Did men stay at home longer in the Golden Era?

[Bluebird Marsha]

In the 1940 census, my 24 yr. old great-uncle was living at home, and I believe was making a good income at the time. Did my great-grandparents need some financial assistance? Possibly. But I think living by yourself back then probably wasn't seen as all that desirable. I don't envision living in a boarding house as something fun. Would the cooking and housekeeping be as good as what was at home? Even if you had to kick some or most of your money back to your parents, at least there was a good possibility that you would like your family.

How would you live by yourself, without household help, and work for a living? The cooking, laundry, shopping, and housework still had to be done. I have the "modern conveniences", and I'm a bit stretched keeping up with it all. (There are times I really want my own wife!) In a large city I imagine it could be done, but boarding seemed to be the main alternative for the single man who didn't live with family. Possibly this was seen as a good incentive for getting married?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Roommates were also popular among the unmarried, just as today, but the apartments tended to be a lot smaller. "Kitchenette" apartments were common among the young unmarrieds, one or two rooms with a tiny kitchen section off to the side, and Murphy beds that folded back into the wall. With such living quarters it was possible to present a reasonable simulation of housekeeping: just toss all your junk on the bed and fold it back into the wall, close the doors, and it all disappears from view.

There was a whole "boardinghouse culture" in the Era that's completely vanished today -- a social pecking order and a boardinghouse etiquette that made the environment if not perfect than at least tolerable for those who lived there. Most boardinghouse residents were men, and the house was owned and presided over by an older woman, usually a widow, who took care of the housekeeping, sometimes with the help of a daughter or two.

Single women went in more for rooming with families -- it was a safer environment than a boardinghouse, and the woman's parents would have been more comfortable with their daughter being under such supervision. In the cities there were also residential hotels for women only, which were very inexpensive and very popular among the young-working-woman set.

The last resort for most young singles was the YMCA or YWCA, where you could rent a room and a bed very cheap -- Y membership cost around $2 a year, and that allowed you to rent a room for $2 a week. The only way to live cheaper was to go to a dime-a-night flophouse, which respectable people tried very hard not to do.

 

[cklos]

There is no definitive answer to your question. Both my grandfathers left their rural homes as teens (in the 1930's) to find work in NY City. But I'm sure other Loungers will spin tales of their ancestors living with Mom and Dad until they were 40 back then. I guess it had to do with the family's/individual's needs and economics. Just like today....people really don't change, but their perception of the world does.

 

[Undertow]

...The last resort for most young singles was the YMCA or YWCA, where you could rent a room and a bed very cheap -- Y membership cost around $2 a year, and that allowed you to rent a room for $2 a week. The only way to live cheaper was to go to a dime-a-night flophouse, which respectable people tried very hard not to do.

Gawd, about 8 years ago, the YMCA was charging $480 a month for one room with a dresser and bed. There's a community shower and doors locked at 10pm. I can't imagine what they're charging now.

(Not to metion, they tore down our YWCA...)

 

[FedoraFan112390]

Due to fights with my grandmother, my grandfather practically LIVED part time at the Y in the 50s and 60s. Ironically, the home they lived in was a rooming house at one point--my grandpa totally remodelled it to make it more a "home." One room left untouched was the "Community Room", which branched out to a balcony. In the end, after he and my grandma had separated, he returned home after having a stroke (he had no place else to live and my grandmother put her hard feelings aside--they weren't going back as man and wife), and spent his last two years in that Community Room. That small room became his. Much like living at the Y except living with a woman with whom there was mutual animosity.

 

[Carl Miller]

I moved out when I was 18 with my then girlfriend. My dad and I never got along. At 19 I moved back into my parents' house after my dad was killed in a rollover accident to raise my then 12 year old sister. We had 2 roomates and even rented out the garage to store old cars for people. To say it was a real eye opener would be an understatement.

When my sister turned 18, she packed up her belongings and moved to Boise, Idaho and is now a freshman at Boise State. shes a full time student and working 2 jobs. None of that slacking off with your hand out here.

 

[Shangas]

I can't speak for my grandmother, but my grandfather on my father's side, not only left home, but left his entire COUNTRY when he was in his 20s.

Grandpa was born in southern China in 1907, when the Qing Dynasty was literally on its last legs. He left China, near as I can figure, in the mid/late 1920s. Emigration from China was common during this time, apparently. The Republic was still trying to sort things out at the time.

He moved to Singapore and then to Malaysia. He got married in the early 1930s, then his wife died, then he remarried in 1943, to my grandmother.