The older i get, the more the past feels like not so long ago. When i was a kid, the decade before i was born seemed like it was wildly in the past. But now as an adult i feel like even the early 1800s isn’t really that long ago. I think part of this is from my mind expanding over time, but i also think part of it is media doing a better job of showing what the past was really like
Your frame of reference gets larger, so you better understand the lengths of time. My Great Great Grandfather lived in the 1800’s, so that’s just 3.5 lifetimes ago. But, even though things may look similar, and they faced many of the same challenges, their day-to-day lives were completely different than ours.
Is it bad that I don’t think that looks too bad?
Pictures don’t tell you the full story. You’re probably thinking there’s heating, food, etc which are probably in short supply.
Meh, my goal isn’t to win, just to make sure the other guy knows he has been in one.
In the 1880s Shantytowns were pretty common, and compared to those, these people live in a much better house. Hell, most of the frontier towns would look worse than this.
Yeah, they probably don’t have heating other than woodfires, water or plumbing, but that’s the same for a huge portion of the population anywhere in the 1880s. Of course, the big city comes with big city problems like disease, water, food, fuel that frontier towns didn’t have to deal with (as much)
Jacob Riis is the photographer and the slum is the Five Points.
Just living life without the distractions of phones and cars!
Lol every single one of em looks ready to go
