re: What do ya'll think it was like living in the old days? Say 1880s

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If you read the books you'll see people had a greater connection to each other and a strong sense of community. They acted as a safety net to the difficulties and sometimes harsh conditions.

People were more resilient back then to hardships. It made them "hardy stock." Today's emotionally out-of-control and mentally unbalanced society is a disgrace with incessant griping and complaining and being perpetually offended by any and everything.

Contrary to popular belief, the average person had good hygiene and were well-groomed. They would buy the ingredients from the local apothecary or traveling salesmen and along with their own medicinal garden, would make their own wash balls, hair pomades, deodorants, perfumes, tinctures, etc. It's rather shocking to us now to see the caustic chemicals that were routinely used in housekeeping, but it was the norm, and even children knew how to use them.

No air conditioning was not really a problem as they were acclimated to it. Plus, they knew how to build houses to maximize air flow, ie "cross draft."

I would say despite the rugged challenges, they had a much higher quality of life.

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This is how I assumed it was. Hard life but I agree, high quality of life. I know there are some historians here from reading in the past so I know some have a good understanding of those days.

Yeah, I figured the dog trot houses in the south helped a lot back then with the heat maybe?