I got a whiff of what it must have been like to ride coach class in the early 1900s when a family of hard working old order amish got on my rural transit bus to my VA CBOC clinic..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNCMRWTLLu8 So getting on a wooded un-airconditioned coach car in farm country with wood benches and a bucket for a toilet. like Vermont or Nebraska must have been hell with the smoking and people who only bathed once a month in addition to layers and layers of clothing. I have noticed that old stations in New England had seperate waiting areas for men and women in part due to smoking and hygene.(Also the old school has seperate entrances for girls/boys as well. Your traveling middle class salesman from the city would have gladly paid a few bucks extra for Pullman first class for this very reason.Chewing tobbaco and spitting/urinating on the platform were common practices for gentleman as well.I remember that my grandparents had a bath night weekly. Today even when I am on the road I go to a YMCA to baith on a daily basis--So even though we romance about the old days of steam train travel it may not have been as glamorouse as we think of it for thr common working man.
divebardaveI got a whiff of what it must have been like to ride coach class in the early 1900s when a family of hard working old order amish got on my rural transit bus to my VA CBOC clinic..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNCMRWTLLu8 So getting on a wooded un-airconditioned coach car in farm country with wood benches and a bucket for a toilet. like Vermont or Nebraska must have been hell with the smoking and people who only bathed once a month in addition to layers and layers of clothing. I have noticed that old stations in New England had seperate waiting areas for men and women in part due to smoking and hygene.(Also the old school has seperate entrances for girls/boys as well. Your traveling middle class salesman from the city would have gladly paid a few bucks extra for Pullman first class for this very reason.Chewing tobbaco and spitting/urinating on the platform were common practices for gentleman as well.I remember that my grandparents had a bath night weekly. Today even when I am on the road I go to a YMCA to baith on a daily basis--So even though we romance about the old days of steam train travel it may not have been as glamorouse as we think of it for thr common working man.
Yesteryear is never as 'wonderful' as our minds eye remembers it. The present isn't as bad as we think of it in real time, because in the not too distant future it will transform itself into the 'wonderful' idea of our memories.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Different times, different standards, different expectations, and you don't miss what you've never had.
For example, we all know about the "luxurious" First Class cabins on the Titanic. The fact is only the most expensive First Class cabins had their own bathrooms. The rest of First Class was set up like an old-fashioned hotel, with lavatories and bath facilities at the end of the halls. Individual cabins would have a sink with hot and cold tap water, but nothing else. Second Class was similar. Third Class had only two bathtubs for everyone, although they did have all the other necessarys in their lavatories.
Titanic's sister ship Olympic was set up the same way. It was one of the reasons it was taken out of service in the 1930's, those types of facilities were unacceptable to the traveling public by that time.
Interestingly, many college dormitorys were set up the same way until fairly recently. Sink in the room, maybe, full facilities down the hall.
I've ridden on a lot of the narrow-gauge steam railways in Eastern Germany. The toilet is a seat on top of a large, wide pipe that is open to the tracks. There is toilet paper but the tour I was on encouraged you to bring sanitary wipes as there is no running water.
On another tour we did the narrow gauge line in Northern Germany called the Mollibahn that runs from Bad Doberan to Kuhlungsborn on the Baltic. The train runs down the middle of the street in town and there are no toilets on it at all. The funny thing, steam trains run many times every day but everywhere are people taking pictures of it. You'd think they'd be used to it, unless they're all tourists.
In 1910, the weekly Saturday bath was still the most common standard except among the better off in urban areas. Chewing tobacco was more common then smoking in the country as a whole. Cigars were as common as cigarettes. Drinking from the same cup or dipper regularly occurred. Rural areas still used the Sears Catalogue and corn cobbs in the outhouses.
BaltACDYesteryear is never as 'wonderful' as our minds eye remembers it.
Whenever my wife watches another Victorian PBS drama or Victorian love story, I hold my tongue, wanting to remind her that those lovely Victorian ladies went outside to outhouses, bathed once a week, and were subject to diseases and pain that we don't think about.
York1 John
York1 BaltACD Yesteryear is never as 'wonderful' as our minds eye remembers it. Whenever my wife watches another Victorian PBS drama or Victorian love story, I hold my tongue, wanting to remind her that those lovely Victorian ladies went outside to outhouses, bathed once a week, and were subject to diseases and pain that we don't think about.
BaltACD Yesteryear is never as 'wonderful' as our minds eye remembers it.
Well, there were chamber pots, otherwise known as "thunder mugs." You didn't have to use the outhouse all the time!
The really high-grade chamber pots had lids on 'em too!
There was a big auction of a collection of Lionel products and railroadiana two months ago. One of the articles sold was a Central Pacific chamber pot from 1869. Just think, Leland Stanford could have used it on the way to the "Golden Spike" festivities! Wish I'd known about it...
I've seen the Molli. They are tourists, though many are from other areas in Germany. There are many museum railways as well, that run special excursions on mainlines.
