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.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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...
BaltACDYesteryear is never as 'wonderful' as our minds eye remembers it.
York1 John
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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