100 Years:

100 Years:

Then

And

Now

A Most Notable Decade

The close of 2019 brings us to the end of a decade and the beginning of a new one. While many are making predictions about the future, we thought it might be fun to take a look back at one of the most significant decades in American history and consider how the world has changed over the past 100 years. From prices to pop culture, social issues to language use, the changes have been dramatic; and yet, that old cliché holds: the more things change, the more they stay the same. So, let’s take a closer look 100 years in the past at 1920.

Quick Facts

World population: 1920: 1.8 billion 2019: 7.7 Billion

Average income: 1920: $3,269.40 2019: $47,060

Average Life expectancy: 1920: Men – 53 Women – 54 2019: Men – 70 Women – 75

The 19th Amendment gave American women the right to vote (1928 in Britain). American Prohibition begins on January 17, 1920. The Volstead Act (National Prohibition Act) was passed in 1919 and banned the production and sale of liquor greater than 1.28% across the US. On December 5, 1933, the ratification of the Twenty-first amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment (Volstead Act). The first and only amendment ever passed that would directly repeal another amendment.

The technology that had the greatest impact during the 1920s was the radio. It provided people with entertainment, news, and new ideas.

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., in honor of President Abraham Lincoln, is completed. The memorial is the result of many people working together, but the chief designer was Henry Bacon, and the primary sculptor was Daniel Chester French. The memorial was begun in 1914 and took 8 years to complete.

The first baseball game is played at the original Yankee Stadium in New York. Called “the house that Ruth built,” the competition was between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees prevailed 4 -1, with Babe Ruth hitting a three-run home run.

The 1924 Winter Olympics were held in France. Now called I Olympics Winter Games, the games were organized by the French Olympics Committee and were called initially called The International Winter Sports Week. The success of the games resulted in a formalization of this international event.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is published. Though not popular during Fitzgerald’s lifetime, the book increased in popularity after his death and gave us the a sense of wealth and privilege in the “Jazz Age.”

Building on the works of others, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird introduced the television in January 1926. Logie’s invention was soon surpassed, but his was the first to introduce a moving picture with clear gray tones.

Charles Lindbergh flew his airplane The Spirit of St. Louis from Long Island, New York to Le Bourget Aerodome, Paris, becoming the first person to fly a plane across the Atlantic Ocean.

Scottish physician and bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin notatum, which changed the world of modern medicines by introducing the age of antibiotics.

The cost of food has gone up dramatically since the 1920s, but is there a difference in preferred meal choice between those who lived during the 1920s compared to those of the 21st century?

The 1920s was a time of great change in American culture. With the advent of silent films and then talkies, celebrity culture and appearance began to impact how people viewed themselves. The 1920s saw the first advertisements by celebrities, and with the ads, a focus on weight. One of the main diets of the 1920s was reducing. Rather than a physical endeavor, the reducing craze, as it came to be known, was often a matter of buying a soap, or a bottle of some cream to help lose unwanted weight so that you could look just like your favorite movie star. As for men, they were encouraged to avoid the sad fate of being weaklings. After all, women didn’t admire skinny guys. They were encouraged to transform their bodies like fitness hero Charles Atlas, real name Angelo Siciliano. The idea that food could impact your appearance was not as widespread as it is nowadays, nor was the idea that physicality was a necessary aspect of maintaining a certain body type. These concepts were new in the 1920s, but it was the 1920s that originated a more commercialized and mass marketed concept of physical attractiveness in a way that had never before been done.

Common Breakfast Choices

1920s:

Codfish cakes, bacon, fruit, cereal, pancakes, Yoo-Hoo (chocolate drink).

2010s:

The 21st century breakfast is often more about the type of diet one follows, which then determines the type of food one eats. Popular diets include: Whole 30, Paleo, Vegetarian, Vegan, and Keto, just to name a few. Popular breakfast foods: Eggs, sausage, toast, pancakes, bacon, cereal, fruit smoothie, or avocado toast.

What’s for breakfast?

1920s Codfish cakes, bacon, fruit, cereal, pancakes and YooHoo.

