Today, October 3rd would have been my Mom’s 92nd birthday. I thought I would take a look at her birth year and see what things were like “back then.”
First of all, my Dad was 12 years old in 1924.
My grandparents Joseph Albert Milne and Florence Bowden Milne would have been 41 and 36, respectively. My mother was their last child of 4, and apparently, a surprise.
Here’s some trivia about 1924.
- The first Olympic Winter Games were held in Chamonix, France
- Vladimir Lenin dies. Stalin becomes ruler and holds the position until his death in 1953
- The Boston Bruins host the Montreal Maroons in the very 1st NHL game played in the U.S.
- The United States grants full citizenship to American Indians (what took them so long?)
- The gas chamber is first used for an execution
- Former President Woodrow Wilson dies in his sleep, age 67.
- Life expectancy was 54.1 years
- The President was Calvin Coolidge
- The Nobel prize was not awarded in 1924
COST OF LIVING IN 1924 (how things have changed)
New house – $7,720
Average annual income – $2,196
New car – $265
Tuition to Harvard University – $250 per year
Gasoline - 11¢ per gallon
First class postage - 2¢ each
Gallon of milk - 54¢
Loaf of bread - 9¢
SOME OF THE WELL KNOWN PEOPLE BORN IN THIS YEAR
- Don Knotts – July 21
- Jimmy Carter – October 1
- Doris Day – April 3
- Marlon Brando – April 3
- George H.W. Bush – June 12
Movies – Thundering Hoofs, A Sainted Devil with Rudolph Valentino, Beau Brummel and The Thief of Bagdad
Music – Breakin’ Em Down by Eubie Blake, Tea for Two by Harlan Lattimore and Lady Be Good by George Gershwin
Sources for this information was lots of Googling
Do you have a year you’d like to look more closely at? Maybe this would be a good theme for Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings, Saturday Night Fun?
Happy Birthday Mom,
Michigan Girl
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION
I find it interesting that in 1924 milk was five times the cost of gasoline. Today it is at least twice the cost per gallon. People complain like crazy about the gas price but I never hear anyone complain about the milk price.
ReplyDeleteSo true Elizabeth. Milk is terribly expensive.
DeleteThanks for stopping by.