Some economists claim that it’s the best time to be alive. People have access to everything they want and happiness comes at the push of a button, or more accurately the tap of a touch screen. The economy has been on a 30 year upswing and yet we have the highest rates of child depression and suicide. What’s happening with young people that’s making them so unhappy? And why were people so much happier in the early 20th century?
Let’s take a look back to the old days and see how children actually lived. They endured through hard times and impossible jobs to make ends meet or take care of their families. They lived in tenements, got sick from working in coal mines, and yet they survived. They were happy without having that joy delivered by an app. Keep reading to find out what made them different. Let’s go!
When the USPS Parcel Post service began there were seven instances of people mailing children between 1913 and 1915, beginning with a baby in Ohio.
In the early 20th century the United States Postal Service wasn’t the behemoth that it is today. At the time there were a myriad of shipping options that ranged from upstanding to completely lawless. In 1913 the USPS started shipping large parcels on top of just sending letter, and people immediately decided to have some fun with the whole thing.
A lot of parents saw this as a way to cheaply and easily send their kids to visit their grandparents. According to the Smithsonian a couple in Ohio named Jesse and Mathilda Beagle only had to pay 15 cents to mail their 8-month-old son to his grandmother because he weighed less than the 11-pound restriction.
31 thoughts on “21 Shocking Photos from Our Weird Past”
These were very informational and interesting to see.
The Russians did this and we are to feel bad for the Germans who did worse to the Russians when they invaded Russia and the 6 million Jews they starved and murdered. Oh Those poor Nazis………….
6 millions Jews were not killed. That was a hoax. Also you seem to not know of the huge number of Germans that were killed after WWII ended. Eisenhower was involved in the coverup. Patton was killed to keep him quiet.
Windy, you are grossly uninformed about the Holocaust. 6 million Jews did perish along with other nationalities. I suggest you take a self study or return to school to learn more about the atrocities committed against Jews. My former husband’s family was literally wiped out in the concentration camps. No hoax. Educate yourself. I mean no disrespect.
You are wrong about that- the Jews were killed. My husband visited the place where the ovens are and I shared a hospital room with a survivor who lived thru it .Evidently you didn’t like history or the effort was wasted on you.
Wind your Jew-hatred is exposed when you say that the murder of 6 million Jews was a hoax. My only wish is to see that same hoax executed on all your like minded supremacist. You probably think that the Nuremberg trail were a Zionist propaganda tool. The camps, ovens, shoes, teeth, hair, cloths, diary’s , corpses all tools of Zog (Zionist occupied government). The testimonies of Jews and Non-Jewish where all fake, but all your racist ass conspiracy theory crap … that’s true.
Alan, jews are not a race.
I agree that Windy is just a POS trying to get a rise put of people
The state of Israel has to piss you off. A Jewish army with supposed nukes has to keep you up at night
are you out of your mind?are you a trumper? only those people can deny a proven historical FACT.
Robert I am a “Trumper”. DEMORATS set the gold standard for lying.
What does Trump have to do with historical facts about Jews? Some of his closest advisors and those that worked for him were Jewish. You have a bad case of TDS!
Then how do you explain all the memoirs by Jews who SURVIVED the Holocaust? Moron.
You are a fool to say anything like that. I have pictures of my parents going to a Nazi camp and bringing their parents bodies home. The 600000 men who died in that war never happened either?
Hoax…my ass…. maybe you didn’t learn anything in your History class in your public school. If Germany can admit to what they did, how is it you can’t. You must be some young, naive, liberal, bent on changing or denying history. I guess you don’t believe Pearl Harbor was bombed or the World Trade Center was bombed either. Just some hoax…..
Tell that one to those who survived…
Troops saw what happened… there are piles of evidence….
Grandmothers who know the truth!
Your ignorance would be deadly if not for the fact that you are lying and just trying to get a rise out of people
You need a history lesson badly — Wendy ! Try reading about WW 2 and the
Nazi movement !
