Things were a lot different in 1910

[RJUKL]

In the last 100 years there have been hundreds of great inventions and discoveries that have improved living in this country both in the home, healthwise and in many other respects but there are also lots of things we have "lost" in the interim. I am glad I was not living at that time because of the horrors of the two world wars. But I can list a few things that we did without and managed very well. Here goes....

Additives to our food ("E" numbers for instance)
Junk mail
Post codes
Supermarkets and the endless choices we have to make over every purchase
Canned dog and cat food
Loyalty cards
The euro
Television

[daftgrandad]

Bin Police !

[redman41]

Condom quality in 1910 would have been pretty grim as Durex brought out first lubricated one in 1957. Bare back was the order of the day !

[caslass]

credit cards

[RJUKL]

The king (Edward VIII) died and George V began his reign in that year.
Silver coins were made of real silver
Our water supply was unadulterated
Prepacked food did not exist

[craft1948]

It used to take me bloody hours to do my gran's weekend shopping in the late 1950's.....queueing in all the different shops.......

[RJUKL]

There was no such thing as Retail Price Maintenance so there was not need to shop around for best value.
Also no VAT

[mike11111]

Surely there WAS Retail Price Maintenance, which is why the price was usually printed on the package by the manufacturer. RPM was abolished by Edward Heth in 1963.

[RJUKL]

Apologies. Imeant the exact opposite. Retail price maintenance ensured that retailers did not undercut other outlets which actually made shopping much easire.

[RJUKL]

The majority of people went to Church on Sundays, some more than once. They may not all have been committed to their faith but they did have a respect for and a fear of God.

[janbee]

there was no Ant and Dec in 1910 so things were pretty good....

[RJUKL]

On the other hand, there was a lot of serious abuse of children within the supposed protection of the home. Beating children severely with leather belts etc was not considered outrageous and incest went on behind closed doors even more so that it does today.

[caslass]

I think a lot of things have changed for the better. So when did it start to happen that young people have little or no respect for their teachers, parents or anyone in authority. I do not agree with beating children,but a clip round the ear (so to speak) lets them know who is in charge.

[RJUKL]

Many things have changed for the better but I can also think of many things of value which have been lost. Maternity care for women is now more or less safe, whereas then it was risky but abortion was not available on demand and practically used as contraception. I don't know what to think as back street abortions were often fatal.

[RJUKL]

Meat from cud chewing animals had not come from stock that had been fed on the animal remains of other herbivores. This resulted in scrapie and the more recent effects of beef cattle fed on this stuff.
Also the chicken was not injected with water to add to the weight and not washed in saline to be replaced and back on the shelf (in supermarkets).

[RJUKL]

Paedophile priests in charge of children got away with the most appalling sexual abuse of children in their supposed care. They were illtreated in Convents by sick, wicked Nuns (not all of them were evil) just in case you knew of some nice ones.

[mike11111]

There is an old and, I believe, very wise saying handed down to me from my parents and grandparents viz 'What you've never had you never miss'. I remember as a small boy in the 50s thinking it incredulous that my mother (born 1916) did not listen to the radio, as BBC broadcasting didn't start until 1922, and that to go to the toilet she actually had to go outside the house and use the communal facilities in the back lane.

When I went up to university in 1972 the idea that before the end of the decade we would have a woman Prime Minister, or that within 20 years women would become priests in the C of E was generally laughed out of court. The state of the art form of entertainment equipment was the portable cassette player. How quaint that sounds now. I certainly did not imagine at the time that nearly 40 years on I would be able to purchase a piece of equipment wich would allow me to communicate almost instantaneously with anyone in the world at next no no cost.

I suppose my point is this: people in 1910 were generally no more, and no less, content with their lot than are people in 2010.