If you went back to the Golden Era, what would you notice first?

[LizzieMaine]

My house was built in 1941, but even if I hit that year or later, I think the dentist and his wife that lived there until 1959 might object to me moving into their new house with them.

If I were transported right this second, I'd be in a marble bank lobby with a cathedral ceiling right to the second floor. Since the floors are now carpeted and the ceilings much lower, I think I'd likely notice that first.

I guess my first stop would be the cemetery to find a baby born around June 14, 1910 who didn't make it. Then I'd hit the recruiting office with his name and see if I could get into the USAAF. Or maybe hitchhike to California and get a job with Lockheed or Douglas.

Yeah, a lobsterman named Percy E. Hill might wonder what I'm doing in his kitchen. Best to have some kind of glib explanation prepared, just in case he's home when I show up.

Before you head to the recruiting office, stop by the closest post office and fill in form SS-5, Application For Social Security Number, and then immediately contact the draft board in your town -- which probably has an office in the post office building -- and tell them you're just back from a logging trip in a remote corner of Manitoba, which is why you haven't yet registered for the draft. Get that paperwork out of the way, and you'll be all set.

 

[David Conwill]

Well, the post office is only a block away, so that's convenient. Thanks for the tip!

Did you need a passport to get into Canada in 1941?

 

[LizzieMaine]

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Well, the post office is only a block away, so that's convenient. Thanks for the tip!

Did you need a passport to get into Canada in 1941?

Nope, you didn't need a passport until just a few years ago. Up until then you needed "proof of citizenship" to *get back into the US* -- but that could be just a copy of your birth certificate or baptismal record.

Birth certificates in 1910 were generally simple forms filled in by hand, and were not difficult to reproduce. Just sayin'.

 

[David Conwill]

Ah, so you mean I could still be David Conwill in 1941 instead of having to be a 1910 infant.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In some situations all you needed was two letters from people who knew you in your home town saying you were who you said you were. Those also might not be too hard to come up with, especially if your hometown is someplace far off the map -- East Bunghole, Wyoming or some such.

 

[Asienizen]

What would I notice that is different about the "golden era"?

Isn't that obvious, there would not be hoards of people in a bus or at a restaurant silently fiddling with their smart phones doing nothing special. Who knows, people of that era might be talking more to each other rather than playing Fruit Ninja on their Iphones for hours at a time.

Anyone agree with that?

 

[David Conwill]

Completely.

 

[Stanley Doble]

View attachment 7319

Well, the post office is only a block away, so that's convenient. Thanks for the tip!

Did you need a passport to get into Canada in 1941?

No passport required, in fact it would be unlikely they would even ask for ID. "The World's Longest Undefended Border" is what they called it. During Prohibition you might have been searched for liquor and of course after 9/11 everything changed. In both cases it was the American border guards you had to watch out for not the Canadians.

 

[Stanley Doble]

I know we have covered the subject of dirt and smells. Has anyone mentioned how empty you would find the country with 1/3 the present population? Or how poor, even though the US was the richest country in the world it would resemble a fairly well off third world country compared to today.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I know we have covered the subject of dirt and smells. Has anyone mentioned how empty you would find the country with 1/3 the present population? Or how poor, even though the US was the richest country in the world it would resemble a fairly well off third world country compared to today.

I think the world would be a better place with about 1/3 the present population, myself. But a lot depends on where, exactly, you are -- my town would have about a third more people living here in 1940 than live here today. Entire downtown neighborhoods were leveled here in the late sixties to build parking lots, which now stand empty -- or filled with mountains of grimy grey snow -- six months out of the year.

And again, standard of living depends on your own standards. For those of us who've rejected the luxury-consumer mentality of the postwar era, a return to a 1940-type working-class standard of living would be exactly what we'd like to see.

 

[Stanley Doble]

You wouldn't see an aisle of snack foods at the grocery store at all. There might be some local brand of potato chips, but as far as Frito Lay and Wise controlling ten percent of the entire store, that wouldn't exist. If you were on the run and wanted a fast, salty snack to munch on your primary option would be a five-cent glassine bag of Planter's Peanuts.

You would see *nobody* sauntering down the street licking at a big, frothy sippy-cup of corn-syrup choked coffee. Mentioning such a concoction would cause the average person on the street to roll their eyes and slowly back away from you.

Most of the canned goods would have been canned within fifty miles of the store where they were sold. Likewise grain products would have been much more local than they are today -- other than a handful of national brands, most of the flour and meal products on your grocer's shelf would have been regionally milled. Not only did this mean better quality in the cans and boxes and bags, it meant real jobs for local people in the mills, canneries, and packing house, and in the support industry surrounding them.

If you mentioned "nutritional eating" or a "vegetarian diet" to anyone they'd say "Oh yeah, the Lindlahr diet. I hear him on the radio sometimes. Did you read his book?"

Ha ha ha I have one of Lindlahr's books, and he was right too. One of the early "health nuts" like Gaylord Hauser.

About the canned vegetables, they may have travelled farther than you think. Back then there were little canning factories in every farming community. One town of 2000 population near here, had 4 of them. They were a big influence on the local economy, imagine 100 jobs in a town of 2000 people with no other industries.

They would contract with local farmers for produce, and with grocery companies to make canned goods with their labels on. They even furnished the seeds to guarantee a uniform product.

