t possibly know their true entire background, but today DNA testing claims to be able to trace your descendant’s race back for thousands of years. Medicine has made tremendous advances and new types of devices and drugs have increased the life expectancy. I have to say while there has been a big change in some areas such as modesty, morals and technology, human nature has remained pretty much the same. Politics still drives us crazy and can anger many of us at the drop of a hat. People still like to socialize but many do it differently. Some never leave their homes and meet people online to play games and such. This is the downside of technology. We seem to be much more educated in this country than we were a hundred years ago. All in all, if we don’t count weapons of mass destruction, things seem to be better now.
|
