1908.If it was then now,how would you spend today,and what would be your interests.?

Question

1908.If it was then now,how would you spend today,and what would be your interests.?

Answer 1

I'm a wife and mother, so I'd probably spend most of my time cooking and cleaning.  For amusement, I could read books or perhaps play the piano.  Depending on where I lived and whether I was rich or poor, I could go to a concert, walk in a park, paint, sew, or play parlor games.

Answer 2

Depending on your class and financial status, you might be out at work.  if you were a married woman you would most likely be at home, married women in those days usually only worked if they were very poor. If you could afford it, you had servants to do your housework, cooking etc.  Single people of both sexes had to earn a living if they needed to.  If you could afford to live without working, which a substantial number of people in those days could, then you didn't work.  To have more leisure time in those days was regarded as a good thing, people didn't go around saying "if I didn't have a job I'd be bored" people in those days had the resources to keep themselves amused.

In 1908, bicycling was a big craze, and was equally popular with men and women.  Tennis, archery and croquet were popular games because they could be played by both sexes.  Croquet sets were even sold with candle attachments so that it could be played at night.

Music and dancing of course were popular then just as now.  Ragtime was the big craze of the 1900s, and going out dancing was a popular activity.

At home, there were fewer ready-made entertainments than now, so people would spend a lot of time reading, and people corresponded mostly by letter, so letter'writing was a more frequent activity than it is now. and more people then than now played a musical instrument.  Just about every household that could afford it would have a piano, and the girls of the family would learn to play and sing so that they could entertain themselves and any company they might have.

Many people were keenly interested in social reform.  A great many women were involved in the Temperence movement, huge numbers of women supported it.  Some women were also involved in Women's Suffrage.  Jane Addams started the Settlement House movement which was a very popular cause.

Answer 3

I would ride one of the tramcars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpU4DgefF...

Answer 4

I'd be shagging the master of the house. Probably get myself up the duff and get slung out onto the streets.

Answer 5

I just finished reading "America, 1908", by Jim Rosanberger. You'd be surprised how much some things, particularly in New York, were much like today, and then, 100 years ago was, well, a lifetime away.  The biggest  difference was that 90% of the people lived in rural settings. But in the cities, folks were starting use appliances, telephones, elevators etc.  Values were more strict, but folks enjoyed life.

It's an interesting read, and you should get it, if you're really interested.

Answer 6

Hi SA.

My family and I are on holidays in Reggio di Calabria in southern Italy. Today we planned to take a boat ride across the

Straits of Messina to Sicily for the day.

Unfortunately, at dawn, a most destructive earthquake hit the  Straits of Messina  levelling the cities of Messina in Sicily and Reggio di Calabria. At the moment we are helping to set up a make-shift hospital in the dinning room of the Hotel we are staying in. My Father informed us that it looked like most of the city had been destroyed. Telegraph lines are down and  railway lines are damaged, hampering any  relief efforts.

What made things even worse was the Tidal Wave which followed the quake. MY Father said anyone who survived the quake would have died in the wave. We were very lucky as our hotel is on high ground.

Everyone is afraid as the ground is still shaking.

All I want to do is go home.

CATHORIO.

My Father took some photographs if you would like to see them:

http://www.rkm.com.au/PHOTOS/index.html

Answer 7

I would probably spend my time writing books.

Answer 8

Most people didn't have time for interests in 1908 they were to busy dying from cholera, plague and diphtheria and scratching out an existence. If you are really hard up you are in a poor house with the rest of your family but you don't ever see them because children, men and women are all kept separate.

Answer 9

Well, after having come home from church (regardless of my religious beliefs, in my small community, we all have to attend the local church or face being ostracized), I hitched up my wagon and drove my family over to the next big town, our County Seat.  We needed some staples, and I'd promised my wife she could buy some new sewing patterns.  However, that was just an excuse.  Really, I had heard that the Judge Backthorpe had purchased a machine.  Now I know those horseless carriages are no big deal out East, but here, we've only seen pictures of them.  I tell you, though, I hope it's only passing fad.  Between the noise and smell, I can't imagine those things being all over the place.  It being summertime, hot, and us having made an such a long outing, I didn't expect my wife to lay out her usual sunday supper, but she did turn to a fine spread of yesterday's bread, some cheese, and eggs she boiled up this morning.  After supper, we gathered in the parlor and sang a few songs.  Then the boys went out, probably looking for trouble.  Arathea and her mother started going through their fabrics and the new patterns, planning out what they wanted to try first.  And I read last week's paper.  It comes out on Tuesday's, but I always save it up till Sunday night.  It's my little treat.  Then I rounded up the boys, checked on all the livestock, and went to sleep.  It was only an hour or so past sunset, but then, sun don't set til near 8:30, and we all have to be up at sunrise.   Lazy Sundays are nice, but come sun-up it'll be dawn to dusk work for the rest of the summer through harvest.

Answer 10

Try the Books & Authors category for this type of self-promotion.

If not, try the Polls & Surveys category for the "How would you...?" type of questions.

This is not a question about History.