So, your Libby or A&P brand peas might have come from any one of a dozen canneries over an area of hundreds of miles.

On the other hand, it meant a distance from farm to cannery of 2 or 3 miles, up to 20 miles at the most. The produce would be delivered within a few hours of being picked, and canned the same day.

 

[Mickey85]

I grew up in culver, Indiana, and went to the Academy there. The first thing I would notice is the lack of gaudy McMansions that surround the lake. Out of towners began moving in and building big in large numbers in the 90s. Before that, it was a community. Now, living there is always a matter of keeping up with the joneses (or, in this case, the steinbrenners, dickes, Hendersons, etc), and have driven out the normal people...

The second thing I would notice is the lack of cutesy shops and presence of car dealerships.

 

[Stanley Doble]

I just thought, you would probably be surprised by the number of gas stations and garages. They used to be on every street corner almost. I would say 4 out of 5 went out of business in the seventies and became convenience stores. Cars became more reliable and needed less service and repair, and burned less gas. Today there are probably about 1/10 the gas stations and garages as there were in the forties.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I just thought, you would probably be surprised by the number of gas stations and garages. They used to be on every street corner almost. I would say 4 out of 5 went out of business in the seventies and became convenience stores. Cars became more reliable and needed less service and repair, and burned less gas. Today there are probably about 1/10 the gas stations and garages as there were in the forties.

That's for certain. I grew up in a town of less than 2000 people -- and as late as the sixties we had seven gas stations -- Texaco (ours), Esso, Gulf, Mobil, American, Flying A, and Sunoco, with four of these located right in the middle of town. That's about the same number as existed in the Era, and in fact all of them were opened before 1950. Today there are two in that town, a Mobil and an Irving -- and neither is located "in town."

Our building became a c-store in the '80s, but is now vacant. The Gulf became a pizza joint for a while, and is now a shop selling "collectibles" to tourists. The Esso was torn down to build a parking lot for the local museum. The Mobil, at the end of the street where I grew up, is now a watch and clock repair shop. The American burned down. The Flying A is now a private home, and the Sunoco is a marine-supply warehouse.

 

[David Conwill]

The Flying A is now a private home...

Wow, neat! That is to say, if it was done right.

 

[sheeplady]

I think the world would be a better place with about 1/3 the present population, myself. But a lot depends on where, exactly, you are -- my town would have about a third more people living here in 1940 than live here today. Entire downtown neighborhoods were leveled here in the late sixties to build parking lots, which now stand empty -- or filled with mountains of grimy grey snow -- six months out of the year.

Our city would have about twice the population too.

I'm assuming that more people would have had their own gardens where I live in the 1950s (one of the bonuses of moving out to the suburbs) to supplement their food supply. I'm the only one who gardens on our block.

 

[Nobert]

The main thoroughfare in my town would still have had streetcar tracks, and it would have been possible to get on an interurban train downtown and go as far as Lewiston, maybe farther.

The Porteous, Mitchell & Braun building would have still been a department store, and in general more storefronts would stock goods for daily living.

More people would play musical instruments. Even though the radio would have replaced the piano as the standard sitting room centerpiece by then, more people would have had piano lessons as a matter of middle class course and likely to play the banjo, ukulele or mandolin--which don't have to be amplified--for their own pleasure, or in informal get-togethers.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Our city would have about twice the population too.

I'm assuming that more people would have had their own gardens where I live in the 1950s (one of the bonuses of moving out to the suburbs) to supplement their food supply. I'm the only one who gardens on our block.

Up until the fifties vegetable gardens in the back yard were common. I remember shopkeepers and people with good jobs had them even though they could well afford to buy food. By the sixties it seemed only the older generation, like people born before 1920 kept up their gardens. I remember one old man who had a large garden even though his children were grown and moved away, and only himself and his wife to feed. I asked him why he had a garden and he looked at me like I was an idiot and said " do you know how much groceries cost?" I guarantee you , his house and car were paid for and he could have gone down to the bank and drawn out $10,000 any time he felt like it.

Half his garden was potatoes and at that time potatoes were less than a dollar for a 50 pound bag.

This was not the suburbs but an older residential neighborhood in town, mainly 2 story brick houses built in the late 1800s or early 1900s. They all had large back yards, some still had a small barn or stable and at least half had vegetable gardens.

In the new suburbs of the fifties such gardens were unknown and probably illegal, at least according to the home owners' association. Flower beds and rose bushes OK but nothing you could eat.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When I lived in an apartment in downtown Camden years ago, I annoyed the beautification patrols by planting corn and beans in my windowboxes.

 

[Nobert]

One thing that just occurred to me was the relative effort and awareness that it would take to stay warm and also keep things from catching on fire. Rural homes are generally heated by wood, which requires constant stoking and feeding throughout the day, and homes in residential areas probably ran on coal furnaces. There are several comic stories and cartoons of the period about the challenges of lighting a furnace.

On the other side of the heat/fire issue, many kitchen appliances back then were not automatic, didn't even have off switches, and you would have to keep your wits about you to make sure you didn't leave the coffee pot or the waffle iron plugged in. I'm sure that smoke detectors were a ways off yet. Add to this the ubiquitousness of smoking indoors, or leaving kerosene lanterns where cows can kick them over...it seems a miracle we didn't burn down the whole country.