Shocking Photos of Past Generations Show How Different Life Is Today

By | November 18, 2022

When the USPS Parcel Post service began there were seven instances of people mailing children between 1913 and 1915, beginning with a baby in Ohio.

Some economists claim that it’s the best time to be alive. People have access to everything they want and happiness comes at the push of a button, or more accurately the tap of a touch screen. The economy has been on a 30 year upswing and yet we have the highest rates of child depression and suicide. What’s happening with young people that’s making them so unhappy? And why were people so much happier in the early 20th century?

Let’s take a look back to the old days and see how children actually lived. They endured through hard times and impossible jobs to make ends meet or take care of their families. They lived in tenements, got sick from working in coal mines, and yet they survived. They were happy without having that joy delivered by an app. Keep reading to find out what made them different. Let’s go! 

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Source: Reddit

In the early 20th century the United States Postal Service wasn’t the behemoth that it is today. At the time there were a myriad of shipping options that ranged from upstanding to completely lawless. In 1913 the USPS started shipping large parcels on top of just sending letter, and people immediately decided to have some fun with the whole thing.

A lot of parents saw this as a way to cheaply and easily send their kids to visit their grandparents. According to the Smithsonian a couple in Ohio named Jesse and Mathilda Beagle only had to pay 15 cents to mail their 8-month-old son to his grandmother because he weighed less than the 11-pound restriction.

Teaching children to swim in the River Thames in 1906.

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Source: Reddit

Everyone’s been on the receiving end of the ol’ “you’ll either learn to swim or drown trying.” Even though modern parents might think this looks like something that Child Protective Services needs to know about, but it’s really just the best way to learn how to survive in the water. At the very least the dads in this photo are keeping their kids safe ropes tied around their waists.

Learning to swim in front of a bunch of boaters out for the weekend can’t be easy, but it’s not a bad idea. After all, who wants to be embarrassed in front of a bunch of strangers because they can’t swim?