105 Years Ago

Couldn’t help but notice the obituary of a woman earlier this week who had just died at the age of 105 and it’s amazing to think of the changes she had witnessed in her lifetime. When she was born in 1903:

· Sugar cost 4 cents per pound and eggs were 14 cents a dozen.
· Only 6% of all Americans had graduated from high school.
· Only 14% of homes in the US had a bathtub.
· Only 8% had a telephone and a 3-minute call from Denver
to New York cost $11.
· There were only 144 miles of paved roads in the entire country
and only 8,000 cars to travel on them with a speed limit of 10 MPH in most cities.
· Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa & Tennessee were each more heavily
populated than California.
· The population of Las Vegas was 30.
· More than 95% of all births took place in the home.
· 90% of all American physicians had did not have a college education but instead attended medical schools, many of which were criticized by the government and press for being “substandard.”
· There were only 230 reported murders in the entire country.
· A Baltimore baseball franchise was purchased for $18,000 and moved to New York…the team was nicknamed the Highlanders
and would later be known as the Yankees.
· The Pepsi Cola Company was formed.
· Due to a drought the US side of Niagara Falls ran short of water.

Among those also born in 1903….Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, George Orwell and Lou Gehrig.