Happy New Year! We expect 2015 to be a great year and we wish everyone the very best. Have you made your New Year’s resolutions? Are you going to be able to keep them this time? We hope you do but before you get carried away with all of your new plans, let’s spend a few minutes and look at what life was like in 1915:
- The U.S. population was only 100,546,000. Today, our population is over 318,892,000!
- The average life expectancy was about 53 years for men. Women lived an average of close to 57 years.
- One out of every 10 babies died before their first birthday. For every 1,000 births, six mothers died during labor.
- A new Model T Ford could be purchased for only $440.00. This was the first year these cars were equipped with electric lights and they were available “in any color as long as it was black.”
- There were about 2.5 million cars registered in the United States.
- The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote. In case you were wondering, both chambers had a Democratic majority.
- On September 11, the Pennsylvania Railroad started an electrified commuter rail service between Paoli and Philadelphia, using overhead trolley wires for power.
- The movie, “Inspiration”was released and was the first mainstream movie in which a leading actress (Audrey Munson) appears nude.
- The first transcontinental phone call was made when Alexander Graham Bell, in New York City, called his assistant Dr. Watson, in San Francisco, on January 25th.
- Corning Glass introduced the first glass ovenware made of a new, clear, heat-resistant material they named Pyrex.
- What did union workers earn?
-Bricklayers earned as much as 87.5 cents an hour.
-Carpenters could make up to 65 cents an hour.
-Painters made up to 70 cents an hour.
-Plumbers were up to 75 cents an hour.
-Structural iron workers earned up to 70 cents an hour. - Few homes had indoor plumbing. It took until 1940 for the number of homes with complete indoor plumbing to reach 55%.
- Maytag added a gasoline engine to their washing machines for homes that did not have electricity.
- “Hello, Frisco” was the number one hit song by Olive Kline & Reinald Werrenrath. The song celebrated the first coast-to-coast long-distance telephone call and featured the sounds of a ringing telephone.
- Close to 60% of children were enrolled in school.Only 13% of the students earned a high school diploma.
- The yearly median household income was $687.00.
- The average costs for these items were:
-Round steak sold for 23 cents a pound.
-Eggs cost 34 cents per dozen.
-Milk was 35 cents per gallon.
-A loaf of bread was 7 cents.
-Coffee sold for 30 cents per pound.
-A ten pound bag of potatoes cost only 15 cents.
-Gasoline prices rose to 25 cents per gallon.
-A first class postage stamp sold for 2 cents.
-Houses were only $3,200.00. - Droughts are nothing new in California. In 1915, the San Diego City Council voted 4-1 to pay a rainmaker named Charles Hatfield $10,000 if he could fill the Morena Dam reservoir. Hatfield placed his secret mixture of 23 chemicals in large galvanized evaporative tanks and the rains came down heavily for days. The Morena Dam was filled, two other dams overflowed and another broke because of so much rain (Too bad he’s still not around when we need him so badly)
- Sears sold kit homes in their catalogs. For instance, you could purchase their two-story, seven room “Phoenix” model for only $1,271.00. The kit had all the materials needed to build the house, including paint.
- The price of silver was at $1.29 per ounce and gold was at $20.67 per ounce.
Can you imagine living today without a bathtub, radio, TV or smart phone? As you can see, life has really changed a lot over the last 100 years!
