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

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No air conditioning, no thank you

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I lived the summer of 2008 and 2009 without air conditioning. You get used to it

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lived the summer of 2008 and 2009 without air conditioning. You get used to it

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You get used to boiling water before you drink it too, but it doesn’t make it a nice way to live.

I realize it was hot, I've gone a month at a time in middle of summer twice, actually one of the times all summer when a kid with no A/C. Not as bad but I've also gone an entire winter with no heat, still miserable, thanks to a thief and slow insurance company.

You can get use to it. I guess I just wondered if most of the families lived like on Little House on the Prairie It seems most everyone was dirt poor irl and miserable. I read a book from a lady back in Civil War days, her husband was fighting in Vicksburg, it was a diary. She told funny stories about pig getting loose, having to chase the pig around, her neighbor who was an elderly man but apparently goofy. Her kids played with the local black kids so not sure how that worked out since during the War. She ended up getting sick and dying, husband got captured in Vicksburg and lost an arm. One of her children ended up finishing her diary. Just interesting to get in to the everyday life of random people back then, to me at least.

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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?

People then, and even as recently as about 40 years ago didn't "play" with their kids. But they spent a lot of time working together, doing chores, etc. The concept of quality time came about after women started entering the workforce in numbers during the 70s. Now, much like we need to schedule time for exercise we also need to schedule time with our own kids. And the things we do during those "quality times" rarely result in kids learning necessary life skills.

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

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i feel very confident in saying the average person in 2021 has a much higher quality of life than someone who lived in rural america in the 1880s

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Shitting in a 100+ degree outhouse sounds pretty miserable.

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True, but at least the corncob wasn’t cold when you wiped your arse.

It was likely miserable day to day, but the travel ball was off the chain

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I don't think there was much income in rural areas

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im sure most of us make more in a week than someone who lived in rural 1880s America made in two years