2019 Eggs, sausage, toast, pancakes, bacon, and cereal.

Quick Facts

Food Prices We’ve all got to eat, but food has only gotten more expensive as time has gone on. Over the past ten years alone, food prices have increased by 26.8 percent. Food prices are influenced by many factors, but most commonly, shipping costs, environmental factors that caused shortages, and growing demand, as well as more affluent customers, have helped to increase the overall price of food over the past few years. Taking a look back at the 1920s, these factors become all the more apparent.

*These numbers are based on general prices . Bacon 1 lb. 52¢/ $3.99 Bread 1 lb. 12¢/ $2.60 Butter 1 lb. 70¢/ $2.99 Cheese I lb. 38¢ / $2.29 Chicken 1 lb. 39¢/$2.99 Coffee 1 lb. 47¢ / 6.89 Cornmeal 1 lb. 7¢/ $2.19 Eggs 1 Doz. 47¢/ $1.39 Flour 5 lbs. 41¢/ $1.99 Milk ½ Gal. 33¢/ $1.79 Round Steak 1 lb.40¢ 1920 / $6.49 Sugar 5 lbs. 97¢ 1920 / $1.89 4 lbs. 1920s Current

Pop-Culture:

Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse was introduced in 1928 appears for the first time in the cartoon, “Steamboat Willie.”

2019 Disney launches Disney + Joins the streaming wars and buys 21st century Fox.

Jazz was the most popular genre of music in the 1920s. The Charleston was the most popular dance.

In 2019, hip hop, rock, and electronic music are the most popular music genres. Want to get a groove on in 2019? Add flossing to your dance repetoire.

The most popular sports in the 1920s were boxing, baseball, basketball, and football. The most popular sports in 2019 are basketball, baseball, American football, and soccer (football).

In 1924 France hosted the firstever winter Olympics020 will see the summer Olympics played in Tokyo, Japan with new sports like Karate, Surfing, and Sport Climbing.

Talk the Talk: Slang of the 1920s

While there aren’t many similarities between the slang of the 1920s and 2020s, it’s not surprising that we are still talking about the same kinds of things. Following is a list contrasting popular slang from the 1920s with popular slang from the present day.

Oliver Twist: In the 1920s, if you were a good dancer, you might be referred to as an Oliver Twist. These days, it’s more about the dance styles. If you can work that twerk, a sexually sug-gestive way of dancing, then you might be a good dancer, or just flexible.

Ossified: If you were ossified in the 1920s, it didn’t mean that you had transformed into rigid bone. It meant that, despite Prohibition, you were drunk, spifflicated. 100 years later, with no such thing as Prohibition, there are even more terms for a state of inebriation, from plastered, hammered, or tanked, to obscure British terms like wall papered, plotzed, or road hugging.

Four-flusher: So, the pal that always needs you to cover him would have been called a four-flusher in the 1920s. The 2019s don’t have a specific slang for this type of friend, Felicia is very close to such a character as represented in the comedy skit made famous by Ice Cube and Chris Tucker from the movie Friday. The corresponding phrase, “Bye, Felicia,” was used to send her on her way after she tried borrowing several items from the comedic duo.

Dumb Dora: The 2019s is more about Dora the Explorer and the fierceness of girl power, rather than an unintelligent woman, not that this generation doesn’t have its own view on women lack-ing intelligence, but there’s no direct equivalent to the 1920s slang of Dumb Dora. Of course, the 1920s is a time period in which women were expected to be less intelligent than men. If there is an early 21st century equivalent, it might just be that friend that’s

Know Your Onions: Is a 1920s phrase that means to know what’s up or what’s going on. The 21st century equivalent is to Stay Woke, meaning that you know what’s going on in politics, social injustice, and especially racism.

Hip to the Jive is that friend who is so in tune with what’s trendy that they could be considered basic. There’s no doubt that the 1920s was a period known for creative language use, but the great thing about language is that it is a living thing. So much of modern day slang is set in the times that we live, and that’s what makes it relevant.