You are either biased or ignorant! My Uncle entered one of the prison camps the day GIs shot the lock off of the gates. He was an engineer and carried a camera. I have copies of the pictures he took that day. He gave copies to my Father the week after getting back home in Kentucky. I heard him tell the story of being there several times while we looked at those pictures. There is no doubt that history was true!
Very few camps were in CA.
No There we Not There was 15 In Ca I have Been To almost all of Them we Had More Than Any Stae in The West And Some Stae Had 2 or 3 But Az Had a least 4 Look it Up My Grand Father Was One to See Them Going to The Camps He was a Sargent in The army
when i was a baby my mom let my sleep one hour a day outside in the winter. right now i am 64 yrs old and i don’t have any health problems .
My 1st hubby who is now deceased his Grand Parents were from Japan and his parents were Japanese Americans and they lost everything,they were stripped of their olive orchards,their bank accts,their home and land and today the Japanese are being target because of the foul orange pile of roach scat in the White House.
according to M.S. King (revisionist historian and author of several books, NY) Jews posing as Russians in leadership were responsible for murdering 66 million Russians, primarily Christians. Protestant churches were torn down but the synogogues were left standing. Lots of opinions regarding this particular time in history.
My Mother, When She Was a Child Back in the Early 40s, Lived in Haines Alaska…She Told Me That She Use To Walk to School, in Snow Shoes, To The Local Jail House !!! ( must of been only couple students )
When my Grandma was 75 she walked 2 miles a day, everyday. We haven’t seen or heard from her since 1968.
This picture about smoking, to play devil’s advocate if I may? Yes I know everyone says it’s bad, and yes I agree. What I have trouble with is the so called Dangers of
“Second- hand smoke”
Look when I grew up my parents and every other parents smoked. It was everywhere. Can we agree on that? Now did you know anyone with “Asthma”? Or any other kind of allergy? Maybe some kind of “Seasonal” Spring fever I think we called it.
Maybe if you were lucky you knew one kid who had Asthma. Am I right?
Now that no one smokes can you explain why every other kid either has Asthma, or is allergic to something?
So why if we’ve cleaned the air for these kids are they suffering from all these maladies? I don’t have an answer, other than I think we have made the bodies Immune system to week from the git-go.
I mean when we grew up (I’m 60) I rode home from hospital in front seat on Mom’s lap. Hell doubt they had seat belts then. I’m sure she was chain smoking.
I’m sure all the relatives came over and she passed me around and from right there I was exposed to germs which started mu immunity system building defenses.
Today’s parents won’t go out for weeks. Hell they will probably make you scrub up and wear a mask to touch their “Oopsie Poopsie..
They will never smell smoke, which will allow no defense against, so Asthma is a given.
I appreciate how horrible the smell is to a non smoker, and although I still smoke, I have not smoked in my home in 25 years. I have gone into home of people who smoke and it gags me.
PS. I have never ever smoked around my 20 yr old son. Guess what. He has bouts of Asthma, and is allergic to Peanuts. Who the hell was ever allergic to peanuts? Be honest did you ever know anyone who was?
Other than not smoking around him, he was passed around like a football when family was here. Other then what I’ve mentioned he has never been sick a day in his life.
Sorry, rant over, Steve
I’m allergic to peanuts.
I can no get on line or my contacts or my games
I was born in 1937 and never knew that kids were out outside in cages to get fresh air.
Adjusting to the rigors of life has always produced vigorous individuals, Lincoln, Washington, for example, and others who managed to live to a full life barring accidents.
I had a uncle who a medic in wwII he was at the death camp and took pictures of the stacks of bodys and the spare parts that were stacked he said the stink was real bad he said the locals said the did not it was a death camp so the made the local ones go and look he showed me pictures he took of a guy that was 6 ft and who weight was about 70 lbs you can say it didnot happen but it and you should take your left hand and grab your right ear and take your right hand and grab your left ear and shake it real good and pull it out of your ASS.