Pictures of America's youth in the early 20th century when children ran barefott instead of playing X boxes

Outside of his Modern Warfare game...the average "gamer" doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.

I think many are starting to rethink that...and hopefully many more will come realize that it has done little to really improve the overall quality of our lives.

These fascinating pictures of American and Canadian youngsters in the first half of the 20th century capture an almost forgotten age of innocence and the simplest of pleasures.

The photographs, from the archives of the National Geographic magazine, show children from around two or three up until their early teens and give a fascinating glimpse into what life was like for youngsters without the all trappings of the modern world which we now take so much for granted.

[link to www.dailymail.co.uk]

These are clearly poor kids, but see how healthy they look! Such is progress.

Clean water with natural minerals makes for shiny hair and healthy skin. No chemicals in the water supply in those days. Most people had well water on their property. Well water is full of healthy minerals.

Yep, it does sadden my heart to know i have permanently separated from my smaller, younger, innocent self. But he is still out there, remembering games and make-believe in those quieter days.

And that's the thing, no matter how much our enemies continue to take from us and try as they might at keeping us down, they can't take away those precious memories we have.

That's just the thing! Y'all actually wholesale bought into that fallacy! As if it were true! It's ridiculous. Of course there may be a handful of those folks, mostly laughing because the younger generation wants to be like them, when in fact most of them are miserable. They can't hang on to a relationsip. They're bankrupt in every way. They take pills to make themselves happy.

No thanks!

OP, a lot of people won't get it. Back then, we felt safe. I could walk anywhere in my town and need never worry, even the poorest African-American section of town at 6 years old, and not be hassled. I used to walk to the grocery store to get bread and milk and not once did anyone bother me. In fact people waved and were kind to me.

Contrast that with now. I'd never let a child walk through there. They'd see all kinds of crime even in my small town: prostitution, drugs, thugs, wannabee gansters. It's pathetic.

Were there problems? No doubt, but children still had their innocence. No porn available 24/7 on a computer. Only on rare occasions would we laugh by looking through the lingerie section of the Sears catalogue! That was our innocent fun.

We rode our bikes all over town. Many of us had paper routes and made enough money to buy our ice cream, comic books, some clothes, our bikes, go see a movie once a week at the matinee, sometimes staying through to watch at least two for the same price. We paid for the presents we gave to our family, and felt a sense of pride at earning money to benefit others. We saved our money each day during Lent and gave money to missions to help the poor.

I can remember a kid fell on the sidewalk. He lived many blocks away. My mom cleaned his wounds, bandaged him up in our home. Fed him lunch, and sent him on his way. There's no way a parent would risk doing all that now. They'd simply call his parents and have them pick him up.

We hiked in the woods and built dams in the streams. Fashioned boats out wood and home sails. We didn't have that many toys, mostly made due with homemade bow and arrows and bola and pretended to be Native American warriors.

We played tetherball, volleyball, kickball, basketball. We ran everywhere and we were lean and tan and wiry and healthy. Maybe one child was a little overweight but we didn't tease him, and likely he'd work off most of the weight during the summer.

No one took vitamins because we ate better even though poor. Almost every meal was homemade save an occasional lunch of Campbell's soup. Mom's were embarrassed if they made a "box cake", and the other mom's would tease them. Almost every meal did my family sit together at once and eat and talk and share stories.

We never missed church. We were there every Wednesday and Sunday, and always went to youth group because we wanted to.

Seldom were any kids overscheduled. We had plenty of time for school and homework, and maybe took one activity like playing the piano or one sport.

I know this seems silly to some young people, but I feel sad for them. They were and are in such a rush to grow up. We were different back then. Holding hands was a BIG DEAL. The first kisses were special and innocent and there was so much importance about who you shared that with. Few couples risked making love and going all the way, and seldom were there teen moms and always they got married, and there was little judgement because "they were in love so it was natural...".

We were kinder to each other. We worked hard to elimate people using the N word. We considered anyone who said it "low class fools". Years later when folks started calling themselves that, I was shocked.

I can remember what a big deal it was when a person of another race came over. How shy each of us was in each other's homes and so respectful for the opportunity to share a meal and learn and be more understanding. Now we thump our chests and are all puffed up. It's stupid. Back then, I actually thought that racism would die in my generation. How foolishly naive I was. People love it too much.

I remember the first Jewish boy I met at age nine. I learned the Shema from him. His parents were good hard working people. They weren't any different than my parents, both sets working to make their children's lives better and easier.

Even when someone was realy different, we were excited by it, and wanted to learn why they were. We might have become good friends and teased them, but didn't despise them for living a different way.

