Life 100 Years Ago: A Journey Back to 1925

 

Imagine a world without smartphones, internet, or even television. A century ago, in 1925, life moved at a dramatically different pace. Let's step back in time and explore what daily existence looked like for our great-grandparents.

The Roaring Twenties

The year 1925 fell right in the heart of the "Roaring Twenties," a period of dramatic social and cultural change following World War I. Jazz music filled speakeasies, flappers challenged traditional norms, and a sense of optimism permeated American society—at least for some.

Home Life and Technology

The average home in 1925 looked vastly different from today's residences. Only about 50% of American homes had electricity, and those that did used it primarily for lighting. Refrigerators were a luxury item that cost the equivalent of several months' salary. Most families used iceboxes, relying on the iceman to deliver large blocks of ice several times a week.

There were no dishwashers, microwaves, or vacuum cleaners in most homes. Washing clothes meant hauling water, heating it on a stove, scrubbing garments on a washboard, and wringing them out by hand. Monday was universally known as "wash day," and it consumed most of the day.

Telephones were becoming more common but were still shared party lines in many areas, meaning multiple families shared the same telephone circuit and could listen in on each other's conversations.

Transportation

The automobile was revolutionizing transportation, but it was still a relatively new phenomenon. Henry Ford's Model T had made cars more affordable, yet only about one in five families owned one. Cars lacked basic features we take for granted—no seat belts, no turn signals, and no windshield wipers on many models. Roads were largely unpaved outside of cities, making long-distance travel a dusty, bumpy adventure.

Most people still relied on walking, bicycles, streetcars, and trains for daily transportation. Horses and buggies remained common in rural areas.

Work and Economy

The average workweek was about 50 hours, spread across six days. Child labor, while declining, was still practiced in many industries. There was no minimum wage, no mandatory overtime pay, and workplace safety regulations were minimal.

The average annual income was around $1,400 (equivalent to roughly $24,000 today). However, the income gap was vast, with wealth concentrated among a small percentage of the population.

Women had only recently won the right to vote (1920), and their career options remained limited primarily to teaching, nursing, secretarial work, or domestic service. The concept of a "career woman" was just beginning to emerge.

Entertainment and Leisure

Without television or internet, people created their own entertainment. Families gathered around the radio—if they were fortunate enough to own one—to listen to news, music, and serialized dramas. Silent films were the height of cinema, though "talkies" were just around the corner.

Reading was a primary pastime, with newspapers, magazines, and books providing information and escapism. People attended live performances, dance halls, and social clubs. Board games, card games, and playing musical instruments were common evening activities.

Sports like baseball, boxing, and college football drew massive crowds. Babe Ruth was already a household name, embodying the era's larger-than-life spirit.

Health and Medicine

Medical care in 1925 was rudimentary by today's standards. Antibiotics didn't exist yet—penicillin wouldn't be discovered until 1928 and wouldn't be widely available until the 1940s. Simple infections could be fatal, and diseases like polio, tuberculosis, and influenza claimed countless lives.

Life expectancy at birth was only about 58 years, compared to nearly 80 today. Infant mortality was tragically common. Most babies were born at home with the assistance of midwives rather than in hospitals.

Dentistry was particularly brutal, often involving extraction rather than preservation of teeth. It wasn't uncommon for people in their 30s and 40s to have full sets of dentures.

Communication and Information

News traveled slowly. If something happened on the other side of the world, it might take days or weeks before you heard about it. Newspapers were the primary source of information, supplemented by newsreels shown before movies in theaters.

Long-distance communication meant writing letters that took days to arrive or making expensive long-distance telephone calls. The idea of instant global communication would have seemed like pure science fiction.

Food and Diet

Food was more seasonal and local than today. Without widespread refrigeration and modern transportation networks, people ate what was grown or raised nearby. Canning and preserving were essential skills for every household.

Fast food didn't exist. Nearly all meals were prepared from scratch at home. Dining out was a rare treat reserved for special occasions. Ethnic food options were limited, with most Americans eating traditional meat, potatoes, and vegetables fare.

Reflections

Looking back a century reveals just how dramatically our world has transformed. The technological, social, and medical advances of the past 100 years have fundamentally altered every aspect of human existence. While we sometimes romanticize the "simpler times" of the past, the reality was a life of considerably more hardship, physical labor, and uncertainty.

Yet there's something to admire in that era too—stronger community bonds, face-to-face interactions, and a slower, perhaps more intentional pace of life. As we hurtle forward into an increasingly digital future, occasionally glancing back at where we've been helps us appreciate both how far we've come and what we might have left behind along the way.

Tom