A lot of life is like that. I recently reread a book I have on Ohio rail disasters and one winter night just after Christmas an iron bridge failed in a blizzard and sent a train plunging into a ravine. Needless to say the loss of life was horrendous but it was made all the worse by gangs of thugs who came to rob both the survivors and the dead. Some survivors were murdered.
Today's world isn't neccessarily better or worse than the old days, we just hear about things faster.
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Flintlock76Interestingly, many college dormitorys were set up the same way until fairly recently. Sink in the room, maybe, full facilities down the hall.
My dorm at Purdue in 1964-66 had a single bath/shower/toilet area for each floor of the building. Just a desk, book case, closet and bed in the rooms - two persons to a room, with each having the same set up. 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making.
Housekeeping? We did it ourselves, though the janitor (who tended the furnace) carried the trash out from the GI cans that stood at the ends of the halls and swept the hall floors. We did have two shower room with washbasins and toilets on each floor (each served 15-16 boys), but we supplied our own sheets and blankets--and did our own laundry.
Johnny
BaltACD 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making.
You went to a high class university. We had to provide our own sheets and wash them. That's why I spent 1½ years sleeping on a mattress with no pad or sheets.
York1 BaltACD 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making. You went to a high class university. We had to provide our own sheets and wash them. That's why I spent 1½ years sleeping on a mattress with no pad or sheets.
Oh yeah, what about Monty Python's Four Men from Yorkshire?
"Huh? We used to live in an old water tank on top of a rubbish tip. We woke up every morning to a load of rotten fish, dumped all over us!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7wM0QC5LE
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Purdue is a 'high class' university. I'd sleep with 2 clean sheets one week, one used sheet for one week and repeat the cycle. Blankets worked too. Too high class for my intellect in higher mathematics required for a Engineering curriculum. Subsequently attended Vincennes University where I found out I was not the dummy the Purdue had made me out to be. Graduated from Kent State.
BaltACD York1 BaltACD 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making. You went to a high class university. We had to provide our own sheets and wash them. That's why I spent 1½ years sleeping on a mattress with no pad or sheets. Purdue is a 'high class' university. I'd sleep with 2 clean sheets one week, one used sheet for one week and repeat the cycle. Blankets worked too. Too high class for my intellect in higher mathematics required for a Engineering curriculum. Subsequently attended Vincennes University where I found out I was not the dummy the Purdue had made me out to be. Graduated from Kent State.
Did your professors at Purdue treat you like this?
"What's this, then? People called 'Romanes' they go to the house?"
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+life+of+brian+romans+go+home&view=detail&mid=1829168E1885014FB5571829168E1885014FB557&FORM=VIRE
BaltACDToo high class for my intellect in higher mathematics required for a Engineering curriculum. Subsequently attended Vincennes University where I found out I was not the dummy the Purdue had made me out to be.
Was it not Thorstein Veblen who went so off the rails as to castigate Purdue as a social drinking school instead of a mid-American MIT by the time of the Higher Learning in America? He had some choice language regarding the situation...
Contrast that with Sylvia Preston's Vassar, where she made a 90 average in seven courses (some of them technical) ... those that couldn't hack the math got tutors.
Got me thinking about Astor, and Charles Hays, and the rest who left too soon. Read Bearwarden's speech and think what might have been. And that brings me to
Graduated from Kent State.
which will forever be associated with those four words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX95QSKBODo
Romans? Somebody bring up Romans?
I should mention this, a little ethnic pride you know...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7tvauOJMHo
BaltACD Flintlock76 Interestingly, many college dormitorys were set up the same way until fairly recently. Sink in the room, maybe, full facilities down the hall. My dorm at Purdue in 1964-66 had a single bath/shower/toilet area for each floor of the building. Just a desk, book case, closet and bed in the rooms - two persons to a room, with each having the same set up. 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making.
Flintlock76 Interestingly, many college dormitorys were set up the same way until fairly recently. Sink in the room, maybe, full facilities down the hall.
I'm not sure if my son's dorm at Purdue has a single bath/shower/toilet area per floor, but the facilities are shared by everyone on the floor. My first dorm at Cal was set up the same way, though the second one had varying numbers of bathrooms per floor as there were varying numbers of rooms on each floor (only room 101 had an attached bahroom as it was the only room on the first floor).
Paul MilenkovicDid your professors at Purdue treat you like this?
"Romani eunt domus" -- sounds about right for Purdue professors. Boilermakers not big on the classics ...
The analogue at Purdue would be professors finding a student putting an M-80 under a trashcan and making them work to synthesize RDX and package it properly instead...
UGA 1969-1972. All facilities at end of hall. No one provided sheets. In each symmetrical room 2 sofas that pulled out laterally to make single beds, and two small desks. When in beds mode, less than 3 ft. between them. Cozy. Fortunately I had two great roommates in the three years in that dorm. Senior year I shared an off-campus apt; seemed palatial.
In 2002 I attended the ICCCR, an international meeting of Citroen enthusiasts held at the University at Amherst, Massachusetts. People were there from all over the world and many brought their vintage Citroens. I stayed in a dorm room and the toilet and shower were down the hall. It was hotter than hell that weekend; both days it was over 100 degrees. No air conditioning, no fan, no breeze, no nothing. Well, that was the closest I ever got to an ivy league education.
