How different was it in the old days, really?

[Funn3r 7,514]

Suppose you time traveled back in history say 1000 years. What would it be actually like? Could you still talk to people and read things or would the language be too different? Would everyone smell so disgusting you could literally not get near?

Or what if you went back but not so far. How would you get on with 300 years ago.  How far back could you go for things to still feel normal? Obviously going back in time 2 years would not feel any different (covid19 aside) but when I think of the 1970s which I lived through I would still feel "OK" to go there normally and it's fifty years ago, although obviously would have noticeable differences with no internet and smoking and so on. 

Here's a random photo from 1930 and clearly people thought and acted differently. Why are they without exception wearing hats? Why are they mostly wearing black or grey? Was black dye cheaper to make clothes with? Were hats compulsory or at least socially compelled? Permanent Hats obviously made sense to them whereas it does not make sense to us.

I always think of "history" as seen in schoolbooks to be ancient, different, and separate, I can't even imagine the Second Punic War, but just how far back do you go for it to stop being normal and to hit the "history barrier"? 

Why yes I am smoking some great stuff thanks for asking.

 

 

 

[Wight Flight 31,569]

4 minutes ago, Funn3r said:

Why are they mostly wearing black or grey?

It's a black and white picture?

[SpectrumFX 9,009]

I wear a hat whenever I go outdoors because I don't drive. If you're forced to go about your business outside whatever the weather a hat starts to look like an awfully good idea.

The main issue you would have is the same that you have going abroad today. You just don't fit in because you don't know the social norms.

I think I could just about get along from the late 1600's onwards without too much bother.

Edited February 16 by SpectrumFX

[LC1 7,534]

My history is so weak I'm not even very sure what was going on in these isles 1000 years ago. Presumably the Romans were all gone by then? What about the Vikings? Guessing it was mostly those naughty Normans having their way with the peasantry by then? 

[One percent 54,339]

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

― L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between

[Frank Hovis 46,331]

The big difference that you would notice the further back you went would be that 99% of people had very limited lives.

They would work seven days a week in order to have food and a roof over their heads and pay rent on that to the local lord in terms of money, produce and labour.

Up until the first stirrings of the fossil fuel driven industrial revolution life for most people was to live where they had been born, do the long hours of agricultural work their parents did, and raise children to do the same and look after them in their old age.

This monotony was however regularly broken by big village festivals, two weeks of Christmas, cider at harvest, singing and dancing.

Even into the early part of last century the young people if the village would take the herd to the summer pastures and have a right old time of it.

This is to what I think we will return when fossil fuels become too expensive to extract; though with solar panels and computers.

[Bedrag Justesen 26,889]

14 minutes ago, One percent said:

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

― L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between

Yellow Pages. 

[Rare Bear 2,447]

7 minutes ago, Frank Hovis said:

The big difference that you would notice the further back you went would be that 99% of people had very limited lives.

They would work seven days a week in order to have food and a roof over their heads and pay rent on that to the local lord in terms of money, produce and labour.

Up until the first stirrings of the fossil fuel driven industrial revolution life for most people was to live where they had been born, do the long hours of agricultural work their parents did, and raise children to do the same and look after them in their old age.

This monotony was however regularly broken by big village festivals, two weeks of Christmas, cider at harvest, singing and dancing.

Even into the early part of last century the young people if the village would take the herd to the summer pastures and have a right old time of it.

This is to what I think we will return when fossil fuels become too expensive to extract; though with solar panels and computers.

The thing is though, when fossil fuels become too expensive to extract, the current population is simply not going to be sustainable. More mad Max than bucolic bliss.

 

I do suspect that if any of us went back even 400 years, maybe less, we would stand more than a fair chance of being burned as a witch.

[ashestoashes 11,204]

the hats showed your status and class, everyone would have had a more violent upbringing whether at home or school, lot of infant and childbirth deaths and diseases we don't have

In Cheltenham only the gentry were allowed on the promenade

[One percent 54,339]

2 minutes ago, Bedrag Justesen said:

Yellow Pages. 

That was his brother, JR. i think he wrote about fly fishing, or he might have lived in Dallas.  

[Funn3r 7,514]

1 minute ago, One percent said:

or he might have lived in Dallas.  

Oh yes he used to love his job at the school book depository. Frequently used to take his violin up to the nearby grassy knoll at lunch break. Lovely bloke.

[swiss_democracy_for_all 18,505]

8 minutes ago, Rare Bear said:

The thing is though, when fossil fuels become too expensive to extract, the current population is simply not going to be sustainable. More mad Max than bucolic bliss.

 

I do suspect that if any of us went back even 400 years, maybe less, we would stand more than a fair chance of being burned as a witch.

This.

In fact an intelligent Muzzer from one of the more extreme Muzzer countries would stand a better chance than most Dosbodders, because they'd just have to swap the praise be to Allah stuff for praise be to God, and read up a bit to decide which branch of Christianity they were going to pretend to be part of.

If you failed to remember the importance of religion, professed or otherwise, in your dealings with most people more than 2-3 centuries ago you'd wind up dead pretty quickly.

[ElKapitan84 3,188]

Boomers buying nice houses on modest incomes in white neighbourhoods.  Hell, even the wife would chip in and you could do it as a team - back then being a divorce rape slut was harder to pull off.