Some old guys lived together, we called them "confirmed bachelors", but everyone knew they were "funny" but most didn't tease them or hate them for it. We just shrugged our shoulders and didn't make a big deal. I think I was 17 before I heard the term f...t, and I was shocked people would say that word. It meant something burning. My friends never said. My parents never did.Not once did anyone in church condemn it, we talked about redemption and Jesus and didn't espouse hate there.

There weren't any homeless, save an occasional drunk, that always found some money tucked into his pocket by a mom or dad, or made him a meal or even invited him to the supper table.

Our dads all served as soldiers, and even when they came home, and we saw that far off sad look, we respected them for their service, and wished them success and happiness. They were heroes to a boy, no matter how they served in whatever capacity.

We adored our moms. They were gentle and yet tough. We seldom raised our voices in the house, and never yelled at them. It was just unheard of to talk back. We always told them they looked beautiful, especially on Sunday because they wore their best and looked radiant. We wanted to meet girls like them. They never ever did anything lewd or used a curse word save if they dropped a casserole on the kitchen floor, and then it was likely, "Shoot!".

[link to demog.berkeley.edu]

Life expectancy

Year 1900

Male; 46.3
Female; 48.3


Year 1998

Male; 73.8
Female; 79.5


Yeah it sounds like the early 1900's were a much more healthy period to live in. Specially considering the majority of people didn't even reach 55 years before they died.

Not only healthy.

See these kids are happy and love each other.

See the little boy with his arm around the girl next to him?

Just think, this was all before......
Separation of church from state
Welfare
Abortion
Gay rights

Care to add to this list?

You want a real culprit?
It's that non-interactive box or screen in your house,
that has told America what to think, what to eat, what
to wear, who to vote for, for over half a century.

The interactive internet is undoing some of the damage
that the greatest brainwashing tool in history has done,
but it may be too late to regain our freedoms that have
been lost.

Thx Op for sharing! 5* ! I love the old days. That's why I love old (black and white) classic movies, they take me away to their time era.

I'll add to this.

It has fuck all to do with any of the things you mentioned.

What a skewered look on life you have!

It has everything to do with corporations taking over the world and forcing greed and consumerism down everyones throats for the past 50 years.

"We must realize that our party's most powerful weapon is racial tension. By propounding into the consciousness of the dark races, that for centuries they have been oppressed by the whites, we can move them to the program of the communist party. In America, we will aim for subtle victory. While inflaming the Negro minority against the whites, we will instill in the whites a guilt-complex for their exploitation of the Negroes. We will aid the Negroes to rise to prominence in every walk of life, in the professions, and in the world of sports and entertainment. With this prestige, the Negro will be able to intermarry with the whites and begin a process which will deliver America to our cause."

The problem is alot of youth today have the wrong idea about what sexy is. You are either sexy, or you are not. It doesn't matter what you wear, it is what a person has inside of them that is sexy, how they carry themselves, how they exude a positive energy, having confidence in oneself.

I may be 53 years old, but that doesn't stop people from being drawn to me. I have always exuded an energy, whether wearing something sexy, or wearing my comfy tracksuit.

The problem is alot of youth today have the wrong idea about what sexy is. You are either sexy, or you are not. It doesn't matter what you wear, it is what a person has inside of them that is sexy, how they carry themselves, how they exude a positive energy, having confidence in oneself.

I may be 53 years old, but that doesn't stop people from being drawn to me. I have always exuded an energy, whether wearing something sexy, or wearing my comfy tracksuit.

These fascinating pictures of American and Canadian youngsters in the first half of the 20th century capture an almost forgotten age of innocence and the simplest of pleasures.

...

These are clearly poor kids, but see how healthy they look! Such is progress.

Not an AR-15 in sight.

As soon as these barbarian children die out, then we'll stop seeing these things. Currently they're having an emotional effect on the journalists writing these articles. Therefore we have these articles making it seem as if this was a glorious time. "The simplest of pleasures".... This is simply a state of mind. To these children these "pleasures" seem as simple, or as "difficult" (whatever that could mean), as the use of the newest electronic seems to a young boy today. In about a century you'll see articles saying the same thing about the children born in the late 90's and early 00's. I love how emotional everyone becomes when an article like this gets passed around. Give me a break.

OP, a lot of people won't get it. Back then, we felt safe. I could walk anywhere in my town and need never worry, even the poorest African-American section of town at 6 years old, and not be hassled. I used to walk to the grocery store to get bread and milk and not once did anyone bother me. In fact people waved and were kind to me.

Contrast that with now. I'd never let a child walk through there. They'd see all kinds of crime even in my small town: prostitution, drugs, thugs, wannabee gansters. It's pathetic.

Were there problems? No doubt, but children still had their innocence. No porn available 24/7 on a computer. Only on rare occasions would we laugh by looking through the lingerie section of the Sears catalogue! That was our innocent fun.