Do you recall a movie called "The Freshman" from about 1987 with Matthew Broderick and Marlon Brando? Brando plays a character who Matthew thinks is a Mafia don just like you-know-who. Brando is in his prison-like dorm room and says, "So this is college? I didn't miss much."
Paul Milenkovic BaltACD York1 BaltACD 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making. You went to a high class university. We had to provide our own sheets and wash them. That's why I spent 1½ years sleeping on a mattress with no pad or sheets. Purdue is a 'high class' university. I'd sleep with 2 clean sheets one week, one used sheet for one week and repeat the cycle. Blankets worked too. Too high class for my intellect in higher mathematics required for a Engineering curriculum. Subsequently attended Vincennes University where I found out I was not the dummy the Purdue had made me out to be. Graduated from Kent State. id your professors at Purdue treat you like this? "What's this, then? People called 'Romanes' they go to the house?" https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+life+of+brian+romans+go+home&view=detail&mid=1829168E1885014FB5571829168E1885014FB557&FORM=VIRE
BaltACD York1 BaltACD 'Housekeeping' provided one sheet a week for bed making. You went to a high class university. We had to provide our own sheets and wash them. That's why I spent 1½ years sleeping on a mattress with no pad or sheets. Purdue is a 'high class' university. I'd sleep with 2 clean sheets one week, one used sheet for one week and repeat the cycle. Blankets worked too. Too high class for my intellect in higher mathematics required for a Engineering curriculum. Subsequently attended Vincennes University where I found out I was not the dummy the Purdue had made me out to be. Graduated from Kent State. id your professors at Purdue treat you like this?
id your professors at Purdue treat you like this?
Took a French class - Ms. Yamamoto was the insturctor.
OvermodGraduated from Kent State. which will forever be associated with those four words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX95QSKBODo
May 4, 1970 was my last day in class. Was in a Business Communications class at the time things went down. Walked on campus that morning past a armored personnel carrier parked at the main gate - National Guardsmen, younger than many of the students going on campus, cleaning the rifles etc. Guardsmen were lead by incompetent 'weekend warrior' leadership that had no training in crowd control and paniced at the first sign of confrontation. I might add that the Guardsmen were fatigued as they had been on duty for the prior two months or so account of at Teamsters strike against the steel haulers in the Northeast Ohio area (it was not yet the Rust Belt).
In the video of '4 Dead in Ohio' the images displayed from about 2:10 on are not from Kent.
"Today's world isn't neccessarily better or worse than the old days, we just hear about things faster."
Quite true, and add to the mix a 24 hour news cycle on so many news networks that has to be filled one way or another it's no wonder we get so many bad news stories (If it bleeds, it leads!) that it's enough to make us think the whole world's coming apart at the seams! Bad stuff happens all the time and always has, we just never used to hear about it.
That Ohio wreck story reminds me of the aftermath of the battle of Waterloo when Belgian civilians descended on the battlefield looting the dead and wounded, even killed some of the wounded who made too much noise. In an odd way I can understand, these were tough country folk who didn't ask for two armies to show up and devastate their fields and crops, but jeez, don't take it out on the poor guys who had to do the fighting!
The thugs who descended on the train wreck had no excuse at all.
Flintlock76The thugs who descended on the train wreck had no excuse at all.
I think Penny's talking about Ashtabula. The kind of damage and rapid spread of the fire might have contributed to reports of opportunistic 'thuggery', but there was also very little to be done for survivors trapped even incidentally in the wreckage. See the Angola Horror by comparison.
Yes. I was. But what I typed isn't here today.
Penny TrainsYes. I was. But what I typed isn't here today.
Yes, I read your post. It was on page two. Page two? There was a page two, but it's not there anymore!
I saw what you submitted yesterday - it sure isn't here today.
Kalmbach IT strikes again.
Penny Trains Yes. I was. But what I typed isn't here today.
Gone indeed! Becky left a very detailed post, and it WAS the "Ashtabula Horror."
Briefly, while the rescue operations were going on masked thugs came out of the darkness indulging in corpse (and not-so-corpse) robbing. Disgusting.
And by the way, the Forum's gone berserk today, posts disappearing and users not being able to log in. I just managed to log in through Microsoft where I usually do it with no problem through Bing/Google. Consideing the lack of posts today I suspect others are having the same problem.
Flintlock76Well, there were chamber pots, otherwise known as "thunder mugs." You didn't have to use the outhouse all the time! The really high-grade chamber pots had lids on 'em too!
When I went to my grandparents house on a farm in Indiana (near lebanon) in the late 40's, they did not have runing water or indoor facilities. Baths were done weekly in a galvanized tub filled with well water heated on the coal/corn cob fueled kitchen stove. There was no other heat in the house though it did have a stove in the parlor (which they did not use very often). When I was there, I slept in a feather down bed with a chamber pot under the bed. And it had a lid. There was a privey (outhouse) down a path from the house. They worked the farm but did not notice any bad smells. Hard working people. Today's people don't know how well off most of us are by comparison to our forebearers.
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