Boomers now:  Your generation is lazy.

Edited February 16 by ElKapitan84

[Bedrag Justesen 26,889]

2 minutes ago, ashestoashes said:

everyone would have had a more violent upbringing whether at home or school

The 1970s were violent compared to now.

The 1960s and 1950s worse by most accounts.

We routinely had fights on the way to school and the way home.

We faced violence and cruelty from teachers.

It sounds unbelievable but it wasn't uncommon for teachers to throw board dusters, chalk, pull down trousers to spank your legs or bottom, slap you across the face, wash your mouth out with soap, refuse to let you leave class for the toilet, or humiliate you in front of the class.

Headmasters would cane you, or hit you with 'the birch'.

It also wasn't uncommon for parents to come to school, find the classroom with the teacher that hit their kid, and warn them never to do it again.

I remember one teacher who was former Army, he used to hit kids, and challenge the kid to bring their Dad, they'll get the same medicine.

One day he stopped a lad from going to the toilet. The kid pissed a puddle, was made to mop it up, then he shit his pants. He was sent home with a note for his parents.

Next morning, a five foot nothing Irish women turned up at the classroom door.

There was shouting in the corridor. The teacher came back in with his face covered in blood, his face covered in scratches.

I realise kids stab each other to death outside school these days running County Lines and shit, but I think it is generally less violent.

 

[MrLibertyRedux 6,065]

Old American west. I reckon I could cope with that.

I have a close friend who could be on dosbods if he wasn't such a luddite that he doesn't have the Internet.

He is firmly of the opinion that we were both born at least a hundred years too late or a hundred years too early.

[Happy Renting 17,480]

1 hour ago, Wight Flight said:

It's a black and white picture?

Come to think of it, you live on the IOW.  So what is it like 30 years in the past?

[Starsend 999]

1 hour ago, Funn3r said:

Suppose you time traveled back in history say 1000 years. What would it be actually like? Could you still talk to people and read things or would the language be too different? Would everyone smell so disgusting you could literally not get near?

Or what if you went back but not so far. How would you get on with 300 years ago.  How far back could you go for things to still feel normal? Obviously going back in time 2 years would not feel any different (covid19 aside) but when I think of the 1970s which I lived through I would still feel "OK" to go there normally and it's fifty years ago, although obviously would have noticeable differences with no internet and smoking and so on. 

Here's a random photo from 1930 and clearly people thought and acted differently. Why are they without exception wearing hats? Why are they mostly wearing black or grey? Was black dye cheaper to make clothes with? Were hats compulsory or at least socially compelled? Permanent Hats obviously made sense to them whereas it does not make sense to us.

I always think of "history" as seen in schoolbooks to be ancient, different, and separate, I can't even imagine the Second Punic War, but just how far back do you go for it to stop being normal and to hit the "history barrier"? 

Why yes I am smoking some great stuff thanks for asking.

 

 

 

There's one chap without a hat, damn freak.

[Carl Fimble 11,641]

1 hour ago, One percent said:

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

― L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between

The Present is a Foreign Country, by Granville Thorndyke :

 

Beautiful, but seriously melancholic, 14 min 51 sec long, fine to just listen to but the video clips are really well put together.

Prepare for damp eyes. 

 

[Wight Flight 31,569]

12 minutes ago, Happy Renting said:

Come to think of it, you live on the IOW.  So what is it like 30 years in the past?

I'll send you a picture when I get them back from the chemist.

[Bobthebuilder 2,427]

I read a great account in Peter Ackroyds  London biography. Its about 2 blokes going to a pub in the city, good ale and a choice of roast pork, beef or chicken for dinner with veg and bread. Sounds great I would be up for that. The account was written in 1688 ish.

[Hail the Tripod 11,312]

You don’t need to make any effort when you jump back to 1940s America. If you go to Reconquista Spain you should probably make a bit more effort. 

[Funn3r 7,514]

17 minutes ago, Carl Fimble said:

The Present is a Foreign Country, by Granville Thorndyke :

 

Beautiful, but seriously melancholic, 14 min 51 sec long, fine to just listen to but the video clips are really well put together.

Prepare for damp eyes. 

 

Oh yes "The Railway Children", yes kids it's officially fine to play on railway lines 

I used to lust after Sally Thomsett, not so much in the Railway Children but a bit later on in some of those 1970s "very suggestive but no actual sex" sitcoms.

THEN

 

NOW

[Austin Allegro 20,866]

If you went back to any part of England any earlier than about 1600 you would struggle to understand what was being said to you. Go back before 1450 or so, and you wouldn't understand a word and they wouldn't understand you. You'd probably be clapped in irons and tortured as a foreign spy or something. It wouldn't be like most films where everybody in the past spoke BBC English with a hint of Shakesperian about it.

 

[swiss_democracy_for_all 18,505]

10 minutes ago, Funn3r said:

Oh yes "The Railway Children", yes kids it's officially fine to play on railway lines 

I used to lust after Sally Thomsett, not so much in the Railway Children but a bit later on in some of those 1970s "very suggestive but no actual sex" sitcoms.

THEN

 

NOW

To be fair she's 70, not everyone can be Helen Mirren.

[TheBlueCat 9,497]

1 hour ago, Funn3r said:

Would everyone smell so disgusting you could literally not get near

Only need to go back to 1975 for that.