We rode our bikes all over town. Many of us had paper routes and made enough money to buy our ice cream, comic books, some clothes, our bikes, go see a movie once a week at the matinee, sometimes staying through to watch at least two for the same price. We paid for the presents we gave to our family, and felt a sense of pride at earning money to benefit others. We saved our money each day during Lent and gave money to missions to help the poor.

I can remember a kid fell on the sidewalk. He lived many blocks away. My mom cleaned his wounds, bandaged him up in our home. Fed him lunch, and sent him on his way. There's no way a parent would risk doing all that now. They'd simply call his parents and have them pick him up.

We hiked in the woods and built dams in the streams. Fashioned boats out wood and home sails. We didn't have that many toys, mostly made due with homemade bow and arrows and bola and pretended to be Native American warriors.

We played tetherball, volleyball, kickball, basketball. We ran everywhere and we were lean and tan and wiry and healthy. Maybe one child was a little overweight but we didn't tease him, and likely he'd work off most of the weight during the summer.

No one took vitamins because we ate better even though poor. Almost every meal was homemade save an occasional lunch of Campbell's soup. Mom's were embarrassed if they made a "box cake", and the other mom's would tease them. Almost every meal did my family sit together at once and eat and talk and share stories.

We never missed church. We were there every Wednesday and Sunday, and always went to youth group because we wanted to.

Seldom were any kids overscheduled. We had plenty of time for school and homework, and maybe took one activity like playing the piano or one sport.

I know this seems silly to some young people, but I feel sad for them. They were and are in such a rush to grow up. We were different back then. Holding hands was a BIG DEAL. The first kisses were special and innocent and there was so much importance about who you shared that with. Few couples risked making love and going all the way, and seldom were there teen moms and always they got married, and there was little judgement because "they were in love so it was natural...".

We were kinder to each other. We worked hard to elimate people using the N word. We considered anyone who said it "low class fools". Years later when folks started calling themselves that, I was shocked.

I can remember what a big deal it was when a person of another race came over. How shy each of us was in each other's homes and so respectful for the opportunity to share a meal and learn and be more understanding. Now we thump our chests and are all puffed up. It's stupid. Back then, I actually thought that racism would die in my generation. How foolishly naive I was. People love it too much.

I remember the first Jewish boy I met at age nine. I learned the Shema from him. His parents were good hard working people. They weren't any different than my parents, both sets working to make their children's lives better and easier.

Even when someone was realy different, we were excited by it, and wanted to learn why they were. We might have become good friends and teased them, but didn't despise them for living a different way.

Some old guys lived together, we called them "confirmed bachelors", but everyone knew they were "funny" but most didn't tease them or hate them for it. We just shrugged our shoulders and didn't make a big deal. I think I was 17 before I heard the term f...t, and I was shocked people would say that word. It meant something burning. My friends never said. My parents never did.Not once did anyone in church condemn it, we talked about redemption and Jesus and didn't espouse hate there.

There weren't any homeless, save an occasional drunk, that always found some money tucked into his pocket by a mom or dad, or made him a meal or even invited him to the supper table.

Our dads all served as soldiers, and even when they came home, and we saw that far off sad look, we respected them for their service, and wished them success and happiness. They were heroes to a boy, no matter how they served in whatever capacity.

We adored our moms. They were gentle and yet tough. We seldom raised our voices in the house, and never yelled at them. It was just unheard of to talk back. We always told them they looked beautiful, especially on Sunday because they wore their best and looked radiant. We wanted to meet girls like them. They never ever did anything lewd or used a curse word save if they dropped a casserole on the kitchen floor, and then it was likely, "Shoot!".

HEALTHY??

The death rate for children in 1900 was approximately30% before the age of 10 in rural areas, and higher in the cities!!

For "working class" kids in big urban areas the death rate before the age of 10 was 35% to 40%, higher in some locations.

Time to pull your head out of the sand and note the REAL CONDITIONS for the average working person back then ... it was DISMAL.

Blue collar males in most heavy industry jobs (railroads/mining/steel/manufacturing) were LUCKY if they were STILL ALIVE when they hit 60 (most were NOT), and if they were they were probably gravely injured and incapacitated for the rest of their lives.

Shop keepers and white collar types had it better, but their children were still at risk for early death.

Beautiful post! Thank you for letting me momentarily relive my childhood through your words. I feel sorry for the kids growing up in this crazy world we live in today.

I remember my mother hanging the laundry in the yard while talking over the fence to a neighbor. If a woman was sick or just delivered a baby, neighbors would cook for the family until the Mom got back on her feet. Doctors made house calls. If you needed information you went to the library and looked it up. People wrote letters and penmanship was important. We respected our elders and listened to their stories and learned history from them. I sure miss the good old days!